The Choral Society

by PrueLeith (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.29

  Three single women in their fifties meet when they join a choir. Lucy, recently widowed, is a cook and food journalist; Joanna, a successful business woman, never married; Rebecca is a divorced interior decorator. Each of the women is at a crossroads and they quickly form a bond. The trio decide to combine their talents to restore a crumbling pile in Cornwall and turn it into a cookery school and spa. The project brings its own conflicts, both professional and personal. The novel's themes touch on the sustaining power of female friendship and how a woman copes with mid life and onwards. Prue's narrative voice is warm, witty, wise, very accessible. Her characters are sympathetic and engaging: very different women but each with demons to face as she gets older and confronts a future without - perhaps - a man in it. Her knowledge of food and business adds detail and zest, enriching an already compelling tale.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $3.29

  Three women in their fifties - one widowed, one divorced and one never married - meet when they join a choir. Lucy, a food journalist, is obeying her bossy daughter who prescribes singing to assuage her grief. Joanna, the successful businesswoman for whom failure is not an option, is tackling her inability to sing a note. And much-divorced Rebecca is unashamedly looking for another mate. When they decide to combine their talents to restore a run down hotel on the Cornish coast and turn it into a spa offering holiday courses, conflict is bound to result. Lucy, Joanna and Rebecca are a sympathetic and engaging trio, very different women, each with private demons to confront. We feel for them as they cope, or fail to cope, with the pain of the past and fear for the future. Prue Leith makes their intertwined journeys riveting and ultimately satisfying, even uplifting. The choir teaches them a good deal more than how to sing

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $11.88

  Three single women in their fifties meet when they join a choir. Lucy, recently widowed, is a cook and food journalist; Joanna, a successful business woman, never married; Rebecca is a divorced interior decorator. Each of the women is at a crossroads and they quickly form a bond. The trio decide to combine their talents to restore a crumbling pile in Cornwall and turn it into a cookery school and spa. The project brings its own conflicts, both professional and personal. The novel's themes touch on the sustaining power of female friendship and how a woman copes with mid life and onwards. Prue's narrative voice is warm, witty, wise, very accessible. Her characters are sympathetic and engaging: very different women but each with demons to face as she gets older and confronts a future without - perhaps - a man in it. Her knowledge of food and business adds detail and zest, enriching an already compelling tale.