Dr Heather Winterbottom and her husband are newly retired GPs who have been attached to the same rural practice for years. Although it was a mutual decision, they have mixed feelings about being retired and what to do with their free time. Mrs Winterbottom longs to travel and is keen to go to Greece.

Her husband seems to sink more easily into a relaxed routine and when he finds a like-minded, more experienced friend, soon begins to pursue his own dream of establishing and pottering around a vegetable garden. While he’s quietly content simply staying at home, his wife feels lost and alone.

In conversation with her 90 year old friend, Esme, Heather expresses dissatisfaction with how her retirement is turning out so far, and receives encouragement to travel to Greece by herself, possibly take a previously missed gap year off, and abandon Alan to his vegetable plot. So she does.

Heather finds herself charmed, inspired, and tempted by the lifestyle of Greek fisherman Dennis who is attracted to her as a woman rather than a doctor. She feels the tug of husband and home, duty and desire, conflicting with the lure of the open seas and a different kind of life and culture she grows to love.

I’ve read 3 books by Joanna Nell and always enjoy her ability to understand and get under the skin of those of senior years, seeing them as sparky, interesting individuals rather than a drain on the government purse and health services. I also love the wry humour which is present here too.

This is a gently humorous story, a heartwarming read with much to say about the nature of belonging, senior years’ identity, achieving personal dreams, relationships and family, the choices we make, commitment and breaking free. Grateful thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the ARC.

Mrs Winterbottom takes a Gap Year by Joanna Bell

Heather Winterbottom newly retired doctor alongside her similarly newly retired husband also a Dr are making plans for the next chapter in their lives. However , those decisions don't match !
He wants a more pipe and slippers retirement growing vegetables in the garden , whereas Heather wants to take the bull by the horn and take off to the Greek Islands.
Do they stay or do they go or is there an alternative ?

An easy read that can be read in a few sittings but entertaining nether the less.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Heather Winterbottom has worked side by side with her husband as a GP in their idyllic rural practice for over forty years. But as the time comes to hang up their stethoscopes, the Winterbottoms discover that they have rather different visions of retirement. Heather dreams of exploring Greek islands, of escaping the shackles of her routine life, and embracing and exciting new adventure. Alan dreams of growing his own vegetables. When things come to a head at a family lunch, Heather announces that she has decided to take a year off from her old life, from her marriage - from Alan.

After being married for over forty years, and both of them just having retired after they were Doctors in their own rural practice, Heather Winterbottom wants more out of their retirement than her husband Alan. This is a lovely story about relationships, making the most out of what you have, and being adventurous. I liked the humour and the characters, especially Heather, who had the courage to go and do what she wanted to do when she retired.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HodderStoughton and the author #JoannaNell for my ARC of #MrsWinterbottomTakesAGapYear in eschange for an honet review,

I have enjoyed other books by Joanna Nell but this one was not for me. The premise of 2 retiring GP's doing a Shirley Valentine just didn't work for me. 2 stars.

I received a free copy of, Mrs. Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year, by Joanna Nell, , from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Everyone deserve time off, vacation, for self care. Mrs. Winterbottom who is also a doctor, really needs a break. I found some of this book cringe worthy. I did not find this book humorous or enjoyable.

The Drs Winterbottom have worked and lived together for many years, and now, both in their 60s, retirement has come. Having said goodbye to the GP practice they have run together for their entire marriage, they must now find ways to fill their days together. But they have different ideas...
Heather dreams of travel to Greece, while Alan wants to create the perfect vegetable garden. It appears that retirement may not be the idyllic next stage of life they thought it would be.
When Heather announces to the family that she is taking a gap year and heading off to Greece, Alan and their daughters are shocked.
Will it end well? Will Heather and Alan reconcile their differences?

This is a charming, often funny, book. Great easy read!

Loved this book - Dr Winterbottom and Dr Winterbottom two 60 somethings, married for over 40 years both doctors, retire to enjoy life together after their stressful careers as GP's in a country practice. It very quickly becomes obvious that they want different things from retirement, one wants to stay at home and grow vegetables and be self sufficient while the other has a taste for travel and adventure. A lovely "coming of age" (retirement) novel. Likeable characters - I read it in one sitting!
Thanks to the author, NetGalley and publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

After cutting off Aram Grigoryan’s trafficking operation at the knees, Dectective Jamie Johansson and her new ward Alina are square in the crosshairs. Retribution must be had, and to carry out the task, Grigoryan unleashes upon them a man like no other. The Nhang moves without being seen and kills without mercy. And he’s coming for them both. Can Jamie stay one step ahead of this deadly new adversary? She’ll have to use all of the skills at her disposal if she hopes to survive and finally close in on the elusive Aram Grigoryan. His operation seems to be recovering quickly, so there's no time to lose. With help from old friends and new, she’ll once again rise to face the people that want her dead, and stand for those who can’t defend themselves. Evil may never rest, but Jamie Johansson doesn’t either. And when they come, she’ll be waiting. *** The second, thrilling instalment of the pulse-pounding Jamie Johansson Files crime thriller series. Perfect for fans of Welsh crime, Simon McCleave, Anglea Marsons, and DS Butler.

Another wonderful novel by Joanna Neil interesting entertaining emotional.A married couple both gps now at the age of retirement trying to decide what they should do how they should live their lives and each with their own ideas,I really enjoyed their story will be recommending.#netgalley #hodderstoughton

Joanna Nell writes wonderful books with older leading characters, and this is her latest. The Mrs Winterbottom of the title is a recently retired GP, and her husband is in the same position. Heather has plenty of ideas about what she wants to do in retirement, but Alan is difficult to motivate. He wants to delay things rather than getting on and making the most of their time together. When Alan surprisingly finds a new hobby, and a friend to share it with, Heather feels even more isolated.

This is a book about making the most of your retirement, being adventurous and doing the things you couldn't squeeze into your previous busy working and family life. It is also about compromise since it can be a bit of a shock to the system being with a partner 24/7, without work to escape to.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

This is such an enjoyable book. Getting older isnt for the faint hearted and Heather Winterbottom wanted to seize her retirement from her GP practice with both hands. She has plans to travel, but her very boring husband, also a GP, prefers to make a garden. Personally I would have wrapped his greenhouse round his ears, but Heather simply left and found a delightful runaway in Greece. It's a sympathetic book as well as being amusing.
Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a great read this was had me smiling and laughing most of the way through. Would highly recommend.

Heather and Alan Winterbottom are retiring from their GPs practice and taking on retirement. Lots of retired people will appreciate how frightening the thought can be as to what you will do, how do you take the next step in your life and make it as fulfilling (or more than) your working life. We all face it differently with differing success. It’s still an adventure.

I liked the idea of Heather going off to have the gap year that she missed before she started her career, and that she would want to do a bit of travelling when she had the time to do so. Alan, too, has his own reasons for wanting to go his way, but it seemed to happen so quickly, finding the right new friend to help him. You have to put yourself out there to achieve this, so it felt false to me. I couldn’t empathise with the 2 main characters, but loved Dennis and Esme, the idea of having your own Greek Odyssey as Greece and its islands are a lovely place to visit. A nice light holiday read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

3.5 rounded up

It’s Dr Heather and Dr Alan Winterbottom‘s final day as GPs at the Netherwood Medical Centre as their retirement beckons. She’s already running 3/4 of an hour behind the appointment schedule and it’s the usual “war zone“. Heather dreams of adventure and the Greek isles, whilst Alan has set his heart on creating a vegetable patch. They are chalk and cheese with their opposing views of what constitutes a retirement good life. He wants to be Tom, but she definitely doesn’t want to be Barbara. When she can take the boredom no longer, Heather announces she is taking off on her own for her own Greek Odyssey. What lies in store? An adventure or a big mistake?

This is a very well written book but unlike other Joanna Nell books, this takes me longer to get into, perhaps because of Alan! Once it gets going, it becomes a most satisfying and enjoyable read. Heather is a very likeable central protagonist and I can’t blame her for doing a Shirley Valentine as she is definitely saying hello to the wall prior to jetting off to Greece. I think I’d have gone too if it’s a choice between that and Alan and his vegetables. I especially like that Heather has the revealing conversations she has with her friend 90-year-old Esme. What a fabulous woman she is.

I absolutely love the Greek setting which is principally in around the beautiful island of Cephalonia. It’s springs to life just as Heather does, the food, the wine, the history and the literature, especially that of Homer, who she takes with her for company, as well as Esme. The encounter with Greek Dion/Dennis is so well done as he challenges and tempts her in a multitude of ways.

There are, in addition to Heather and Alan navigating their way through the situation, several other themes. The take on post retirement is obviously central with the necessary adjustments and how a new life and a new pace can mean different things to different people. Everyone has their own dreams and some you want more than others. There are other topical references too that are touched upon such as the refugee crisis which Greece encounters, often daily, and this is thought provoking.

It becomes very entertaining, it’s funny at times and has witty chapter headings. It’s heartwarming but sad and moving on other occasions. I like the ending as it feels just right.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Hodder and Stoughton for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

This is the fifth book by this excellent author and I've enjoyed every one and this is no exception.

Mrs Winterbottom is Dr Winterbottom, retired and who is reassessing her life and future. She seems completely out of sync with her husband, in terms of future dreams. Whereas she plans a Greek trip, he is happy turning the garden into a self sufficient vegetable patch and pottering. So, off she sets.

This is a gentle, easy read about retirement and relationships, both in marriage, friendship and family and it's an amusing, well observed piece of work. What I particularly loved, were the inclusions of elements of Homer's Odyssey and I'd highly recommend this as a wonderful, heartwarming read. It's definitely worth reading the back catalogue too as all are a delight!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the opportunity to preview.

I've only read one of Joanna's books before - The Tea Ladies of St Jude's Hospital - and I absolutely adored it. It was so warming and cosy and comfortable, that I leapt at the chance to read this. Just the very title conjured up happiness.

I instantly liked Heather Winterbottom. She was the perfect leading lady. Her husband on the other hand, took some time to warm up to. He was grumpy, self-absorbed, and didn't seem to care about anything other than his little world. I was worried I would never warm up to him, but he got me in the end.

What I liked about it was the idea that you're never too old to have an adventure. Gap years and worldwide travel tend to be the jaunts of the young, rather than the (relatively) old. Many see retirement as a stop to life, as such, time to take it easy and plod on through life. But they're only in their late sixties, and so have plenty of time to do what they wished they' done before. It also hammers home the fact that we only get one life, and so you have to make of it what you can.

I have never been to Greece, and whilst I like the look of it, it's not somewhere I've actually considered going to. But Greece in this book sounds beautiful. I know it's painted in the best light for this book, but I don't care. It sounded gorgeous and now I want to go on a trip around the Greek islands. I also liked the references to Homer's Odyssey and Iliad. Like most bibliophiles, I have a copy of both on my bookshelf. I've had them for many years. And it'll probably come as no surprise that I have read neither. But this has really peeked my interest in them and I may just have to give them a go.

It is such a charming story. Simple in idea but executed perfectly. Whilst I enjoy reading hard-hitting thrills and mysteries etc. sometimes you just want a warming, cosy story, and that is what Joanna has brought here. You get completely enveloped and wrapped up in the characters and their lives and you'll find yourself smiling throughout. It is such an uplifting book.

What I would say is I'd have preferred the action (Heather's trip) to have started a bit earlier. It's perfectly enjoyable as it is, and it works, it gives us time to get to know the character and their situation. But I felt the plot didn't really get started until about 40% of the way through, and so if I had to change anything, it would be to move this forward ever so slightly so we get more of it to enjoy. But apart from that it was as enjoyable book as I've come to expect from her.

This is the fifth novel by Joanna Nell that I've read, being a fan of the first four... this one wasn't for me.

Despite there being themes I do appreciate such as making up your own mind and refugees.

However, apart from it being flat when it comes to diversity, it was predictable, and all the loose ends far too beautifully tied up in a happy ending.

But most of all I couldn't deal with all the able-bodied characters of this book.
Let me be clear that indeed life is too short to be caught up in a boring marriage with a dull husband, soldiering on in such a situation is not an option if you are in a position to choose. Everyone's problems are validated, so is this one.
Yet, I couldn't warm to Heather as a character who was on a proverbial, emotional journey to reinvent herself at 66. Being ill with ME well over 18 years now, housebound, and an enigma for most general practitioners... I long for a body that I can rely on and feel full of confidence with.

My heart breaks when I read about the misery of all those people with Long Covid, and the uncertainties, hurt, and fear that comes with a troublesome health they are dealing with. Similar to my own and that of fellow ME patients as we've been struggling with this for years. There are some things that don't have happy endings, only loose ends and lots of it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book.

A perfect look at two retirees who suddenly find themselves at a loss when they retire from their busy gp practice .Thought proving and nerve touching its an ideal read for people who maybe find themselves in the same place .I loved it !

Joanna Nell gets it right every time. A lovely book that I think so many readers will relate to. I really enjoyed this and it will be one of those lovely books I read again.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Mrs Winterbottom Takes A Gap Year is the fifth novel by best-selling Australian author, Joanna Nell. After forty years working together in the same East Dorset medical practice, GPs Heather and Alan Winterbottom could, on retirement, be reasonably expected to be in synch with one another. Heather is therefore disconcerted to learn that what she was most looking forward to, travel abroad, occupies a much lower line on Alan’s to-do list.

Establishing a vegetable garden with the intention of self-sufficiency is what takes priority for Alan over something as frivolous as a trip to Greece. Feeling invisible, Heather watches with mounting dismay as Alan erects a greenhouse, builds garden beds, obtains tenants for his henhouse, exchanges their modern cars for a (virtually vintage) Land Rover, and throws himself wholeheartedly into the local organic gardening group. “She had an inkling now of how it felt to lose a loved one to a cult.”

Finding it difficult to muster any enthusiasm for carrots and compost, Heather realises “They were so far from being on the same page, she doubted they were even reading from the same book.” Retirement has proven to be an anticlimax and “Heather felt as if she had lost her multi-tasking superpower on the day she left work.” She finds herself opting for a radical haircut, and makes a few other uncharacteristic choices.

The death of her elderly friend and former patient, Esme, whose latest read had initiated Heather’s fascination with Greece, is the impetus for a declaration that has her family sharing concerned murmurs: Heather is going to take a gap year, in the Greek isles. She takes along Esme’s well-read copy of Homer, and Esme herself, trusting she will find the right place to scatter her ashes.

Once on the island of Cephalonia, her intention is to immerse herself in Greek culture, to travel to the home of Odysseus, but in her first few days she has some hair-raising experiences which, somewhat surprisingly, don’t really phase Gap Year Heather quite like they might have worried Doctor Heather: it will be just another amusing story to tell.

When she meets a Greek gentleman who lives on his yacht, a handsome, educated, charming and attentive man who finds her, a woman in her mid-sixties, attractive, she admits to herself that she is tempted. The connection she feels to this man, though, does have her considering just what it is she has with Alan: what they each now want seems to be so different, “promising to love someone forever - was that realistic?” But even Gap Year Heather will draw the line at infidelity, won’t she?

She is loving the weather, the food, the scenery and the people and, yes, she misses her daughters and Alan although “A tiny piece of her wondered if she missed her dog more than her husband.” Obstinacy at the thought of cutting her trip short (she didn’t want to reach ninety with a bucket list of broken dreams) battles with a desire to compromise.

Nell gives her cast of appealing characters wise words and insightful observations, but there’s also plenty of humour in what they say and do: Heather’s asides to Esme’s ashes are entertaining as are some mistranslations. For anyone married to a car or motorcycle enthusiast, the “best trousers” scene will definitely resonate.

Her exploration of life after retirement will strike a chord with many of a certain vintage, but Nell also touches on topical themes: relevance as we age; sustainability; and refugees; ensuring a much wider appeal. Nell’s latest offering is laugh-out-loud funny but also thought-provoking, heart-warming and uplifting. Joanna Nell has yet to disappoint.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton