This took a little while to get into, but once it was flowing it was one of the most moving books I have read in a long time, Maureen Fry, the wife of a Harold (he of two previous novels by Rachel Joyce) sets off on her own pilgrimage to visit the garden built by the late Queenie. Maureen is still trying to come to terms of the death of her son many years before, and Queenie had built a memorial to him in her garden. Maureen is not a confident person and her drive across England is a very big adventure indeed for her - not just physically but emotionally too. She meets many extraordinary people along the way, and these meetings change her attitude to difference - she becomes a more approachable person, with a greater understanding of herself and her grief. Altogether this is a wonderful and insightful book.

I’m sorry to say that I was unable to finish this book, dealing as it does with grief, the loss of a child, and mental health issues. Too close to home for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

Grief and forgiveness as seen from another point of view: Harold's wife.

Harold Fry touched so many hearts a decade ago. His walk of self-discovery, heart-warming and life-affirming. I read it then and remember the feelings I experienced reading it. I also enjoyed expanding my view of his world with Queenie's story. And now I really do admire Joyce for finishing this exploration of grief and life with the story that often gets missed out - the person left behind while the adventures are going on stage front.

Maureen. I can barely remember her from the first book. And the first pages made me feel guilty about that. She also lost the son that Harold did. She was stuck at home while he wandered the length and breadth of the country seeking answers, bonding with strangers, on a worthy odyssey.
"Harold was walking the length of England to save a women he had worked with once, while Maureen cleaned the kitchen sink."

Now it's her turn. And straightaway we are taken into the real world - the times have also changed - nods to Anti Vax slogans and Fake News place her story in a new and changed England.

Maureen is not going to walk hundreds of miles. No she doesn't like talking to strangers. She is practical, planning Harold's meals while she's away. Harold has convinced her to visit Queenie's memorial garden to their dead son. She remains unconvinced, spiky, cold. "Okay then, I'm going, I'm going.... though, if you don't mind, I won't walk. I'll take the more conventional route, thank you very much. I'll drive."

This is a real woman. And real things happen to her on her car journey - long traffic jams, getting lost, arguments in cafes, not liking the people she meets on the way. Seeing Harold in the background, older and slowing down but still with his travels in his head (and scars on his feet) felt both connecting and sad, again - we see the 'after' of a book that ended but for him, hasn't.

As someone three decades younger than Maureen, I could still identify with her, not just the guilt/grief of a parent, but simply what one wants from life: "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..." Maureen is given chances throughout to connect with others, to show kindness and accept kindness, as Harold did. She's not Harold, you ache for her to reach out to others - can she do it?

I cried. Cos Maureen is hurting, and underneath we all feel the pain of grief and guilt just as badly. And her quest, even though she'd poo-poo the idea of calling it that, might still bring her some answers, some relief, some peace. You'll have to read it to see.

A brief novel, packs a heartfelt oomph still, with a very recognisable and touching protagonist.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

This is a short Novella length story, the third part in the Harold Fry series of books. The first book told Harold's story, the second Queenie's and now this one, Maureen's. You definitely need to read the first two books to enjoy this one.
This book is set 10 years after the first book. The Pandemic has just ended and Maureen finds out that there is a memorial to her Son, David. She cannot rest until she sees it for herself.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it was lovely to be reunited with some of the characters from the first books. This time though, we were seeing them through Maureen's eyes.
This book is brutally honest in places. Maureen isn't the easiest of characters, but she is forced out of her comfort zone and learns how to look at things in a different way.
For a short book this story manages to pack a lot in. It is the book that I never knew that I needed until I started to read it. It is a good conclusion to the series.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC

*Many thanks to Rachel Joyce, Random House UK, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
A finale that gives insight into a mother's grief which is still with Maureen after decades of her son's suicide. Some scenes are most moving and the more we get to know Maureen the more we understand her ways of reacting to the world. Coming to terms with a child's death is a journey that never ends ...

Ten years ago the kind and gentle Harold Fry set off on an epic walk northwards to visit his friend Queenie who was terminally ill. Then came wise and stoic Queenie’s journey towards forgiveness after a life filled with unrequited love, which was subsumed into the friendship that she felt both Harold and his troubled son David needed.

Now, in Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North (MFATAOTN) Harold’s wife Maureen emerges from her somewhat supporting role and takes centre stage, as she makes a journey of her own. Although she is a somewhat reluctant traveller, she realises that she absolutely must travel to Northumberland to see the garden that Queenie created. In it there is a statue dedicated to David, and surely, when she sees it, Maureen feels, it will offer her insights and understanding that will help her come to terms with the past.

Maureen is a very spiky and difficult character. From the outset of the novel she is harder to like than her husband – she is brusque, forthright, and finds it very hard to connect with people. But, as her journey unfolds, mile by mile, we discover more about her childhood and we understand why she became the person she is so that our sympathies completely change. Maureen has had a life spent feeling like an outsider, she is someone who doesn’t feel like she fits in, someone who finds it hard to make friendships or relate to people, and all of this has been compounded by unresolved grief and bitterness following the shattering loss of her son to suicide.

Over the time she is away from Harold, Maureen learns a great deal about herself, and about others, and what she initially thinks might have been a wasted journey, ultimately enables her to find the peace for which she is searching.

MFATAOTN is a beautifully and sensitively written novella. Full of empathy, understanding, and humanity, it is the final piece of the puzzle and perfectly completes the Harold Fry trilogy. Rachel Joyce has the most wonderful ability to create fully developed characters and draw us immediately into their lives and inside their heads. It is only a slim novel but, its exploration of the themes of grief, loss and forgiveness has significant emotional impact. Once you reach the end you know that this novel will live on in your head for a long time to come. Superb.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher Doubleday, for the e-ARC in exchange for an unbiased and honest review

Maureen's husband Harold has already made his own pilgrimage and now its Maureen's turn.
She is going to travel on her own to the North of England to help her come to terms with the tragedy in her life. Unlike Harold though she doesn't make friends easy and is not good as asking for help.
But she knows she has to go!

My thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday publishers for the opportunity to review this book.
I absolutely loved this book and was thrilled and saddened to come to the end of the trilogy. All I can say its a heartwarming story of heartbreak and acceptance.
I'm now wondering if Rex has a potential story.
Highly recommended.

I loved this short sequel to Harold & Queenie’s books. Throughout the first two Maureen had a voice but it is very much a “supporting” role. In this book Maureen comes into her own. Maureen is married to Harold and he undertakes a journey to visit Queenie before she dies. Harold had a relationship with Queenie which stemmed from them working together but developed into a much deeper friendship. All the way through this, Maureen has been in the background, slightly perturbed by their relationship.

Maureen decides she needs to see Queenie’s garden which apparently has become a tourist attraction. Maureen knows there is a sculpture dedicated to her son David who took his own life many years before and she is angry at the thought that Queenie may have known David and has had the audacity to create a memory of David without Maureen’s permission.

What follows is a trip during which Maureen learns a lot, about herself and others.

Having read, and loved the first two books in this series by Rachel Joyce, I was eager to hear from Maureen herself.

I grew to love quiet, gentle, thoughtful Harold during his walk. I adored learning more of the stoic Queenie, how her life grew, and was enriched when she stumbled upon Embleton Bay. I must admit, initially I found Maureen quite a tricky character to like. Outwardly, she appears curt, sometimes bordering on rude, but when you dig below the surface, you start to understand why Maureen is, as she is. She has spent most of her life being strong, not wanting to impose on others. I started willing Maureen to breathe in the life around her, to absorb what she has been missing for many years. To be a little more “Harold”.

It was lovely to hear that their sweet, anxious neighbour Rex was still well, enjoying Draughts and sandwiches with Harold. Meeting Kate again, learning more of her life, and wider family made me smile too.
This novella, just 167 pages, gently rounds off their mutual story. Harold, Queenie and Maureen’s stories will forever be linked. To understand one of them, you must know all three, four if you include the troubled David. David will forever be the glue that binds the three together.
I really enjoyed Maureen’s journey North, to see David again. Reading this book, felt like I was finishing a puzzle, saying farewell to old friends, knowing that they have found peace.
As you would expect, this is such a quiet, heart warming read. Rachel Joyce brings smiles, and tears very gently, but leaves you feeling cocooned in a cosy hug. 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

4★
“At least he was happy, at least he was safe. And his health, too. At least he had that. It wasn’t that he was losing his mind, rather that he was deliberately taking things out of it that he no longer needed.”

Maureen is speaking of her aging husband Harold, of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry fame. He’s happy to sit and play draughts with Rex next door or sit and watch for birds. Maureen is considerably more anxious. She has left enough food in the freezer for both men so they won’t fall back on tea and toast for meals, but she doesn’t trust that they will remember or cope.

Still, she’s on her way, driving north to visit a garden. This is the third book in what became a series, and I recommend reading the previous two first. Although the author does a good job of filling in some background, this won’t have nearly the impact without having watched the earlier stories unfold.

She gets lost early because of roadworks and asks a man for help. He gets out his phone and asks about her satnav – she doesn’t use it. She’s learned to do online shopping because of the pandemic, but she’s not comfortable with it.

“The fact was she’d had the satnav disconnected. She couldn’t bear that nice voice urging directions at her and telling her last minute that she’d missed the turn. Maureen was of the generation who had grown up with the phone on the hall table, and a map in the glove compartment. Even online shopping was a stretch. Twenty lemons instead of two, and all that kind of thing.

He said, ‘Will you remember if I tell you?’

‘I don’t think I will.’

‘I don’t know what to do, then. What do you want me to do?’

‘I would like you to read out the directions from your phone and I will write them down on a piece of paper. I’ll take my route from that.’ ”

It’s going to be a long trip. It’s ten years since Harold make his long trek to visit Queenie Hennessy, and since then, Maureen has been haunted by something she knew about Queenie that she has never disclosed to Harold.

When Harold gets a note from one of the new friends he made along his way which says she read that Queenie had made a garden with “a monument to your son”, Maureen knows she wants to see it. Harold tells her she must go. She must, to see what this garden has to do with David.

She and Harold have been happy together the last ten years, but she still has an itch to try to understand their past. As with Harold’s and Queenie’s stories, Maureen thinks about her past and how she came to be who she is. Her mother was beautiful and proud and resentful.

“She came from good stock, was what she liked to say, but her husband had poor health and little money and they had been forced to retreat to the countryside. Her mother hated everything about the countryside. The smells, the dirt, the isolation. It mortified her that they couldn’t afford extra help.”

Maureen seemed short-tempered and resentful in the earlier books but has mellowed considerably. She hopes she’s better than her mother.

“You think you will be different but the blueprint is still there: Maureen looked into the mirror and saw the ghost of her mother, staring back.”

But she’s trying to learn to be kind, make a nice comment even when unnecessary. She has seen herself (as well as her mother) and vows to do better.

“All this relentless thinking and remembering, and she had still over two hundred miles to go. Stuck in the car, she was exposed only to herself, with no Harold to dilute her.”

But her snob trigger is still pretty sensitive. She stops to see one of Harold’s trek friends, hoping for a relaxing welcome.

“It had never occurred to Maureen that a person who sent postcards to Harold could live like this. It wasn’t even clean. It especially wasn’t clean. The truck was designed like an open-plan studio – an idea that had never appealed to Maureen
. . .
The place was a hovel. She could try as hard as she liked to be nice but there was no nice way of saying it.
. . .
An incongruously large wing- back chair was covered with an old eiderdown that Maureen would honestly fear to disturb. ‘What a lovely place,’ said Maureen again. ‘Isn’t this charming?’

She took off her coat, but there was nowhere to hang it so she put it back on again.”

Bless her heart, she's trying!

Hers is a very different quest from Harold’s, and her private nature makes it hard for her to ask for or accept help. Having a car means she can retreat, be on her way, take her leave without needing anyone.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about Maureen, but I think the author did a good job of rounding out the three stories while still leaving some things to our imagination.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld, Doubleday for the copy for review.

I’d like to thank Random House UK, Transworld Publishers and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Maureen Fry and The Angel Of The North’ by Rachel Joyce in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

‘Maureen Fry and The Angel Of The North’ is the third and final part of the trilogy. It’s a beautifully written short story of Maureen who needs to make her own pilgrimage to Queenie’s Garden where she’s been told there’s a driftwood sculpture for her son David who committed suicide thirty years ago, and surprisingly she finds one that Queenie made for Harold.

Maureen is a somewhat brusque woman in her 70’s who finds it hard to form relationships but during her long and arduous drive meets security man Lenny who directs her to the M5, Harold’s friend Kate who lives in a truck, who help her to learn about friendship, love and loss. This wonderful story is told with warmth and feeling and is a joy to read.

Oh this moved me ! A real change of pace from Harold Fry and Queenie. It is all about grief and coming to terms with loss. I can't say I liked Maureen Fry much although I could feel for her. So beautifully written as always. It doesn't really stand up as a standalone story but it rounds off the trilogy perfectly and everyone should read the other two books anyway. They are great. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was sent a copy of Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce to read and review by NetGalley. This is my first foray into the writings of Rachel Joyce and to begin with I didn’t realize that it was the third in a trilogy. Having looked it up and found that it was listed as ‘could be classed as a stand alone’ even being part of a series I carried on. This is a well written observation of one woman’s attempt to finally come to terms with the death of her son who had taken his own life ten years previously. The novel is quite short but packed full of feeling and understanding. The characters were well drawn and protagonist Maureen seemed very real to me. I think I may just have to go back to the beginning and read the first two books in the series now!

Following on from The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Queenie Hennessey, this story picks up on Harold's wife Maureen. Ten years after his pilgrimage to see Queenie, she sets out on a journey of her own, to visit the garden Queenie created, and where there is a memorial to Harold and Maureen's long-dead son, David. The difference between Harold and Maureen's pilgrimage is that Maureen doesn't engage with anyone she meets on her way. Wrapped up in unresolved grief and bitterness, she is a miserable and unhappy person. Will reaching her goal change that?
This is a shorter book than the first two, and I have to admit I found it depressing. It's beautifully written - Rachel Joyce is a fabulous writer, evoking atmosphere and character on every page - but Maureen was so miserable and isolated and wrapped up in her own grief, I just felt desperately sorry for her all the time, but didn't really care whether she found resolution or not.
A raw and powerful exploration of grief that was just too sad for me

Poignant exploration of the Harold Fry story from Maureen’s point of view. Very well written, as one has come to expect from Rachel Joyce, engaging and thought provoking.

I received this Arc form the publisher

I’ve not read the previous two books in this series but you can definitely read this book as a stand-alone and you won’t feel like you’re missing out but I recommend reading the precious too if you like.

What a thought provoking novella , it will make you laugh and cry! What an utter triumph!

Full disclosure, I am a huge fan of Harold and Queenie and although Maureen isn't an easy character to love, I somehow did.

A fitting and satisfactory end to the trilogy.

Recommend.

This novella is a brilliant end to the Harold Fry trilogy. I really enjoyed Harold Fry when I read it, and it's only recently that I discovered and read Queenie's story, so I was glad to pick this finale up and see how everything would end.

Maureen is a difficult character for a story, and I think making this a shorter story was a wise decision. She is all prickles and stings, she can't say the nice thing, she's awkward with people, and she is very obviously desperately unhappy. Her story is quite different to Harold's and Queenie's, and it's important to read those 2 books first so you understand what's happening. Maureen is making a journey of her own, a pilgrimage to Queenie's garden, because she can't seem to stop thinking about it. She is a reluctant, cautious traveller, and as you begin the story you wonder if she will ever actually make it. She has her own adventures and difficulties along the way, and part way through I did almost give up on her because I couldn't see how I could ever possibly understand this woman as she behaves dreadfully in some instances. But then, slowly, understand and empathise I did, until I found I felt quite emotional about the whole thing.
Start at the beginning with these books, then go all the way through.

More of a novella, this story is a follow up to two other stories in this series, from the perspective of Maureen, the wife of Harold Fry. I found it to be a little disjointed, almost as though the author had less interest and empathy in Maureen than the other characters and I struggled to engage with it.

With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review an advance copy.