Wideacre: Book 1 (The Wideacre Trilogy)

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But even those harshest critics of the author’s dark-hearted characters commend Philippa Gregory for her incredible writing style. After surviving such an unpleasant and poor childhood, it is just unbelievable how blinded Meridon becomes to the Haverings' machinations. I mean, seriously, it was so obvious they were trying to take advantage of her! At first, the heroine is actually quite sympathetic. She lives in an era that subjugates women and refuses to see her as anything more than a breeding ground. And when Beatrice first makes her intentions to fight for Wideacre known, she does so as a reaction to the fear that she might soon be homeless, pushed out of her beloved Wideacre and forced to cater to the whims of some strange man to whom her dense brother decided to marry her. This is a thought-provoking book but an excellent read. I'm not surprised that it did so well, or, that The Favoured Child and Meridon also became huge successes.

Because I loved the beginning and disliked the end, I give "Wideacre" three stars. Not a bad read and I do intend to read the next two books in the series. A Respectable Trade, a novel of the slave trade in England, as set in 18th-century Bristol, was accepted by Gregory for adaptation as a four-part drama series for BBC Television. Her script was nominated for a BAFTA. Gregory also received an award from the Committee for Racial Equality. She was known to be a rebel in their school at Colston’s Girls’ School. Despite her reputation, she garnered a B grade in the subject English and two E grades in Geography and History at the A level. She had went into the journalism college in Cardiff and spent a year being an apprentice with the Portsmouth News.

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I didn't like at the end how she was repudiating the name of Sarah when earlier she had repudiated the name of Meridon. When she found "Wide" and took her birthname, Sarah, I thought to myself how Sarah is such a plain name compared to Meridon. But now I got used to it, and I'm not too fond of the idea of her denying the name her biological mother gave her... Harry is not only unintelligent but also ever absent. He also doesn’t care about Wideacre and is only positioned to inherit the estate because he’s a man and Beatrice is a woman. The injustice of it all drives Beatrice up the wall and she makes it her mission in life to bring Wideacre under her direct control. Plot:It's been 11 years since Beatrice Lacey has ruined her beloved Wideacre. She leaves behind her daughter and son, Julia and Richard, to carry on the family name and run Wideacre. raised by their loving "Mama-Aunt" Celia, they are raised in the lands ruins while they learn the ways of the land. But the villagers are whispering; one of them is the favored child. Only one of them can feel the land and be connected by it. And over those tumultuous years, Richard and Julia will struggle for power over the control of Wideacre. Yet they do not know of their past, of their mother's past.

Dennis Wheatley novels. I can’t defend them at all. Grandiose, repetitive, preposterous to the point of insanity, offensive in a thousand different ways – they’re like giant Donald Trump tweets. But as the story progressed, and it became clear that Julia was indeed the "favored child" I became interested once again. The last book of the Wideacre story. It's not what I expected, which was good. The first two books were alot the same, so this was a change. I really wonder what Philippa Gregory was going for in this novel, because she certainly didn't give us a likable heroine in the slightest. Beatrice Lacey is one of the most horrible, nasty protagonists I've read...and honestly I enjoyed her scandalous behavior. I went into this novel knowing that she was a universally disliked character, and I think that really helped my overall enjoyment of this.The plot itself is adequately horrifying although much more predictable than Wideacre, especially given Julia's premonitions, which she somehow doesn't understand although anyone (even someone who hasn't read Wideacre) can see what they're about. Nevertheless, I liked the ending. Sarah Lacey (AKA Meridon): Daughter of Julia and Richard, and granddaughter of Beatrice and Harry. After the deaths of her parents, she is given to and raised by gypsies and renamed Meridon to hide her true identity. However, as she enters womanhood, she discovers that she comes from the Lacey family and is offered to inherit Wideacre if she leaves her previous family and life behind. However, she cannot reconcile the two worlds and leaves her husband and Wideacre. She never learns that her parents and grandparents were brothers and sisters. Barbara Comyns’ 1959 The Vet’s Daughter, about a dreamy Battersea girl who discovers the ability to levitate, with awful results. It’s a perfect novel, a masterpiece of domestic gothic. A big surprise for this series. But, seriously, how stupid can you expect a character that was supposed to a smart-ass gypsy savvy about life in the dumps/streets etc to become in such a short time? This is what I didn't like about this whole series: the main characters were supposed to be smart, or at least strong in some capacities but eventually, they all prove extreme moments of stupidity where they seem to lose all their strentgh or capacity to reason.