Tag: One Hundred Tiny Threads

Judith Barrow’s Golden Chapter

Ah, a cheery fire, a dog by my side, and plenty of time to lose myself in a good book

Following my review of A Hundred Tiny Threads, Jena decided to delve into the opening chapter.  Sitting beside the fire in Ohio, she visited Judith Barrow’s family saga and discovered another Golden Chapter.  Come inside and discover Bill and Winifred’s stories.  Get your handbag ready for another delicious read with Jena C Henry.

Ah, a cheery fire, a dog by my side, and plenty of time to lose myself in a good book. What shall I read? I know, I’ll visit Jessie Cahalin’s Handbag Gallery. I reach into my golden handbag and find A Hundred Tiny Threads by Judith Barrow. Perfect! What could be better to savor than the promise of a rollicking family saga?

I love a golden book series, filled with family problems and secrets.

I can’t wait to get started. I begin with Prologue-1911, and I’m immediately immersed in the action. I hear drips of water, faint groans, a shifting of props holding up the roof…and then a scream, echoing along the tunnel. Someone is in dire circumstances.

Bill Howarth is the man who is trembling and trapped, in what I imagine must be a mine shaft. Unable to move, all Bill can do is think about what is happening. He surmises that dynamite was set incorrectly which caused the blast.

With his life in peril, he pictures his family and wishes he hadn’t quarreled with them that morning. But things aren’t what I think they are. The Prologue ends when “the comfort of the dark washes over him.” Will I meet up with Bill again? I eagerly move on to the first chapter.

Chapter 1 February 1911  Winifred

The knocker-upper man is going down the street rattling on the window with his peashooter and Winifred is waking up to another day of hard work. As she and her parents start their day, I learn that Winifred seems to have a close bond with her father. However, both of them are subject to the harsh tongue of the wife and mother of the house, Ethel.

Winifred begins her daily work in the family store, and she has an angry encounter with her mother about Granny. Winifred thinks a rebellious thought, similar to what Bill Howarth had considered.

The chapter ends with me feeling that Winifred, every bit as trapped in her life as Bill Howarth, may be ready to spread her wings.

Meet the author with her amazing collection of books. You could lose yourself in the saga for the entire festive season.

The Prologue and First Chapter of A Hundred Tiny Threads introduces us to two characters who are young, and eager.  Both of them appear quite capable of carrying this saga forward. The author gives us details of ordinary life of working people in 1911, with corsets, carbolic soap, and iron heeled boots and the description of the family store. Just the way an engaging family saga should begin!

On the cover of the book, the tagline is, “it takes more than just love to make a marriage”. Now that evokes interesting possibilities, doesn’t it?

Happily for readers of this genre, I read the golden beginning of a book that is part of a larger series by the author. I love a golden book series, filled with family problems and secrets.

Thanks for reading this First Chapter review and my golden introduction to A Hundred Tiny Threads by Judith Barrow. If you have read this book, please share your thoughts and your review of it in the comments. To get our golden discussion started, here are some questions:

  1. Do you think Bill and Winifred will meet?
  2. Are there secrets that involve Granny and Winifred’s mother, Ethel?
  3. Do you like family sagas? I do!

I love family sagas.  I adore Judith’s writing and her real characters.  You could easily lose yourself in Judith’s family saga for the entire festive season.  Here is my review of One Hundred Tiny Threads.

 

Please see all Jena’s Golden Chapters and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.

Real folk in One Hundred Tiny Threads

I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads

Judith Barrow’s ‘One Hundred Tiny Threads’ reawakened my reading addiction.  I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. Vivid figurative language moved me from the colours of a Monet painting to a Lowry painting.

One Hundred Tiny Threads is the prequel to Judith’s Howarth family saga but was the perfect book to begin with.  Bill was trapped down the mine and the explosion deafened me.  I stood in the dark, grimy streets as the ‘knocker-upper’ tapped on the Winifred’s window. I forgot the heat of the sun as ‘frost patterns covered the panes of the windows’.  ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles turned my head to the dark streets and ‘the feeling there was a shadow lurking around the corners’.

A life beyond the grocer’s shop counter ruled over by Winifred’s domineering mother.

Despite shivering with Winifred, I found warmth in her friendship.  Winifred presented me with an honest account of a woman’s plight during the beginning of the last century.  Her rebellion against her dominant mother placed me firmly on Winifred’s side.  I was driven mad to discover Winifred’s mother’s secret; I could not fathom her bitterness. Barrow demonstrates why Winifred needs to befriend Honora, a suffragette, and why she finds comfort in Conal’s arms.  Every strand of the characters’ backgrounds is woven into their actions and responses.

I stretched on a Devon beach, during a heatwave, but sat in Lancashire during 1911. ‘The clatter of clogs’ on the cobbles…

I felt for Winifred.  Her naivety and love for Conal present tender moments.  How I ached for Winifred’s happy ending.  The narrative wrenches the heartstrings and punches your senses, but the strands of the plot are taught and well structured. But there is no time to mollycoddle the characters: there’s ‘nowt’ you can do as the characters face life, love and loss. I advise you set time aside and listen to the characters’ voices and let the gritty drama unfold.  The dulcet tones of the Lancashire people rattle your emotions with the powerful dialogue. Be aware of Ethel who makes the ‘air seem rancid with hostility.’

The artfully woven narrative is populated with real folk: ‘good Northern stock’.  I couldn’t abide the hardship yet couldn’t stop reading.  I found myself thinking about the characters when not reading.  The folk got under my skin.  Barrow is not afraid to introduce some horrible people and conflict.  I loathed Bill because he is a hard-faced, rotten man.  Yet, I was forced to explore the motivation for his character.  It was most annoying to feel empathy for Bill. I wanted to banish him from the book and leave him to rot in a dark alley. Barrow made me understand the motivation for this bloke’s actions. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting’

Winifred was isolated from her mother Ethel and inhibited by the era but wanted to shake off the corset of stifling expectations.  Ironically, Winifred’s mother inhibits her more than her father.  Barrow demonstrates how women like Ethel were trapped by their own boundaries and expectations: fear of society’s rejection isolates those who have dared to follow their hearts.  Women such as Winifred who dared to articulate the inequalities of women in normal settings:

Women such as Winifred paved the way for the birth of the modern woman. 

‘…all they wanted was equality in voting; to be able to have as much as their husbands, their brothers, their fathers.’

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel.

Barrow squeezes every drop of empathy from her reader, because she explores the complex psychological motivations of the characters.  It is testimony to Judith Barrow that she creates such powerful characters.  The rhythms of the characters’ words are combined with the ebb and flow of the narrative to produce a phenomenal drama of epic proportions.  I am delighted there are more books to read in this family saga.  However, I am fearful for Winifred’s plight in the remaining novels. shh – don’t tell me what happens.  I am not sure Winifred has made a good choice of husband, but he does believe Winifred ‘was the one woman to keep him on the straight and narrow.’  Narrative perspectives of Winifred and Bill provide clever contrast in life experiences. The basis for their relationship is dynamic, yet I sense some threads will fray in the other books. Florence said, ‘men will have their way’; I hope this is not an omen.

The Suffragette Movement, World War One and the Irish War of Independence are threaded into the fabric of the novel. Hard times exasperate the loneliness suffered by the characters.  I urge you to read One Hundred Tiny Threads to find out more about the texture of these characters’ lives – you won’t be disappointed.

Judith Barrow, author

Connect with Judith at:

Website: https://judithbarrowblog.com

Find out more about Judith at:

Twitter: @judithbarrow

 https://www.facebook.com/judith.barrow.3

Please see all my book reviews at Books In Handbag and my website and blog at JessieCahalin.com.