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FoCL Newsletter - Autumn 2014
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Message from the Chair - Anne Tarrant

Welcome to the first edition of a regular newsletter from

FoCL aimed at existing friends of Chepstow Library and the
wider community served by the library. First of all, a reminder that anyone who uses the library can become a
friend. The purpose of FoCL is set out above and if you share
those aims, you would be most welcome to join and contribute. This edition includes reports on events that FoCL
has been involved in over the past couple of months, as well
as book reviews, and a diary of future events. I am sure you
would agree with me that, as the current library celebrates
its 21st birthday in December, it needs all the support it can
get from the community to ensure it is able to provide both
the current range of services and receives investment from
MCC to develop new services to meet the needs of future
generations. The Welsh Government report on Libraries in
Wales is published soon, including a section about Friends
of Library groups and the future.

An Evening with Rachel Joyce - October 10th

Author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel

Joyce, attended a Q&A event held at the library, at the invitation of the Bookshop in Chepstow, to publicise the sequel
novel, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey. Those of
you who read the highly praised book about 65 year old
Harold Frys journey walking the 627 miles from his home
in Devon to Berwick on Tweed, will have been both charmed
and warmed by the tale, and by Rachels capacity to express
emotions felt by the characters in a simple and effective but
unadorned and unsentimental fashion. But many of you will
also have finished that book wanting to know more about
the the story of Queenie, the woman who wrote to Harold after 20 years absence, who by then was terminally ill, and
who inspired his walk to a hospice in Berwick . Rachel also
took the opportunity to talk about the move from writing
radio plays and radio adaptations to novels, to outline the
personal experience and motivation behind both novels, and
the process of writing itself, as well reading from the new
book. Rachel responded to a number of questions from an
interested and knowledgeable audience. She also took the
opportunity to talk about the importance of libraries and
bookshops as places where people could meet and value literature saying, we readers really ought to look after our
bookshops and libraries. The new novel is reviewed later in
this newsletter.

Reminder - Thursday 20th November at 7pm at the Library:

David Hicks talking about Living with Climate Change What should we tell the Children? Free entry.

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FoCL Schools Project

FoCL members, Jane Beale and Rosie Gannon, have produced take-home leaflets for primary school children, and
secondary school students, and their parents in Chepstow.
The leaflets briefly outline the facilities and services available at the library, and have been distributed to all primary
schools. Distribution to all secondary schools will have taken
place prior to the October half term break.

Reminder - Sat 22nd November at the Library 10.30 to 11.30

a children's decorations and crafts session - entry free - just
in time to get that special hand made Xmas card done for
their favourite grandparent!
Your Library Needs Your Recipes

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Many of you will have followed the ups and downs of contestants on TV in the recent Great British Bake Off. As a contribution to the librarys 21st birthday celebrations in December, FoCL members are producing an recipe book (coordinated by John Goodwin and Liz Winstanley) to be sold at
a modest cost. Whereas cake recipes will be most welcome,
the book aims to offer a range of your favourite recipes from
starters, to mains, to puddings. Please send your contribution via e mail, and more than one very welcome, or bring it
in to Diane Sullivan at the Library.

Reminder - Library Christmas Event - Thursday December

4th starting at 6.30/7 pm. Songs and carols from the Karl
Daymond singers interspersed with readings on the festive
or winter theme with early Xmas nibbles and refreshments.
Volunteers for refreshments needed.

FoCL Book Review by Adrian Quinn

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce

The author has said that this sequel novel can be read without necessarily reading the first book The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry first. I am not sure I agree, and I am glad
I was able to read them in sequence. Partially, in the
Harold novel, but fully in the new novel, Queenie is revealed as an Oxbridge educated woman who has been unable to settle on a career or in relationships and who has
ended up working in jobs that are below her capacity, experiencing a series of unsatisfactory relationships. Her attempt
to move on from the last of these ends with her on a beach in
South Devon with nowhere to go. Queenie finds work as an
accountant at the brewery in Kingsbridge, where she meets
Harold, one of the sales reps. They fall in to an almost deliberately unrequited love, self acknowledged more readily by
Queenie than by the married Harold, but with neither of
them acknowledging their feelings to each other. Queenie
leaves Kingsbridge under a cloud having taken the blame for
Harolds destructive episode at the brewery following his
only son Davids suicide. She ends up - again on a beach - in
Berwick on Tweed - and re-builds her life, as well as the
beach hut she lives in, surrounded by her sea garden,
somewhat withdrawn from the world, with just superficial
relationships with passing tourists but with closer and practical barter and exchange relationships with the locals. She
has achieved a basis for day to day happiness, albeit with regret for what might have been with Harold, and regrets
about what remained unsaid between them, including her
friendship with David. Tragically she develops a brain tumour which becomes cancerous.

When she moves to the hospice she writes to Harold, the

first contact between them in 20 years, and one which she
expects to be the last, but to her surprise he writes back. Her
letter prompts his pilgrimage, and to sustain her wait, encouraged by one of the nuns at the hospice, Queenie writes
her story making explicit that which was hinted at, or unsaid, in the Harold novel. Throughout the novel Queenies
narrative is set within the framework of day to day events in
the hospice. The picture of the hospice presented by the author does not meet the conventional assumptions of hushed
and reverent tones. In contrast, it is a place of laughter and
ribaldry, as well as of acceptance and faith. Harold (as also
portrayed in the first novel) does eventually get there. He is
no more able to express his feelings for Queenie than he was
20 years before but he holds her hand and this is enough.
And she believes that in writing her story she has put matters right between them. Taken together the two novels are
marvellously life-affirming stories, written in in a way which
moves the action forward skilfully whilst gradually drawing
the reader in to the lives of the main characters. Characters,
which particularly in the portrayals of the hospice staff and
residents, are worthy of a comic soap opera. In the two novels, Rachel Joyce has re-affirmed the importance of kindness in our dealings with each other, and of never giving up
on life. Highly recommended.

Reminder - the Library celebrates the 21st anniversary of

opening the current building on Monday 15th December.
Look out for notices about celebratory events nearer the
time but book the date in your diary now.

FoCL Contacts
Chair: Anne Tarrant - E mail: snowdogs@live.com
Newsletter: Adrian Quinn - adrianquinn2@aol.co.uk