The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Holy Fools is Joanne Harris's most enjoyable novel yet, a beautifully detailed and sharply observed piece that emotionally moves the reader unlike anything she has tackled before. The immense success of Chocolat and Coastliners has made Harris one of the most cherished authors at work today, and each new book is something of an event.

Holy Fools is set in 17th century France, and the central character is Juliette, a former actress and rope dancer who has given up her travelling life to become a teaching nun at a remote abbey. Juliette has settled with her young daughter into an existence very different from that she knew, and she finds comfort from the advice of the wise and friendly abbess.

Harris brilliantly delineates both phases of her heroine's life: the colourful earlier era and the new demands of the semi-cloistered life. Things change radically when the abbess dies and her place is taken by an 11-year-old girl whose appetite for reform quickly destroys much that Juliet has come to love in her new life. What makes the book so refreshingly original is not just the unusual structure (the heroine's dual life alone is handled with radiant detail), but the surprising new trajectory the narrative takes after the death of the abbess, as everything Juliette was used to begins to go wrong.

We become involved in every minor crisis, however much we question that the religious life is the answer to her problems. Juliette is a brilliantly drawn character, and the plotting of this ambitious novel is both thoughtful and invigorating, while the basic theme--the ploys we all use to distract ourselves from the painful realities of existence--is handled with subtlety. --Barry Forshaw

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

Great book!, 24 Aug 2005
I am a huge Lilian Harry fan! Now that having been said, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I really liked Under the Apple Tree! The family in this story ranges thru many ages,from "Gran" to little Sylvie, the evacuated child! Ms. Harry gives you a view of WWII Portsmouth from every age angle! That is what I like best about this author! She gives you an in depth look at her characters,so that you can't help but feel for them! Cheers to Ms. Harry for another well written story!

Another great book by Lilian Harry, 04 May 2004
"Under the Apple Tree" by Lilian Harry tells the story of the Taylor family at the beginning of the blitz in Portsmounts. Durning the course of the war, the Taylor family like many others takes on the jobs in war work.
This is another great book by Ms. Harry, who once again brings characters from her April Grove books. This is a great read for any fan of Ms. Harry or war time books.

A great return to April Grove, 26 Apr 2004
"Under The Apple Tree" marks the Lilian Harry to April Grove inPortsmount. This book tells the story of the Taylor family who findsthenselves bomb out. Moving to back to April Grove, the family begins tosurvive the war. As with other books by Ms. Harry, the characters are realand their emotions draw the reader in. This book is great and should notbe missed by any fan of Ms. Harry

under the apple tree, 19 Feb 2004
Very disappointing. Not one of her best.

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

Great book!, 24 Aug 2005
I am a huge Lilian Harry fan! Now that having been said, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I really liked Under the Apple Tree! The family in this story ranges thru many ages,from "Gran" to little Sylvie, the evacuated child! Ms. Harry gives you a view of WWII Portsmouth from every age angle! That is what I like best about this author! She gives you an in depth look at her characters,so that you can't help but feel for them! Cheers to Ms. Harry for another well written story!

Another great book by Lilian Harry, 04 May 2004
"Under the Apple Tree" by Lilian Harry tells the story of the Taylor family at the beginning of the blitz in Portsmounts. Durning the course of the war, the Taylor family like many others takes on the jobs in war work.
This is another great book by Ms. Harry, who once again brings characters from her April Grove books. This is a great read for any fan of Ms. Harry or war time books.

A great return to April Grove, 26 Apr 2004
"Under The Apple Tree" marks the Lilian Harry to April Grove inPortsmount. This book tells the story of the Taylor family who findsthenselves bomb out. Moving to back to April Grove, the family begins tosurvive the war. As with other books by Ms. Harry, the characters are realand their emotions draw the reader in. This book is great and should notbe missed by any fan of Ms. Harry

under the apple tree, 19 Feb 2004
Very disappointing. Not one of her best.

A comic and enjoyable book., 02 Feb 2000
High Fidelity is a comic and enjoyable book, set in Herfordshire, London and near Watford. It is the story of Robert (Rob) Zimmerman, a thirty-five year old man who owns a record shop, "the Championship Vinyl" where he works with two employees, Dick and Barry. He sells punk, blues, soul and R & B, a bit of ska, some Indie stuff, some sixties pop, in a quiet, forgotten street in Holloway. Rob considers himself of average height, middle weight, with no unsightly facial hairs, of average intelligence. Dick is thirty-one years old, with long, greasy, black hair; Barry is thirty-three and intimidates Dick, to the extent that Dick rarely says a word when Barry is in the shop. He thinks and talks in tens and fives and, as a consequence, Dick and Rob do the same! In the first pages Rob directly addresses Laura, his ex girlfriend: he tells her that she is not in the list of the top five ex-girlfriends who have really hurt him: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. Laura Lydon is a small, skinny and pretty lowyer. She leaves Rob after living together with him for 3 years and she goes to live with her upstair neighbour Ray. Rob goes through the relationships with his ex girl-friends to discover the reason of their break-ups, before trying to win back Laura' affection. At Laura's father's funeral, Rob and Laura are reconciled because she finally admits that she has no energy left to prevent her from going back to him. She invited Rob and not Ray to the funeral. Their life together is finally succesful: Laura instills in Rob a pride and love for his job. She encourages him to find new ways to attract customers and helps him gain self confidence. She is able to bring out the best in Rob and he eventually reconciles with his family. Music has an important role in the book, because it fills in every phase of his life. The best laugh I had was when Rob hides behind a wall on a wet lawn. When he gets up all wet and soggy he finds Laura waiting for him in the car. His humour shows up again when he asks himself what comes first, music or sadness and if it is records which make him sad or if it is because he is sad that he listens to music. There is an alternation of melancholy and irony: for example when he describes his top five split-ups, when he tries to explain his failures in love, and in the episode of the "Most Pathetic Man in the World", a thirty-five year old boy at the pictures with his Mum and Dad. I loved reading this book from the beginning to the end, especially because I felt some of Rob's insecurities very close to mine. I find it so true-to-life in the subject of everyday life and in human relationships. It is a book about love and fear to love, where pop music provides an effective soundtrack to the events. Everybody should read it because it is clear, fluid, vigorous and straightforward. Rob is a nice character despite his flaws and while reading the book I wished him well and every success with Laura. I simply could not put this book down once I picked it up and when it was over I missed Rob, Laura and their friends.

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

Great book!, 24 Aug 2005
I am a huge Lilian Harry fan! Now that having been said, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I really liked Under the Apple Tree! The family in this story ranges thru many ages,from "Gran" to little Sylvie, the evacuated child! Ms. Harry gives you a view of WWII Portsmouth from every age angle! That is what I like best about this author! She gives you an in depth look at her characters,so that you can't help but feel for them! Cheers to Ms. Harry for another well written story!

Another great book by Lilian Harry, 04 May 2004
"Under the Apple Tree" by Lilian Harry tells the story of the Taylor family at the beginning of the blitz in Portsmounts. Durning the course of the war, the Taylor family like many others takes on the jobs in war work.
This is another great book by Ms. Harry, who once again brings characters from her April Grove books. This is a great read for any fan of Ms. Harry or war time books.

A great return to April Grove, 26 Apr 2004
"Under The Apple Tree" marks the Lilian Harry to April Grove inPortsmount. This book tells the story of the Taylor family who findsthenselves bomb out. Moving to back to April Grove, the family begins tosurvive the war. As with other books by Ms. Harry, the characters are realand their emotions draw the reader in. This book is great and should notbe missed by any fan of Ms. Harry

under the apple tree, 19 Feb 2004
Very disappointing. Not one of her best.

A comic and enjoyable book., 02 Feb 2000
High Fidelity is a comic and enjoyable book, set in Herfordshire, London and near Watford. It is the story of Robert (Rob) Zimmerman, a thirty-five year old man who owns a record shop, "the Championship Vinyl" where he works with two employees, Dick and Barry. He sells punk, blues, soul and R & B, a bit of ska, some Indie stuff, some sixties pop, in a quiet, forgotten street in Holloway. Rob considers himself of average height, middle weight, with no unsightly facial hairs, of average intelligence. Dick is thirty-one years old, with long, greasy, black hair; Barry is thirty-three and intimidates Dick, to the extent that Dick rarely says a word when Barry is in the shop. He thinks and talks in tens and fives and, as a consequence, Dick and Rob do the same! In the first pages Rob directly addresses Laura, his ex girlfriend: he tells her that she is not in the list of the top five ex-girlfriends who have really hurt him: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. Laura Lydon is a small, skinny and pretty lowyer. She leaves Rob after living together with him for 3 years and she goes to live with her upstair neighbour Ray. Rob goes through the relationships with his ex girl-friends to discover the reason of their break-ups, before trying to win back Laura' affection. At Laura's father's funeral, Rob and Laura are reconciled because she finally admits that she has no energy left to prevent her from going back to him. She invited Rob and not Ray to the funeral. Their life together is finally succesful: Laura instills in Rob a pride and love for his job. She encourages him to find new ways to attract customers and helps him gain self confidence. She is able to bring out the best in Rob and he eventually reconciles with his family. Music has an important role in the book, because it fills in every phase of his life. The best laugh I had was when Rob hides behind a wall on a wet lawn. When he gets up all wet and soggy he finds Laura waiting for him in the car. His humour shows up again when he asks himself what comes first, music or sadness and if it is records which make him sad or if it is because he is sad that he listens to music. There is an alternation of melancholy and irony: for example when he describes his top five split-ups, when he tries to explain his failures in love, and in the episode of the "Most Pathetic Man in the World", a thirty-five year old boy at the pictures with his Mum and Dad. I loved reading this book from the beginning to the end, especially because I felt some of Rob's insecurities very close to mine. I find it so true-to-life in the subject of everyday life and in human relationships. It is a book about love and fear to love, where pop music provides an effective soundtrack to the events. Everybody should read it because it is clear, fluid, vigorous and straightforward. Rob is a nice character despite his flaws and while reading the book I wished him well and every success with Laura. I simply could not put this book down once I picked it up and when it was over I missed Rob, Laura and their friends.

Classic u-boat tale, 21 Nov 2008
I loved this one, a classic rougue U-boat story that is set to plunge Europe into all out war once again.
A good solid tale, but not the best one by a long way. For Higgins fans it will be enjoyable. Worth a read but not a classic. The best of Higgins books were deep with narrative and had solid characters. This is a little shallow in places and it seems the end couldnt come quick enough for the author. I love the series, they are riviting, this is a good solid edition to the Higgins books. Give it a try you will not be let down.

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

Great book!, 24 Aug 2005
I am a huge Lilian Harry fan! Now that having been said, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I really liked Under the Apple Tree! The family in this story ranges thru many ages,from "Gran" to little Sylvie, the evacuated child! Ms. Harry gives you a view of WWII Portsmouth from every age angle! That is what I like best about this author! She gives you an in depth look at her characters,so that you can't help but feel for them! Cheers to Ms. Harry for another well written story!

Another great book by Lilian Harry, 04 May 2004
"Under the Apple Tree" by Lilian Harry tells the story of the Taylor family at the beginning of the blitz in Portsmounts. Durning the course of the war, the Taylor family like many others takes on the jobs in war work.
This is another great book by Ms. Harry, who once again brings characters from her April Grove books. This is a great read for any fan of Ms. Harry or war time books.

A great return to April Grove, 26 Apr 2004
"Under The Apple Tree" marks the Lilian Harry to April Grove inPortsmount. This book tells the story of the Taylor family who findsthenselves bomb out. Moving to back to April Grove, the family begins tosurvive the war. As with other books by Ms. Harry, the characters are realand their emotions draw the reader in. This book is great and should notbe missed by any fan of Ms. Harry

under the apple tree, 19 Feb 2004
Very disappointing. Not one of her best.

A comic and enjoyable book., 02 Feb 2000
High Fidelity is a comic and enjoyable book, set in Herfordshire, London and near Watford. It is the story of Robert (Rob) Zimmerman, a thirty-five year old man who owns a record shop, "the Championship Vinyl" where he works with two employees, Dick and Barry. He sells punk, blues, soul and R & B, a bit of ska, some Indie stuff, some sixties pop, in a quiet, forgotten street in Holloway. Rob considers himself of average height, middle weight, with no unsightly facial hairs, of average intelligence. Dick is thirty-one years old, with long, greasy, black hair; Barry is thirty-three and intimidates Dick, to the extent that Dick rarely says a word when Barry is in the shop. He thinks and talks in tens and fives and, as a consequence, Dick and Rob do the same! In the first pages Rob directly addresses Laura, his ex girlfriend: he tells her that she is not in the list of the top five ex-girlfriends who have really hurt him: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. Laura Lydon is a small, skinny and pretty lowyer. She leaves Rob after living together with him for 3 years and she goes to live with her upstair neighbour Ray. Rob goes through the relationships with his ex girl-friends to discover the reason of their break-ups, before trying to win back Laura' affection. At Laura's father's funeral, Rob and Laura are reconciled because she finally admits that she has no energy left to prevent her from going back to him. She invited Rob and not Ray to the funeral. Their life together is finally succesful: Laura instills in Rob a pride and love for his job. She encourages him to find new ways to attract customers and helps him gain self confidence. She is able to bring out the best in Rob and he eventually reconciles with his family. Music has an important role in the book, because it fills in every phase of his life. The best laugh I had was when Rob hides behind a wall on a wet lawn. When he gets up all wet and soggy he finds Laura waiting for him in the car. His humour shows up again when he asks himself what comes first, music or sadness and if it is records which make him sad or if it is because he is sad that he listens to music. There is an alternation of melancholy and irony: for example when he describes his top five split-ups, when he tries to explain his failures in love, and in the episode of the "Most Pathetic Man in the World", a thirty-five year old boy at the pictures with his Mum and Dad. I loved reading this book from the beginning to the end, especially because I felt some of Rob's insecurities very close to mine. I find it so true-to-life in the subject of everyday life and in human relationships. It is a book about love and fear to love, where pop music provides an effective soundtrack to the events. Everybody should read it because it is clear, fluid, vigorous and straightforward. Rob is a nice character despite his flaws and while reading the book I wished him well and every success with Laura. I simply could not put this book down once I picked it up and when it was over I missed Rob, Laura and their friends.

Classic u-boat tale, 21 Nov 2008
I loved this one, a classic rougue U-boat story that is set to plunge Europe into all out war once again.
A good solid tale, but not the best one by a long way. For Higgins fans it will be enjoyable. Worth a read but not a classic. The best of Higgins books were deep with narrative and had solid characters. This is a little shallow in places and it seems the end couldnt come quick enough for the author. I love the series, they are riviting, this is a good solid edition to the Higgins books. Give it a try you will not be let down.

You'll love every moment of this book, 11 Jan 2001
Luciano's luck is set before the aAlied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Without the help of the mafia many troops could die and one man is sent to wake them up.

Allied confidence up from the Americans entering the war the Allies demand a dent to be put in Hitlers side the place is Sicily. One man can call the mafia into this war and he refuses to fight so the Americans set loose a long time friend of his to sort him out. Luciano has to get past German SS regiments and hide from the Italian troops but his biggest test still lies ahead. If the mafia helps the war on Sicily will be over in two mounths without years and one man can do that it could change history.

A well put story with an amazing end read it to find out what happens...

The best book of the 1990's - hear it in full, 12 Jun 2001
Hornby pinpoints 1968 as his formative year--the year he turned 11, the year his parents separated, and the year his father first took him to watch Arsenal play. The author quickly moved 'way beyond fandom' into an extreme obsession that has dominated his life, loves, and relationships. His father had initially hoped that Saturday afternoon matches would draw the two closer together, but instead Hornby became completely besotted with the game at the expense of any conversation: 'Football may have provided us with a new medium through which we could communicate, but that was not to say that we used it, or what we chose to say was necessarily positive.' Girlfriends also played second fiddle to one ball and 11 men. He fantasizes that even if a girlfriend 'went into labour at an impossible moment' he would not be able to help out until after the final whistle.

Fever Pitch is not a typical memoir - there are no chapters, just a series of match reports falling into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, manhood). While watching the May 2, 1972, Reading v. Arsenal match, it became embarrassingly obvious to the then 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a wimp with no sense of identity: 'Yorkshire men, Lancastrians, Scots, the Irish, blacks, the rich, the poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and weep about.' But a boy from Maidenhead could only dream of coming from a place with 'its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, insoluble social problems.'

Fever Pitch reveals the very special intricacies of British football, which readers new to the game will find astonishing, and which Hornby presents with remarkable humour and honesty-the 'unique' chants sung at matches, the cold rain-soaked terraces, giant cans of warm beer, the trains known as football specials carrying fans to and from matches in prison like conditions, bottles smashing on the tracks, thousands of policemen waiting in anticipation for the cargo of hooligans. The sport and one team in particular have crept into every aspect of Hornby's life--making him see the world through Arsenal-tinted spectacles

Hornby's Fever Pitch is the Remembrance of Things Past of soccer writing. Like Proust, Hornby has a brilliant feel for the way many of life's profounder moments are filtered through the mundane. Hornby has gone on to greater fame as a novelist, the author of High Fidelity and About a Boy. But his subject in the novels remains the same as in this soccer memoir: men who view their whole life through the prism of their obsession. And Hornby's obsession is soccer.

From the first sentence, we understand it's a love affair: 'I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring.' 'Uncritically' seems to be laying it on a bit thick, though. Each chapter in the book is built around the match that Hornby attended that week. Every detail of Hornby's life from age 11 to 34 is scrutinized through the lens of his unwavering support for Arsenal, a powerhouse London team. When his parents split up, all his dad can offer to interrupt the long, silent weekends is a trip to the match. Young Nick clings to the sport and the team as the only thing that makes sense in his world.

Hornby's strength is his ability to render all of life's moments as reflected through the triumphs and disappointments - mostly the disappointments - of the Arsenal eleven. He acknowledges that his support of Arsenal is the longest, most meaningful relationship he has had in his life. Fever Pitch is Hornby's attempt to understand his own life, and he realizes that this effort would be shallow and disingenuous if he didn't view his life in terms of that relationship.

So, even as he contemplates marriage, we find him fretting over the fortunes of the team. As he tries to quit smoking, we watch him struggle to make it through close matches at the end of the season without lighting up. He freely admits that the start of the Gulf War, which was announced on the scoreboard during a pivotal match with Everton, took a back seat to Arsenal's 1-0 win. Hornby's viewing his entire existence through soccer does not diminish the events of his life. Instead, his memories register all that much more crisply because they pack the emotive force of a well-struck ball hitting the back of the net.

Another cracker, 03 Nov 2008
I love Joanne Harris. There's nobody around today can spin a yarn like her. I found this to be a fantastic, gripping story, full of her usual intrigues and double bluffs. I have read other reviews on here claiming that her history is sloppy, and if that's the case, I can understand it would spoil the book for readers aware of those errors. But I'm afraid to say I just read it for was it is, and thoroughly enjoyed it. But then, I also enjoyed Coastliners, which some others have said is not their favourite. That said, Five Quarters of the Orange is still her masterpiece to me.

Inaccurate and disappointing, 13 Sep 2008
I have enjoyed Joanne Harris in the past,and believed her work to be well-researched but this novel makes me wonder if I have been wrong to do so. It is quite staggeringly inaccurate. I do not mean in little details, but in whopping great big facts - for instance, she has the wrong King on the throne throughout, having the Sun King, Louis 'Dieudonne' succeed Henri IV (thus consigning Louis XIII and Richelieu to oblivion). If this seems petty, I'd just ask how we'd feel if a French novelist wrote about the First World War and made Winston Churchill Prime Minister - and how seriously we'd take anything else they said. The entire plot of this novel rests on further misunderstandings of the period - eg her concept of the popular reactions to witchcraft is approximately 100 years out of date. It is quite true young noblewomen might be made Abbesses at this time, but in name only - it was a way of raising revenue, while a 'real' Abbess did the job on the spot. The flaws in the storytelling and characterisation have been well outlined by other reviewers, so I won't repeat them here, but up until now I've at least believed this writer knew what she was talking about. I'm afraid she manifestly doesn't - and I'm shocked her editors allowed such a sloppy piece of work to go through.

Not her best but still worth reading!, 29 Aug 2008
I think this is the sixth novel I have read by Joanne Harris and it is the one I have enjoyed the least.
As with her previous novels the structure of the story is based around witchcraft and religion and a female with a dark secret in her past. This is a pattern I have noticed emerging which obviously works for her but I just hope it does not make reading future novels predictable?

The main protagonists are Juliette, LeMerle, Isabelle and Perette. Set in seventeenth century France Julieette originally from a travelling troupe is now living in a remote abbey. She is in fact hiding from the very man who turns up at the abbey (Le Merle) masquerading as Pere Colombin de Saint-Amand. What a shock to her it was when he turned up at the Abbey with the new Reverend Mother Mere Isabelle as her mentor. Perette the innocent mute is the one that appears to be the most taken in by the sinister LeMerle as he seeks revenge.
Holy Fools was the name often given to God's innocents dwarfs and idiots that were often found travelling with theatre troupes in the C17th when this story is set. They appear in this story but it is the nuns that are the real Holy Fools this time as Le Merle manipulates them into believing Satan is amongst them.

A cleverly written story of moral angst but not especially to my taste, one I would not have read had it not been by one of my favourite authoresses.


Not a patch on her others, 02 Jul 2008
It's impossible to give Joanne Harris only one star because her writing style is just beautiful. However, along with Coastliners, this is the book of hers that I've enjoyed the least. The characters felt one-dimensional and caricaturish, the plot felt forced and there was really not much to like in the book. Don't let it put you off if you're reading her books in sequence (Gentlemen and Players is far far better) but don't rush out to read it either.

Nice, easy read, 25 May 2008
Not at all the sort of book I'd usually pick up, but I read this on a recommendation and found that after I got into it I couldn't put it down - I ended up polishing it off in a day. The fact that it was set in the 1610s would usually have put me off, but I found that I could suspend my disbelief after the first few chapters, primarily because of the fascinating way Harris drew the characters: they were complex and subtlely written, and reminded me of people I have known.

Despite my prejudice, I also thought that the differing perspectives worked well, as the narrative flits between two of the main characters. I don't usually like this technique as I find that too many authors do it just for the sake of it, but here it really added to the tension of plot, which kept me guessing right to the end.

Most impressive was that even though I should have seen certain things coming - one of the thematic strands is foresight and a lot is hinted at before it is revealed - I was really gripped by the plot and what was going to happen next. A cracking read.

Great book!, 24 Aug 2005
I am a huge Lilian Harry fan! Now that having been said, I'm sure you won't be surprised that I really liked Under the Apple Tree! The family in this story ranges thru many ages,from "Gran" to little Sylvie, the evacuated child! Ms. Harry gives you a view of WWII Portsmouth from every age angle! That is what I like best about this author! She gives you an in depth look at her characters,so that you can't help but feel for them! Cheers to Ms. Harry for another well written story!

Another great book by Lilian Harry, 04 May 2004
"Under the Apple Tree" by Lilian Harry tells the story of the Taylor family at the beginning of the blitz in Portsmounts. Durning the course of the war, the Taylor family like many others takes on the jobs in war work.
This is another great book by Ms. Harry, who once again brings characters from her April Grove books. This is a great read for any fan of Ms. Harry or war time books.

A great return to April Grove, 26 Apr 2004
"Under The Apple Tree" marks the Lilian Harry to April Grove inPortsmount. This book tells the story of the Taylor family who findsthenselves bomb out. Moving to back to April Grove, the family begins tosurvive the war. As with other books by Ms. Harry, the characters are realand their emotions draw the reader in. This book is great and should notbe missed by any fan of Ms. Harry

under the apple tree, 19 Feb 2004
Very disappointing. Not one of her best.

A comic and enjoyable book., 02 Feb 2000
High Fidelity is a comic and enjoyable book, set in Herfordshire, London and near Watford. It is the story of Robert (Rob) Zimmerman, a thirty-five year old man who owns a record shop, "the Championship Vinyl" where he works with two employees, Dick and Barry. He sells punk, blues, soul and R & B, a bit of ska, some Indie stuff, some sixties pop, in a quiet, forgotten street in Holloway. Rob considers himself of average height, middle weight, with no unsightly facial hairs, of average intelligence. Dick is thirty-one years old, with long, greasy, black hair; Barry is thirty-three and intimidates Dick, to the extent that Dick rarely says a word when Barry is in the shop. He thinks and talks in tens and fives and, as a consequence, Dick and Rob do the same! In the first pages Rob directly addresses Laura, his ex girlfriend: he tells her that she is not in the list of the top five ex-girlfriends who have really hurt him: Alison Ashworth, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Allen, Charlie Nicholson, Sarah Kendrew. Laura Lydon is a small, skinny and pretty lowyer. She leaves Rob after living together with him for 3 years and she goes to live with her upstair neighbour Ray. Rob goes through the relationships with his ex girl-friends to discover the reason of their break-ups, before trying to win back Laura' affection. At Laura's father's funeral, Rob and Laura are reconciled because she finally admits that she has no energy left to prevent her from going back to him. She invited Rob and not Ray to the funeral. Their life together is finally succesful: Laura instills in Rob a pride and love for his job. She encourages him to find new ways to attract customers and helps him gain self confidence. She is able to bring out the best in Rob and he eventually reconciles with his family. Music has an important role in the book, because it fills in every phase of his life. The best laugh I had was when Rob hides behind a wall on a wet lawn. When he gets up all wet and soggy he finds Laura waiting for him in the car. His humour shows up again when he asks himself what comes first, music or sadness and if it is records which make him sad or if it is because he is sad that he listens to music. There is an alternation of melancholy and irony: for example when he describes his top five split-ups, when he tries to explain his failures in love, and in the episode of the "Most Pathetic Man in the World", a thirty-five year old boy at the pictures with his Mum and Dad. I loved reading this book from the beginning to the end, especially because I felt some of Rob's insecurities very close to mine. I find it so true-to-life in the subject of everyday life and in human relationships. It is a book about love and fear to love, where pop music provides an effective soundtrack to the events. Everybody should read it because it is clear, fluid, vigorous and straightforward. Rob is a nice character despite his flaws and while reading the book I wished him well and every success with Laura. I simply could not put this book down once I picked it up and when it was over I missed Rob, Laura and their friends.

Classic u-boat tale, 21 Nov 2008
I loved this one, a classic rougue U-boat story that is set to plunge Europe into all out war once again.
A good solid tale, but not the best one by a long way. For Higgins fans it will be enjoyable. Worth a read but not a classic. The best of Higgins books were deep with narrative and had solid characters. This is a little shallow in places and it seems the end couldnt come quick enough for the author. I love the series, they are riviting, this is a good solid edition to the Higgins books. Give it a try you will not be let down.

You'll love every moment of this book, 11 Jan 2001
Luciano's luck is set before the aAlied invasion of Sicily in 1943. Without the help of the mafia many troops could die and one man is sent to wake them up.

Allied confidence up from the Americans entering the war the Allies demand a dent to be put in Hitlers side the place is Sicily. One man can call the mafia into this war and he refuses to fight so the Americans set loose a long time friend of his to sort him out. Luciano has to get past German SS regiments and hide from the Italian troops but his biggest test still lies ahead. If the mafia helps the war on Sicily will be over in two mounths without years and one man can do that it could change history.

A well put story with an amazing end read it to find out what happens...

Well written but appallingly conceived, 06 Oct 2008
Thomas Hardy cinematic writing is extraordinarily visual and pulls new readers into his redrawn world of Wessex. Tess of the d'Urbervilles is probably his most popular novel, while The Mayor of Casterbridge is the most complete.

However, Hardy's characters suffer from being sometimes little more than instruments of his plot aspirations. This is least true in the Mayor of Casterbridge, and most true in Jude the Obscure. When his plot aspirations are benign, as in Far from the Madding Crowd, this is fairly easy to overlook. When the characters are otherwise compelling, such as Tess, most readers will let a single slip by. However, in Jude the Obscure we have a character whom Hardy has determined will lead a miserable life, through no fault of his own, and largely a result of society's refusal to accept his high moral principles.

Hardy's morbid desire to write stories of this kind is famously discussed by T S Eliot in After strange gods, although his view is somewhat rebutted by David Cecil in Hardy The Novelist - An Essay in Criticism. You can argue back and forth about whether Hardy really was morbid, but Jude the Obscure is certainly the book which furnishes the most evidence. The 'Little Father Time' element, for example, is strange, unconvincing, and serves only to emphasise the injustice of life which Hardy is trying to demonstrate.

If you're studying Hardy at A-level or university, then you absolutely have to read this book, because it's impossible to understand Hardy without it. If you're reading through the Hardy canon for pleasure, though, you might be better starting on Tess of the D'Urbervilles, the Mayor of Casterbridge, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders, The Return of the Native and Under the Greenwood Tree.

Hardy's visual gift and writing style does not desert him in this novel, but his underlying conception is deeply flawed.

A (surprisingly) great novel! , 03 Jul 2008
I loved this book! When I decided to read it I had so many preconceptions about what it would be like (sadly, I used to equate Hardy with `boring'). I was so wrong. A lot of people warned me against Hardy's writing style, but in Jude it was so beautifully descriptive - he brings the characters and their environment to life. When I sat down to read this, I truly felt myself melt into Jude's world. Furthermore, as a couple of other reviewers have mentioned, I was really shocked by the action of the novel. I found myself enthralled by certain scenes, and when the book came to a close I was seriously gutted - I wanted more. I would definitely recommend!

Surprise Literature read, 06 Dec 2007
I had to read this for my 3rd year university English course. I made a special effort this year to try and read as much of the required reading as possible, and this was one of the best of the bunch.

It is fairly easy to read, and has an interesting enough plot line to keep you involved. I recommend it as light reading, but do a little analysis and research and you'll find there's a lot of modernist themes in there too. Be aware there are one or two (nasty) twists in the story too.

Wasn't overly impressed, 06 Sep 2007
A rather disturbing tale, which though has moments of greatness ultimately fails to satisfy. The story tells of Jude, wh