How great that Maureen has now made her own journey and Rachel Joyce has written about it. This is the third of a trilogy of novels about Harold and Maureen Fry and Queenie Hennessy. It is a stand alone novella although it does help to have read the earlier books and met the characters. This is a short book which I read quickly but it is beautifully and engagingly written. Ten years after her husband Harold made a lengthy journey through England on foot, Maureen decides to make the same journey by car for her own reasons but encouraged by Harold. Maureen is a practical and very independent person who does not seek or accept help readily. She is not very well prepared for the realities of a long car journey which she aims to undertake in one day. For various reasons things do not go exactly according to plan. Rachel Joyce writes the thoughts and dilemmas of Maureen really well as she grapples with realising more about herself on the journey. The book is enhanced by lovely line drawings at the start of each chapter. Although one of these drawings is of the sculpture of The Angel of the North, the actual sculpture barely features in the tale. I have my own thoughts as to who the Angel of the North actually is in the story. A great read which encourages me to return to the earliler two books in the series. Thank you to the publisher via Net Galley for a complimentary ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Well, what can I say about this book that probably hasn’t already been said. What a beautiful, heartwarming book when Harold convinces Maureen she needs to go on her own pilgrimage she thinks she’s just going to go and then come back but Maureen like Harold has a lot to work through. The grief feels so real in Maureen . I take my hat off to Rachel Joyce as she has rounded off the story beautifully

I really enjoyed the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and this is a sequel to that book. It certainly delivers, makes the reader think about relationships and choices made in life. Harold's wife Maureen has always been jealous of his work colleague Queenie, who in the last book he suddenly up sticks and walked up to her home as she was dying. Now, 10 years later, Maureen has a bee in her bonnet that before she died Queenie made a garden that contains some memorial to her son, and she wants to see it. So off she sets, with Harold's blessing (he is getting older, forgetful, so she has to make provision for him before she goes). Maureen doesn't walk; she takes the car. She finds Harold's other friend that he met on the walk - Kate - but doesn't warm to her. Maureen is a very 'buttoned up' sort of person who doesn't relax with people easily.

The book made me cry - sadly there wasn't much to make me smile, but I related to Maureen quite strongly and enjoyed reading her adventure and seeing how she was affected by the journey and the people she met. I did expect the Angel to have a bigger role though!

A great book. Again. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Maureen… you confused soul. I’m glad you got your own journey and we learnt your history alone from Harold’s. A beautifully encapsulating novella. Thank you to NetGalley and random house for an advanced copy.

This novel completes Rachel Joyce's trilogy which began with 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'. If I can offer one piece of advice to other readers, it is to reread the other two novels before this one; they link together closely. I had read Harold Fry but a long time ago and therefore I couldn't remember characters who are important in this novel, such as Kate.

Maureen is a very prickly woman but she's really sensitively described here and I found her very relatable in her sense of feeling 'outside' and unable to make the connections with others that could help her to alleviate her sadness. Joyce's writing on grief is really beautiful and moving. A minor gripe would be that the writing occasionally creeps into ageist cliches (early dinners, driving shoes), that I am not sure really apply to most people in their early seventies these days.

I wish this story could have been a little longer - as it really is very short - but it's lovely.

Maureen Fry (the wife of Harold Fry from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) travels North. Maureen has been the shadow of herself, rendered a disagreeable person by grief for decades. This visit to Queeney's Garden is also an inner journey for Maureen. She learns to accept some truths,live with herself and start a new chapter in her life.
It is a heartwrenching, uplifting and poetic book. I also shed some tears while reading it. I can recommend it wholeheartedly.

This is a short novel to round off the Harold/Queenie stories. While the prose is very good, it feels a bit like an afterthought and lacks some of the magic from the two novels, which I loved. Maureen is a difficult character to connect with and I felt that her realisation at the end was a bit too sudden. I did enjoy the way she actively tries to become a less judgemental, kinder person as the book reached it's climax.

This is the third book in the trilogy following on from Harold Fry’s Pilgrimage and Queenie’s Love Song and, as such, had a lot to live up to. Maureen is Harold’s wife and a decade on it is her turn to go on a pilgrimage of her own whilst Harold stays at home with Rex.

Maureen takes on her own journey with considerable reluctance, but it is one that deep down she knows she needs to take. Maureen is somewhat spikey, judgemental and on the surface pretty unlikeable but as the book progresses we learn to understand the impact of grief on a persons' personality and why people become the people they are when they are locked in their own processes.

Having encountered a series of practical difficulties on her journey Maureen is forced to do things she is unaccustomed to and through receiving care and kindness from strangers has time and space to self-reflect and gain greater self awareness as a result.

The book really gains its power in the final section, mirroring Maureen's own process, as we see the transformative power of being able to generate the courage to acknowledge and work through the deepest and most painful feelings we harbour.

Whilst this is a short book it really packs a punch, is beautifully written and is a great ending to the trilogy.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Top marks to Rachel Joyce and maureens character
It highlights the impact of loss and grief
How it changes you and the struggles making sense of it all
Beautifully written and a nice way to the Harold, Queenies and Maureen life's together

Thank you netgalley, Rachel Joyce and Random House UK

I’m not a fan of short stories so was a bit apprehensive about this at first. Plus I didn’t warm to Maureen during Harold’s pilgrimage all those years ago.

However, I’m so glad I took a chance on Maureen and joined her on her journey to Queenies memorial garden as this is a beautiful story.

Maureen is still not really a “people person” but she’s a woman of principle. She stood her ground at the diner when most of us would perhaps have eaten the egg and not made a fuss! She’s also still grieving the loss of her son (I have to admit that I didn’t take this into consideration when forming my initial opinion of her as a character in the first book, there’s no time limit on grief and I can’t imagine how it feels to lose a child).

I’d recommend everyone to read Maureen’s story, her journey is as special and as moving as Harold’s was.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House U.K./Transworld for the opportunity to read this heart warming arc.

The third in the trilogy following on from Harold Fry’s Pilgrimage and Queenie’s Love Song. Maureen is Harold’s wife and it is her turn to go on a pilgrimage of her own. I initially assumed she is now a widow, but I think it’s okay to reassure others that dear old Harold is still very much alive, probably playing draughts and eating sandwiches with Rex, their next door neighbour!

Life has changed, this shortish story is set ten years after Harold’s epic walk. It is during the pandemic and highlights some of the changes we have all experienced in the last decade. Some of these really took me aback, because it’s been a gradual process towards everything being streamed, paid for by contactless or mobile ‘phone, so many products being offered and labelled as vegan. We have all become used to discarded masks dangling from trees, or bowling along pavements in the wind.

So, Maureen is doing something that really challenges her, in a time that is quite difficult. She is undertaking a journey with great reluctance, but it is one that she (and Harold) knows she needs to take.

Maureen is not at all like Harold, she is not a likable and sympathetic character. But during this book she becomes more understanding of how she has become who she is, as she is forced to receive care and kindness from strangers. She begins to accept what she cannot change, this is transformative. The writing is truly beautiful in the last chapters.

Until I had read nearly three quarters of this 200 page book I was thinking it is not a patch on Harold’s story. I was definitely wondering why the book could be so far removed from the other two in the trilogy. And then I found myself sitting in a hospital waiting room yesterday, waiting for the consultant, and found myself wiping tears from my eyes. The author has really got to the heart of Maureen Fry and writes with insight:

‘Surely it wasn’t too much to ask that you get to the end, and looking back, you don’t fill with horror and bitterness at all the things you got wrong. The mistakes you made, over and over, like falling repeatedly down the same old hole.’

Additionally, I must highlight the illustrations at the beginning of every chapter and on the front cover. The line drawings by Andrew Davidson are truly excellent. I wish I could draw!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

First came The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, then The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and now it is Maureen Fry’s turn. This is a short but beautiful book. Maureen, Harold’s wife, appears in the first books but is bitter and rather charmless. Here she comes to the fore and her character explained. She is still grieving for her son who died. It is her turn to make a journey, many miles north, to Queenies memorial garden. The journey is not without mishaps, and is not easy but infused with hope. Such powerful writing, emotional, touching and satisfying. Read it without reading the previous books; still a treasure to find!

It's no secret that I adored Harold Fry and loved Miss Benson and her golden beetle - I had been eagerly awaiting Maureens' story this year and was thrilled to read an early copy - so thank you to the publishers.

So, Maureen or Maw - did I like her - did I ever...
It's true, she's prickly and stuck in her ways and she sweats the small stuff to the point where you want to reach into the book and shake her, but... I LOVED her.

She's as perfectly drawn as any of RJ's characters, you know exactly why she is as she is with just a few strokes of the pen. I wanted to take the little girl that Maureen once was and tell her that she was just fine.

I loved everything about this book, it does exactly what I wanted it to do, it gives closure to Maureen and in a way, helping her to open up and providing a path to healing, will give solace to Harold too. I adored the glimpses of Harold, he is still the man we all knew he was a decade ago, only he has settled into older age, greater thoughtfulness and continued kindness.

This is a gem of a book, short, but long enough to tell the story we wanted to hear and more importantly, long enough to tell the story Maureen wanted us to share.

I need to admit immediately that I have not read the previous two books...

I am in awe of this, truly beautiful. Maureen is a character. She is difficult, grieving, hurt, lost and at odds with the modern world. A truly outstanding book and thank you for opening my mind to Maureen and Harold.

Highly recommended

I enjoyed Harold Fry and Queenie Hennessy, but I'm afraid Maureen Fry just left me cold. I know she isn't an easy character to like, but I felt the book didn't really gel like the others - it seemed a bit of an afterthought to please the publishers. I didn't really care what happened to Maureen and I felt this book sadly lacked the warmth and spirit of the other two.

4-5 rounded up
Remember Harolds pilgrimage of ten years ago? Then we had the Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and now it’s Maureen Fry’s turn or Maw as Harold affectionately calls her. Maureen is very unsettled and restless particularly after they receive a message from the north. With Harold’s encouragement, she decides to undertake a journey though unlike Harold, she’ll drive. He even polishes her driving shoes for her! However, it doesn’t get off to an auspicious start when she gets lost and the journey to the north is certainly packed with incident.

Rachel Joyce has done it again! She rounds of the trilogy perfectly in this novella. It’s beautifully written, it brings not only the journey alive but you feel as if you are travelling with Maureen. She is a somewhat spiky cactus, she finds friendship hard, she takes offence all too easily and has the ability to say completely the wrong thing. At the start you definitely hold her at arms length but the powerful writing allows us to glimpse beneath her armour and so you grow to understand her and her pain and I end up liking her much better at the end. She meets some lovely characters, a big shout out for Kate who features in Harold Fry who is a warm, wonderful, caring individual. Maureen learns much from her.

This is touching, emotional, moving and sad as Maureen assesses herself, learns a lot and find the peace she craves in one really beautiful scene. She finds kindness and understanding in places she least expects it and the whole experience is heartwarming.

Highly recommended especially to those who love Harold Fry and Queenie.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House U.K./Transworld for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I can’t remember much about Harold Fry's journey, and have not read part 2 of the trilogy but now feel I must refresh my memory by re-reading Harold, and fill the gap with Queenie's story.

Maureen is an interesting character. She's a bit out of touch with and intolerant of the modern world, she's insecure, she's judgmental Despite all that, I really quite like her, and can relate to some of her old-fashioned standards of behaviour. The book contains sadness and humour in equal parts.

Maureen’s life was blighted by her son’s suicide and her journey brings her some peace, and she learns to be more accepting and to let in people she'd previously kept at a distance.

And Harold loves her so much. I wanted her to get home from her journey to witness their reunion but that was left to the reader’s imagination.

The last in the trilogy about Harold Fry, Queenie and now Maureen. A pleasantly short round up of the series, showing Maureen’s side of the story - her grief and jealousy. You need to have read the other two books for this to make sense. It doesn’t have the same impact as the preceding tales, Maureen is not as likeable, although perhaps easier to pity.
A pleasing conclusion to the set.

Maureen Fry is very lacking in charisma. In fact, Maureen is not a nice person to know. In comparison, Harold, her long suffering husband, is quite the opposite. He is a kind, caring man, with a good word for everyone, not what one would say about Maureen.

This is the third book in this series and, just like the previous books I really enjoyed it. The writing is beautiful and atmospheric, and we really get to know why Maureen is the person she is.

A delightful short story which creates a big impact.

Thank you NetGalley.

I hadn’t read the previous two books in the trilogy in advance of this novel, but felt you had enough of a back story that it didn’t matter. This book is beautifully short and sweet as Maureen Fry heads off on her own adventure. It’s beautifully written, poignant and will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page. Thank you to Random House UK and the author for the chance to review.