Why a Booktrail?
2002/3, 1985: The past has a habit of tracking us down. And tripping us up.
Never Greener
What you need to know before your trail
When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she’d never get over it.
Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.
But then Kate meets Callum again.
And they are faced with a choice: to walk away from each other . . . or to risk finding out what might have been.
Locations
Reset- Scotland - Edinburgh
- A: North Deer Park
- B: Hopetoun
- C: Grassmarket Square
- D: Waverley Train Station
- E: Portobello library
- England -London
- F: Greek St
- G: Embankment station
- H: London Television Centre
Travel Guide
Where is the grass greener?
The main setting in this book is Edinburgh where Callum and part of the story takes place – certainly where Kate thinks the grass is greener…The other setting is London where life take another turn. Both cities act as a background however as the grass in both of this cities is where the main plot is centered…
That iconic place where the grass is greener or where we think it is. Where we think it was greener and where we’d quite like to go back to if we could. Always wishing that we were somewhere else:
‘We spend most of our lives wishing we were somewhere else or someone else, or looking forward or harping back. Always thinking the grass is greener on the other side. But it never is. It’s still grass. Just a different patch of it, that’s all.’
Edinburgh
The setting is Queensferry, and Edinburgh city centre itself. Plenty of green grassy areas and an area with a green name well known for its pubs and curry houses – The Grassmarket. Perhaps the busiest setting is the train station between Edinburgh and London though…
Grassy area to visit: rbge.org.uk
London
A few places of note here from SoHo to the South Bank where the London Studios play a role. Plenty of riding on the tube, and wandering the streets of the past as well..
Grassy area in the city: www.kew.org/
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Well if this isn’t the novel to make you smile, I don’t know what is! As cheery and funny as the lady herself, the charm and wit come through on each and every page and this was a chuckle a minute, a laugh out loud book AND a tearjerker all at once. It just made me feel good and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it. Why do we think the grass is greener and what happens if we do or don’t take that step over the fence as it were?
As you might expect from Ruth’s TV work, the level of attention to detail here with her characters is brilliant. There’s warmth, wit, charm, regret, sadness…every emotion going and because of that tugs on your heartstrings in more ways than one. Would the spark of your first love still be there some 17 years later and how could things worked out when your lives have gone in such different directions? Aah it hits you this novel, right in the heart! Ruth Jones has that ability to take a simple question and wrap it up in more layers than a towering pile of Welsh rarebit. Just as yummy and you ‘ll need some tissues to cope with the fall out of both!
I’ve just watched the clip of Would I Lie To You where Ruth says she might have let a dog lick Rob Brydon’s sandwiches at a party and might have had her tortoise rescued moments before it went in the recycling crusher. Even when she’s being herself, she’s funny and self effacing and this novel is her in book form.
I miss Kate and Callum already! Book two please!
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Never Greener
Destination : London, Edinburgh Author/Guide: Ruth Jones Departure Time: 1985, 2002/2003
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