Capital Letters

There is a certain type of novel - I call them domestic dramas which I realise sounds naff but it's not meant to be - that is aimed fairly and squarely at a female readership despite the fact that the themes and subjects are pretty much universal. It is not chick-lit, neither is it the sort of literary fiction that the broadsheets pay attention to. It is somewhere in between. Commercial women's fiction would be the retail-speak. Intelligent fiction for women might be a better way of putting it. Does that sound terribly patronising? Sorry if it does.

These books tend to centre around the home, families, marriage and relationships and no matter how well they are written they are likely to be packaged to appeal to that aforementioned target market. And fair enough too. Think Mary Wesley, Joanna Trollope, Adele Geras, Katie Fforde's earlier novels (she's gone a bit twee of late).

Now, I realise I am not the typical reader of this type of fiction but, in the main, I have enjoyed what I have read from the genre. I love Mary Wesley's books, particularly the way they are all loosely linked across generations. I recall giving A Hidden Life by Adele Geras a good review on these very pages, the same with Sue Cook's debut On Dangerous Ground. I can't pretend that I read lots in this area but I do read a bit. I would recommend more blokes do, especially those closer to their fifties than their twenties. They give you an interesting and useful perspective, somewhat outside your comfort zone I grant you. Try one, it might surprise you. One place to start may well be The Letters by Fiona Robyn.

Violet, our fiftysomething heroine, has moved to a coastal village for a bit of a fresh start - marriage, divorce and grown-up kids firmly behind her. She gets involved with the village committee and dips her toe into the local social scene. Before too long she finds herself in a turbulent relationship with a new lover. And then the letters start to arrive.

They appear to be written in the 1950s by a 20-year-old girl hidden away in a home for fallen women awaiting the birth of her child. Violet tries to work out why she is receiving them. All the obvious reasons go through her, and the reader's, mind but to the author's credit we steer clear of soap opera cliches and are instead treated to a couple of neat and surprising twists.

The Letters is an accomplished and promising debut novel. Fiona Robyn will be popping by later in the month for an interview.

Comments

[DJ Kirkby]

This is already on my tbr pile. I heard Fiona read some of her poetry a few weeks ago. I am not a huge fan of poetry but hers is rather wonderful, the kind of poems that make you see, smell, feel and sometimes almost taste the subject. Not sure if NT people would react the same way but I do think she writes beautifully.

[jem]

I was eagerly awaiting a man's response to this novel. I can see that most book browsing men might avoid it, and as you say, that's a shame as some of them might enjoy it. Do you think it's a slip on the part of a publisher to package something in such a woman-friendly cover? whilst a woman with a manly looking book in her hand isn't going to feel silly, surely some men wouldn't be seen in public with this cover? or am I under-estimating the reading man?

[Scott Pack]

Very good points Jem. The whole issue of target markets, or expected readership for a book is fascinating and would take a long time to cover in detail. Perhaps I should do a full post about it. Suffice to say that signposting a book so that the sort of people who would probably like it the most can identify it as something for them is fairly sound commercial sense.

In this case the book is most like to appeal to woman of 30+ and the publisher has done a good job in packaging the book for that audience without completely alienating all others.