I really enjoyed this book, it was a fairly short read but it packed in quite a lot. I read the book not long after I had been down to Devon from the Midlands and I could almost follow the journey that Maureen took North having driven on the roads myself.

I didn’t really warm to Maureen before but I hoped that the book would help to change that but I have to say it didn’t really do much to change that but it does give more of an understanding to her personality and that helps when you think back over the previous books in the trilogy.

The plot was developed and I enjoyed the writing style and the pace. I did like that through the book Maureen checks in with Harold to link him in to the story too as after all for me it was his pilgrimage that made me want to pick up this one.

It is 4 stars from me for this one, highly recommended for anyone that read and enjoyed the previous books in the trilogy you need to read this one to get the series completed.

The first book in this series was the story of Harold Fry who went for a walk to post a letter to his friend and he keeps walking. His journey was spontaneous.
This is instead the story of his wife, Maureen, who has spoken about going to see Queenie’s garden and the artistic monument in memory of their son for a while. Her journey is planned and she sets out not on foot, but by car. This doesn’t mean her journey is any less exciting or eventful.
One of the things that was great about this book was that you got to see her personality and how Harold’s journey shaped her. It is delightful to see another post covid novel (yes I do realise covid still exists) that makes light reference to covid without it being central to the storyline. Maureen’s journey is one of an older lady facing many challenges, most notably not being 21 any more and having the experiences and attitudes of an older person. Maureen changes throughout this story and I enjoyed seeing her develop in this shorter novel. If you enjoyed the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry then you’ll enjoy this story.

The final part of the brilliant Harold Fry trilogy. What greater compliment can I give it than to say, having read this delightful novel in one sunny day, I am going straight back to books 1 & 2 to relive Harold’s pilgrimage and Queenie’s letters, to re-view them in light of the added dimension of Maureen’s viewpoint.
So poignant, honest, revealing and life-affirming - a short but perfect read and a wholehearted 5 stars from me.

Maureen Fry And The Angel Of The North is the third book in the Harold Fry trilogy by British actress, radio playwright and author, Rachel Joyce. Some ten years after her husband, Harold returns from his pilgrimage to save Queenie Hennessy, he still hears from some of those he encountered on the journey.

Five months earlier, Kate sent a postcard about Queenie’s Sea Garden: there’s a monument to David, the son they lost thirty years earlier. Maureen tries to convince herself that she doesn’t need to see it, but Harold can see that she does. Harold and their neighbour Rex surely won’t be able to fend for themselves, she reasons but, leaving a freezer full of prepared meals and instructions on sticky notes papering the kitchen, she sets off on a four-hundred-and-fifty-mile journey to Embleton Bay.

But Maureen isn’t Harold. Maureen can’t connect with strangers, relate to people she doesn’t know. She can’t even get on with the women in her book club. Her encounters with the waitress at the motorway services café, the security guard who gives her route directions, the young man who helps when she has a minor traffic accident, the volunteer at Queenie’s Sea Garden, these are not fulfilling, uplifting, heartening experiences. Quite the opposite, in some cases.

Not far from Embleton, Kate offers her a bed for the night, but Maureen is uncomfortable with Kate’s hospitality, sees only the dirt and clutter, and can’t wait to leave: “Inside the truck, there was not one single place for the eye to rest that hadn’t already been claimed by something else. It was like looking directly into a migraine. Tiny Buddha ornaments, chakra stones, hanging quartzes, crystals, candles, exhortations to find your inner goddess and your angels, shelves draped with purple curtains. Everything carried a thin layer of filth and was either broken or about to be. And the smell. Dear God. She’d thought she’d smelt bad. Incense sticks were puffing away in every corner.”

When Maureen sees what Queenie has made, her Garden of Relics, she’s enraged: how dare Queenie put up figures of Harold, of David! Her anger leads to an impulsive act that backfires on her.

Reduced by physical injury, Maureen has to accept the kindness and care Kate unstintingly gives. Captive in her disability, she connects with sweet little Maple, Kate’s granddaughter, and eventually, finally, Maureen comes to terms with her grief over David.

Joyce treats the reader to a wealth of beautiful descriptive prose: “Maureen drove below snatches of sky where sunlight glinted on the road, steel blue, spun gold, as rich as the glances off a crow’s wing” and “Ahead, the skin of the sea heaved and waves rolled out of the dark” and “the kitchen was covered with Post-it notes, like small yellow alarm signals” are examples.

Similarly, she evokes feelings and mood with wonderful skill: “Stuck in the car, she was exposed only to herself, with no Harold to dilute her” and “Once again, she experienced that old feeling of being the wrong shape for the situation in which she found herself. Of being an intruder.”

Joyce gives her characters insightful observations: “a person could be trapped in a version of themselves that was from another time, and completely miss the happiness that was staring them in the face” in this novella filled with humour and heartache, wit and wisdom. The illustrations by Andrew Davidson at the start of each chapter add charm. Short, beautifully written: a joy to read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK Transworld.

A poignant tale about loss and its ability to shape you - permanently if you let it. This is also a slightly sad story about old age and how it too can mould you - again permanently if you let it. But through both strands there is a heart-warming feeling of hope and redemption and an overwhelming sense that, where love is, life can still go on and be good.

After Harold returned from his travels ten years ago, (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) his wife Maureen had a hankering to go and see Queenie's garden as Queenie told her that she had put a memorial to Maureen and Harold's son David in it before she died. David died many years beforehand, something Maureen has never got over and feels his loss every day. She sets off with her flask and sandwiches in the car for a drive of several hundred miles- something she is not used to. On the way she gets lost and encounters various people. Unlike Harold, Maureen is not a people person and struggles to interact as she would really wish. This is the story of her journey in more ways than one.
I loved Harold’s story and this one quickly enveloped me. It's a short story (144 pages) but quickly gets the reader engaged- to me the true skill of an author. We learn about Maureen and even perhaps ourselves as we take the journey with her. “It struck Maureen that a person could be trapped in a version of themselves that was from another time and completely miss the happiness that was right in front of them” . Wow! Sentences like that made me stop in my tracks and think of my own journey through life. This is more than a book or a story. It’s a handbook of life, one to carry and refer to and reflect on a while. An uplifting inspiring read and one that will stay with me.

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Quite a short book so I was able to read it in a couple of hours. I hadn’t realised when I had requested this book on net-galley that this was the third book in a trilogy. However, I don’t think you would need to read the others to pick up the book's themes. The writing was just so beautiful and told a simple story of Maurren following in the footsteps of her husband and going on her own journey in order to visit a garden dedicated to her son. I can’t wait to read this author in the future and will definitely be hunting down any of her previous books.

My goodness, my heart breaks for Maureen!

I loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, so, was delighted to see that Maureen was getting her moment too.

This book is a beautiful account of Maureen's grief, and is both fascinating to read and also heartbreaking too. Maureen is a difficult person, doesn't always say the right thing and can be rude and hard to understand.
But, Rachel Joyce gives us Maureen Fry in all of her sadness and rage, and we do understand her better as she tries to come to terms with her years of grief.

I feel a bit sad now as it seems we've come to the end of a Fry era, but wonderful to go on Maureen's journey with her.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Joyce and to the publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

I’m a bit late to the party in that I haven’t read the other books in this series, but I don’t think that hampered my enjoyment of this one (and indeed I’m off now to read up on Harold and Queenie) I was hooked by this story, wanting desperately to get to the point where I would understand Maureen and then warm to her. It did come, but only after I cringed a few times. This is a story that’s heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, but I think you’ll feel better for reading it.

Every bit as beautiful and heart warming as I'd thought it would be. Having loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song Of Miss Queenie Hennessey I was thrilled to have had an early read of Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North courtesy of NetGalley and Transworld Publishers. I loved that Maureen's journey has been told and that there is a sense of closure. I love how Maureen kept anchored to Harold and how we the reader experience the depth of Maureen's character and how the events of the past shape her, shape us. A poignantly short read, brilliantly crafted.

This is the final part of the trilogy which started with much loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Maureen, Harold's somewhat difficult wife, has decided she has to visit Queenie's garden in the North of England where she has installed a remembrance to Maureen and Harold's late son, David. The journey to the north is very well described with its mishaps and Maureen's difficulties in relating to the people around her.

I didn't love this book. Maureen is a difficult character to like. You feel sorry for her and irritated by her but she is not likeable. The epiphany moment at the end of the book didn't ring true to me. The descriptions were all vey good but in the end I just didn't connect to Maureen, Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Maureen is Harold Fry’s wife. She sets out on a pilgrimage of her own. She’s been lost since her son died aged 20. She’s angry, bitter and struggles to see families or the god in people (except Harold, he’s her rock).
The story tells on her drive from Devon to Northumberland, her encounters in the way and how an accident transforms her giving her the cathartic freedom she desires. Suddenly she sees life differently.
A short novel that totally draws you in to a person’s grief and confusion with the world, and how Maureen reconciles herself with life in the end.
Heartwarming how people really can change given the right circumstances.
Loved it.

I read and enjoyed The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and then The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and tis short novel completes Joyce's trilogy. It's written in the same style as the others, as a reader you're immediately enveloped in the characters and their story. Maureen is a prickly woman who always seems to say the wrong thing, but she has to make this journey for her, for Harold, For David.

The book flows nicely with good pace; it's short and easy to read but the description is fantastic as per the last two books. You can really picture every part, it feels tangible and real. If you enjoyed the first two books, you'll enjoy this.


Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for my ARC.

Having read and loved the first two books in this series I looked forward very much to reading Maureen's story to conclude the trilogy. I wasn't disappointed. Although a short book it was just wonderful. Funny, sad, heart wrenching and ultimately uplifting. Rachel Joyce writes so beautifully and hr prose really touches my heart. Maureen is quite a scratchy lady, jealous of her husband Harold's innocent friendship with another woman, changed and left totally bereft after her son's death and unable to make friends easily. The poor lady doesn't have much going for her but when she sets off on her own 'pilgrimage' she proves that she can be a strong woman and some experiences that initially annoy and frustrate her also change her and the ending is just sublime. I cried at the sheer beauty of the words and the emotions that they evoked. Such a beautiful conclusion to the Harold Fry trilogy. I urge everyone to read all three books but to be sure to read in order for the best experience. It was my great pleasure to be offered an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review and I thank the publisher and Netgalley for this opportunity.

Much like her husband Harold, Maureen Fry is facing the journey of a lifetime. One that she’s not looking forward to but is compelled to make. However, unlike Harold Maureen most certainly won’t be talking to anyone along the way, let alone be making friends.

She is quietly seething about her husband’s walk, his old friend Queenie and new friend Kate but, although she doesn’t have the confidence on her journey that he had on his, she sets off on this epic drive in the middle of winter to ‘find’ her son in Queenie’s Garden.

Oh Maureen!

This is a sweet but not sugary, warm and, incredibly moving book. I found Maureen such a sad character and I felt for her so much throughout the book. I would have loved to have given her a hug (except she doesn’t do hugging).

I could feel the way Maureen wrestled with herself, how she worried about not being the sort of assured person everyone else around looked to be, and how she didn’t feel she fitted in to the situations she found herself in. Everything an effort. I thought she showed traits of ASD, although it isn't mentioned by the author.

I really enjoyed the bursts of description especially Kate's van, and the drive through places I immediately recognised - the M5 service stations, the cars visible in the docks below, and I willed her through that fog!

The ending was a tumble of emotional situations and poignant realisations for Maureen, and my only criticism was that as a short book, I wasn’t ready for it to end.

Maureen Fry and The Angel of the North is the third in the trilogy, the first being The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry which I read a few years ago. Until I got to the end of Maureen’s story I was not aware there were three books so haven’t read the second The Love Story of Miss Queenie Hennessy. I’m not sure whether that matters but I will go back and read it as these characters are so brilliant and the books so lovingly written.

I gave this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House, Transworld Publishers for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I recently read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy and enjoy both books. I was delighted to receive a copy of the third book in this series Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North.
Maureen has never got over losing her son David and thinks about him every day. When she hears that there is a sculpture to him in Queenie Hennessy’s garden she decides to travel there to see it for herself.
A story about family, love and forgiveness that is incredible moving.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

The last book in the trilogy of Harold and Maureen Fry and Queenie. In many ways a sad little book given this is Maureen’s pilgrimage and she has never quite got over the death of their only son and her jealousy of the relationship between her husband a Queenie. However it is also a book filled with hope, with forgiveness and with love. Read this but only after you’ve read the first two books. You will be well rewarded.
A book by Rachel Joyce is always worth a read. Try Perfect or The Music Shop or Miss Benson’s Beetle.

A decade ago many readers were enchanted by the Unlikely Pilgramage of Harold Fry then equally mesmerised by the tale of Queenie Hennessy ; in the background of the first story was Harold’s wife, Maureen. Now Rachel Joyce has given Maureen her only story and stringer voice. This is a short book but one hit that is beautifully emotive and shines a light on the small details of life and how we all try to accept depth and remembrance in differing ways. This is a book about acceptance and celcrating life in the simplest of ways. Set just post Covid and a world so different from 2012, Maureen is making her own pilgrimage in a world that seems to have lost track of the individual and social niceties and caring and yet as the story progresses characters old and new show compassion and warmth to Maureen bringing a growing realisation as to how she blocked life. This is a truly moving book with an ending that will bring a joy to the hardest of hearts. This is a worthy sequel to this trilogy and one I will highly recommend. Beautiful, touching and rewarding

A beautifully written conclusion to the Harold Fry trilogy. It's time for Maureen, Harold's wife, to undertake her own pilgrimage but she's not a likeable character as she's consumed with anger, frustration and grief. She's blunt and rude at times but gradually comes to terms with her past and her character softens. A short but lovely read.

It has been a long wait to read Maureen Fry’s story, but finally we get to meet Harold’s wife. A funny, sad and thought provoking story. Maureen is still grieving the death of David, Harold and her son, who committed suicide 30 years ago, and as such the undertones of Maureen’s story is of a mother’s grief and how her upbringing has impacted on her whole life. As Maureen sets off, on her own, to visit Queenie’s garden, she begins a journey of self discovery which has her question everything she thought she believed in. I adored this book, it is beautifully written and the characters are believable. I would have liked it to have been longer! Highly recommended. I’ve already preordered a signed copy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️