The Lido by Libby Page
We found this book to be very light, although the central relationship between the two major characters was engaging – overall, this possibly worked best on audio. If anyone would like to write a sentence or two about the book, please email me janet.bayliss@esneft.nhs.uk – so we can post to the book group part of the ESNEFT book group website.
This book fitted the definition of a light summer read almost too well. It was the author, Libby Page’s first book – published in 2018. She was then 25 years old, having written the book whilst working full-time in a marketing role. She seems to have had a variety of roles career-wise, before settling down to become a writer and has since published four more books, including The lifeline which is a follow-up to The Lido.
The author tends to set her stories in the background of real places; with The Lido being set in Brixton and the open air swimming pool at the centre of the story existing in real life; but with a name change to Brockwell Lido. We felt that the story captured the street life and environs of Brixton very well; and we liked the relationship between Rosemary, the widow and every day swimmer and Kate, the budding journalist with a local paper. However, we found the descriptions of the marriage of Rosemary and her beloved husband George to be missing some details and perhaps a bit too rosy for a long partnership. There were elements of the book that were not fully worked through logically; for example, we felt that the disappearance of a major character just before the end to be somewhat disappointing and not fully explained. There were also some intriguing minor characters such as the gay couple running a bookshop that could have been fleshed out more fully.
The book touches on important themes such as body image and the impact of loneliness and the thrust of the story around the campaign to conserve the Lido is involving; if perhaps with a rather predictable ending. We had a feeling that it might be made into a nice, if minor British film at some point later on.
The final book of the “Seven Sisters” sequence but Lucinda Riley The missing sister received a mention this time: it is very good on the historical background around the wars in Ireland in the 1920s. The author died in 2021, but there is another book available in the series which her son completed after her death: Atlas: the story of Pa Salt.
With If we were villains by M.L. Rio, crime meets fantasy: exploring the lives of seven Shakespearean actors at an elite acting school in America and with overtones of The secret history by Donna Tartt.
On revisiting Paul Murray’s The bee sting some readers have found it quite difficult to read due to an unusual structure and lack of punctuation, but worth pursuing, albeit rather long. It is in the tradition of literary novels with a difference, of which there are several.
From the non-fiction sphere, Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard was recommended, covering the role of the Emperor in ancient Rome and giving details of the various individuals in that role; some of whom were very strange indeed.
Some of us have read October’s book choice The trial by Robert Rinder, finding it involving and pacy; while the Kate Atkinson short stories of June inspired us to try more of her books. In terms of inventiveness and sheer story writing ability, the “groundhog day” type novel Life after life is probably one of her best.
Several of the above may be on Libby, check them out at the ESNEFT Libby pages.