Although this book is extremely well written, on a personal level for me I found it difficult to get into. I persevered but I feel that there were too many characters in it I kept forgetting who was who and how they related to each other. Now that may just be a failing of mine because the storyline was good but I simply found it slow going.

A complex novel, set in the sixties in , but roaming into the history of characters, to explain current actions. This a novel about love, loss and family, with a focus around mysterious disappearance of a West Actress.

Well written, with a great sense of the time and conflicts experienced by young people, making their lives in London and beyond. A very enigmatic ending, which I suspect some will find a little bit frustrating.

I've just finished Miss Treadway, And The Field Of Stars and it was much better than I was expecting. I read this as a NetGalley arc so thank you to NetGalley for allowing me access. The actual book isn't released until 28th February 2017! (I'm writing this review in November of 2016).

4 Stars!

NOTE: this is an ADULT book as characters are found in compromising positions and the language used isn't for under 16s, I'd say.

We follow a number of characters as they try to piece together the disappearance of another character. This is another book based in and around England.

Spoilers below...

Yolande Green is a well known actress at the beginning of the book. She's seen with Anna Treadway, the girl the title names in the first chapter as she comes of stage one night. After chapter one though the book becomes a mystery novel, as we, the readers don't know what's happened to Yolande Green either. I liked the continuing mystery factor of the story as I was kept forever guessing.

Anna is of course worried when Yolande doesn't turn up for work the next day. She informs the police straight away and then happens on a black man. He helps her as well.

Racism plays a huge role in this book. The story takes place in 1964/1965 where black people were thought of as different/evil. Certainly not the same as the white people. I found this really interesting to read as I hadn't read a novel based around skin colour or it's supposed importance before, even literature based in history. The black man is hurt by a police officer because he's seen as a threat to society, when he was only asking for directions. No behaviour such as that would be acceptable in England today.

Anyway, the black man, Aloysius and Anna work together and develop quite a good friendship, which borders on that of a relationship. Nothing happens beyond that of a kiss on the cheek and sharing of gloves in this novel though. The arc cover of the book I believe, has them on it in the bus.

Aloysius and Anna find out that Yolande went to an abortion clinic but we don't know if she actually had the abortion or if it worked if she did. That's left in the dark, which would be okay if there was a second novel in this series.

The police play a role here, as I've already stated. They're very rough and ready though, not like the police of today in Britain. We also see from a Muslim family's perspective and how they see the world. They don't play a huge role in this novel, however. They're side characters. And there's Yolande's American brother who is brought into the story at points, as well as the main policeman's wife and daughter as well.

In the end the characters come to the conclusion that they must work together if they wish to find Yolande. I don't want to spoil what happens at the end. Do they find her? Is she alright? What happens between Anna and Aloysius? You'll need to read to find out.

I actually really enjoyed Miss Treadway, And The Field Of Stars much more than I thought I would. I loved Anna as a main character and how she was with every character. Some she accepted while others she didn't. I enjoyed the main plot of Yolande's disappearance and the developing relationship of Anna and Aloysius. I sort of skipped over the parts about the policeman as I wasn't as interested in his story. I'm therefore giving this book a 4 star rating. The only couple of things that I didn't like were reading about the policeman's life, although this becomes more essential to the plot as you read on and the will they/won't they involving Anna and Aloysius, even though I loved the maybe relationship they formed in the end.

I really hope this has a second book, involving the same characters as this one is left on a bit of a cliffhanger but we'll have to wait and see.

I was actually disappointed in this book. I thought it sounded so interesting, but it never really lived up to its premise, and I hated the ending so much that it spoilt my memory of what I'd enjoyed n the rest of the book. Having said that, I did think it portrayed the racism of 1960s London well, and how it affected the characters in different ways, and it was quite interesting to read from a modern viewpoint where racism seems to be on the rise again.

****Copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review****

So, I'm not sure what I thought of this. It has a diverse cast of characters and complicated, dark things going on. The mystery is interesting and well conceived. But something just didn't quite work for me in the execution. Although it deals with serious subjects and issues, I was expecting - from the blurbs I'd read and from the cover - for it to have a more upbeat ending, but instead I felt flat and unresolved. I can't put my finger on what the problem was, but it just didn't quite all click and hang together the way I wanted it to and I got to the end feeling like I might have missed something somewhere along the line.

A good premise and I liked the characters, so I'll look out for more from Miranda Emmerson - I think this is her first novel - to see if her next book works better for me.

Anna Treadway has made a life for herself in London, she lives in a little flat above a Turkish Cafe on Neal Street and has a job dressing the actresses at the Galaxy Theatre.

But 1965 is going to be a disruptive year for her. The American actress she’s dressing – Iolanthe Green – leaves the theatre as usual one night but doesn’t turn up for the next performance. Soon the newspapers are wild with speculation about her fate. Then the news grows old and it seems to Anna that she is the only person left that cares.

As she searches she stumbles into a different world, a world of jazz clubs and illegal abortions, where the colour of your skin could get you beaten and left in a prison cell.

I have to admit the main reason I picked up this book is because I spent some of the happiest years of my life on Neal Street. So the chance to spend some time there, even in a different era, was too good to miss.

I was a bit worried that this might veer too hard into the romance hinted at on the original blurb and therefore turn into a feast of marshmallow gooiness. However, though there is sweetness in this book, there is also bitterness. Miranda Emmerson has created range of compelling characters from diverse backgrounds without either patronising them or exploiting them. In this she has recreated a honest tableau of London life both in the 60’s and since.

This book has a theme, and a message but it is one that takes a while to emerge. That’s not a problem though as the mystery of Iolanthe’s disappearance and the way that Emmerson’s description’s of London’s wintery nights are seductive and it’s easy to keep reading whilst the message reveals itself slowly.

This is a book I’d definitely recommend – in fact there’s a few people I can think of that would definitely like it so a few copies may well end up wrapped in birthday wrapping paper in the next couple of months!

4 Bites

NB I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review. The BookEaters always write honest reviews.

This book was a big surprise! For some reason, I expected a light, quick read. Maybe that was an instance of me stupidly pre-judging a book by its cover. I took the opportunity to begin the novel when I was unwell, thinking it would stop me feeling sorry for myself for an hour or two. However, it did more than that. I quickly became engrossed in the excellent plot with its various twists and turns right up to the last page. Having lived in London and had friends from many parts of the world there in the 60s I can vouch for the social and cultural backdrop to "Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars". Highly recommended.

This story centres around life in London as it was in the 60s. It's about an actress who goes missing and what follows her disappearance.

Anna works at the Galaxy Theatre as a Dresser to the actress Iolanthe who is also known as Lanny. She lives in a flat above a Turkish Cafe, owned by Ottmar. She is an avid reader and not known for socialising.

When Lanny fails to turn up for work, alarms are raised as she is known for being punctual. The police starts an investigation into the disappearance but soon loses interest.

Brennan who is Irish, is the sergeant in charge of the case and has changed his first name to Barnaby to avoid discrimination. He first meets Anna when gathering information about Lanny and Anna realises that some of the information is not quite accurate. She is worried about her and decides to start her own investigations.

She goes to one of the nightclubs, last visited by Lanny where she meets the black accountant, Aloysius. It just so happens that he has some information which might lead to the whereabouts of Lanny. Anna enrols him for assistance and they embark on the most frustrating and difficult journey. They go from one place to another in the freezing cold whilst they try to piece things together. The reaction they receive is abismal. Aloysius is subjected to cruelty, violence and humiliation because of the colour of his skin, nothing else. The cruelty and ignorance are sickening and inhumane.

As the story unfolds, it becomes very apparent that Barnaby, Ottmar and Aloysius have one thing in common. Fighting to fit into society, amongst other issues! Lanny is not who she appears to be and as Anna learns more about her, she realises that they too have something in common. Something, well hidden from Anna's past. This only reinforces her determination to find Lanny. Aloysius is only too happy to assist despite the cruel treatment imposed upon him. He is also being blackmail even when he is wrongly accused of a crime that he didn't commit. It would appear that this is quite acceptable because of the colour of his skin!

It's a very poignant and palpable story. There is corruption, racism, illegal abortions, illicit transactions, poverty and class division. Family life is difficult. Relationships break down but true friendships prevail. It's very well portrayed and the characters are believable. I was engrossed and touched by this storyline and would recommend to other readers.

I received a complimentary eARC and the views expressed are my personal opinion.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars was a delicious gem of a book worth reading. It's a tricky book to categorize as it is part mystery, part travelog, part historical drama with the slightest pinch of romantic flirtation thrown in for good measure. It scores highly on these fronts and much more.

This novel follows the adventures of Anna Treadway as she searches for the missing American stage actress, Iolanthe Green, in 1960s London. Why would Anna undertake this search? Because she knows Iolanthe well enough to know something is wrong, as she works as Iolanthe's dresser for the west end play, Field of Stars. Anna's bright, perky attitude carries her a long way in this charming story. She encounters all sorts of people from many walks of life and endures numerous icy winter nights as she and Aloysius, a wise Jamaican account she meets along the way, quest to find Iolanthe.

I cannot simply say this is a delightful adventure, as that doesn't speak to the warmth and general kindness that pervades this book. There is a strong moral and ethical river running through this yarn. It talks to prejudice and misunderstanding others based solely on the colour of their skin. It contains a generosity of spirit that is refreshing to the soul. The rich writing, strength of character development and careful plot reveals make this a story that is both enjoyable and enriching too.

Well the blurb gives a pretty good summation of the basic plot of the book, so without giving too much away, I don't really intend too elaborate too much on that. On the surface the book is a mystery concerning itself with where (and increasing who) is Iolanthe Green? When the police operation appears scaled down (following a diversionary incident concerning a beaten male prostitute and a Junior Minister), her dresser Anna is determined to find her. Her search brings Anna into contact with a darker, seedier side of life that is a far cry away from the prevailing images of Carnaby Street and Swinging London. It also brings to the fore another, and more pertinent aspect of the book, which is a look at the immigrant experience and what it's like to be on the outside or live on the fringes. It was definitely a world where the discriminatory signs of ‘No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish’ would have flourished.

Given that a couple of our central characters are Irish (Detective Barnaby (Brennan) Hayes) and black (the gentle Aloysius) it's a warning that this is not going to be an easy ride. The world we find ourselves in, is one of both implicit and shockingly explicit institutional racism and sexism. When Detective Hayes has to change his name from Brennan to Barnaby and lose his accent in an attempt to 'fit in' there is no hope for the other more obvious migrants.

Anna Treadway is a bit of a mystery herself, and as the book unfolds, we gradually learn a little more, but as with many of the characters in the book, essentially she goes though life, trying not to stand out, playing her part to merge into the crowd and fit in. She lives in the flat above a Turkish cafe in Neal Street, a flat she shares with a dancer in a revue bar in Soho. The cafe managed by Ottmar, was also the cafe she waitressed in when she first arrived in London.

Of the characters we meet in this book it is the incomers I often found more sympathetic and likeable, especially Ottmar, and Aloysius the gentle, kindly and somewhat naive Jamaican accountant who works for several of the black club owners in Soho. Ottmar and his family represent the family that on the surface probably feel as though they have been accepted/integrated, until of course something goes wrong. When their daughter is falsely arrested, they are dismissed, not believed and clearly treated as second class citizens. This may be a surprise to them, as the decent, honest and upright people they are, but Samira, the daughter is all too well aware that as a first generation immigrant she falls between the cracks. She doesn't fit in at school, she isn't English, and she doesn't fit in at home, she doesn't want to be Turkish.

Aloysius, is a complete sweetheart, which makes the abuse and brutality he receives even more upsetting to witness. He had come to England to live his dream, believing all he had heard about the Motherland. His dream of living in a house with roses around the door and being accepted as an equal, has been well and truly trampled on by the time he meets Anna. Despite this he remains a decent, gentle man, who still perceives the good in people. Thankfully, he has the good fortune to have a landlady that sees beyond his colour and accepts him for the man he is and mothers him accordingly.

So back to Iolanthe, as Anna's search continues (with the help of Aloysius and Detective Hayes) we learn that she too has her secrets and just like the others needs to adapt to be accepted. As to what those secrets are and whether she is found, I'll leave you to discover for yourself. This was by turns an interesting but uncomfortable read, but no doubt a realistic portrayal of the milieu that Anna found herself in. It was a glimpse into a slice of London life that was no doubt replicated in other cities throughout the country. It was a glimpse into a darker side of our social history that thankfully in many legal aspects we've forward from - but sadly in others sometimes I'm not so sure.

Not my usual sort of book. It is a well-written social commentary on 60s London with the hint of a mystery. Having lived in the South East from the late 60s to the mid 70s and worked in London in the early 70s, I was aware of the undercurrents and attitudes which prevailed then so the realities came as no surprise to me. Perhaps a younger reader will find this eye-opening. Every character has a back story which is gradually unfolded. I was disappointed and confused at the end as there didn't seem to be a real conclusion - perhaps this is deliberate and an opening for a sequel with the same characters.

I have reviewed this book on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/book-review-miranda-emmerson-miss-treadway-and-the-field-of-stars-amreading/

Anna is a funny character. She is very strong minded and I got the feeling quite naive but there are parts where I doubted that again. It would be easy to get annoyed with her. Her positive the whole world should be a good place attitude but there are enough other things happening to take attention away from it. I enjoyed Aloysius a lot too. I would have liked to know more about his thoughts on the whole thing. The parts of the story from his point of view were very entertaining. Brennan, the cop involved with the case, is a bit of a sad character. I am not so sure what to make of him. I kept feeling sorry and that is not really helping.
The plot is thin and not very mystery like. There are a lot of other interesting subjects like corruption, discrimination, the free choice for woman for abortion and so. It made me wonder if the mystery was written around it to get attention to that subjects. This made it impossible to puzzle along. As said it was interesting to read at points but it failed to really pull me in. The jumping between character and in time did not help the speed of the book either.

A great insight into the socio-economic surroundings in London during the 1960’s period. Police brutally and bullying against the ethnic minority depicted succinctly. Anna, a theatre dresser for actress Lolanthe in a theatre group is fighting against time to find Lolanthe, who is suspected missing for 48 hours. Will any harm come to her? Will she find her before anything untowarding happens to her? As the search continues, we see Anna uncovering past secrets of the missing lady and crossing paths with various characters during her sleuthing escapade. Is romance blooming in the horizon for Anna too?
A pleasurable read with a hint of romance and mystery.

Once again a big thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read a beautiful, well written and constructed book that I would probably not other wised noticed. It has a strange beginning that will later make sense .It’s set in November 1965 in a sleazy rather than swinging London. It takes the reader into the reality of those days. As one who was then at college, I remember this time clearly and felt that this novel could well have actually been written at this time. It captures the feel, the mood perfectly. It was very real for me.

Anna Treadway is a dresser, a rather well educated one it turns out, at one of the big theatres in the heart of London. She is currently working with Iolanthe Green, an American actress with an aura of mystery, who just disappears. It’s headline news nationally for a few days then other events over take it. Anna vows to find her. She meets a Jamaican accountant called Aloysius who ends up helping her. There is a police detective sergeant, Barnaby Hayes who does his best to follow her trail, but has his own problems and is working in an age before digital communication. Anna also shares a room over a Turkish Cypriot café, the owner of which and his family also become involved. This is a story of the underside of the glamorous London depicted in the 60s. Nobody is who they seem and everybody seems to be trying to find their real persona.

There is so much to think about in this tale. A book club could have great fun discussing it. I’m so glad that I read it and would love to have given it four and a half stars. Probably not five if only because of the strange ending that had me searching back through the book to check what it was referring to. But I shall certainly be looking for Miranda Emmerson’s next book.

Anna Treadway is an independent young woman working as a dresser in London's Theatreland, her charge is ageing starlet Iolanthe Green. When Lanny goes missing Anna is determined to find her and her search leads her into the louche underworld of sixties society. Also searching for Lanny is Detective Barnaby Hayes, an Irishman with a rocky marriage and suffering prejudice at work. When they team up with Jamaican accountant Aloysius the search reveals racism, worry and a secret around an unwanted pregnancy.

This is a very interesting book in that it wears it's 'big' themes very lightly, burying them deep in an entertaining tale. Whilst ostensively a detective story, there isn't really a crime and this is more a story about society and its prejudices. Barnaby has changed his name because he is too Irish, Anna's father was interred during the war as an enemy alien and Aloysius is black, Lanny has a secret about her ancestry as well. It is set in the 1960s but there aren't that many cultural references however abortion is still illegal and Anna and Lanny have both got pregnant out of wedlock so that is explored. The actual narrative is not too challenging and bounces along quite pleasantly but the underlying themes of the book resonate and that makes it both clever and something more thought-provoking.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for an honest review.
I really enjoyed this book which is set in the 1950's/60's. It is set in the heart of London's theatre land.
Racial tensions are still running high and a lot of blatant racism seeps through the story.
An American actress goes missing and we meet the characters involved with the search, their history and the their secrets.
Is Yolanda Green and Iolanda Green the same person?
I would love to read a follow up as I found some characters/storylines needed completing.

The first thing to say about this book is that it has a very misleading title. Miss T and the F of S sounds like one of those novels. You know, the ones with titles like that. And then the description of the plot makes it sound as though it will be a crime novel – but it isn’t that either. To be perfectly honest, it seems like an act of complete madness on the part of writer/publisher to give it this so very twee title. But that’s their business.

The book is set in 1965 in London.

The actress, Iolanthe Green, goes missing soon after the conversation above. Her dresser, Anna, decides that the police aren’t doing enough about it, and sets off on her own investigation. She meets a young black man, Aloysius, and gets involved with the Cypriot family who live downstairs from her. She also has several encounters with the policeman investigating the case, Barnaby Hayes. The reader is given the thoughts and backstories of her entourage, and also of Barnaby’s wife Orla. I found this to be a problem: too much information, too many characters, too many unfinished stories. And I found the policeman particularly unlikeable, and rather dim.

The thing is, I really wanted to like the book: I had high hopes, and the first third was good – intriguing and nicely put together, and Emmerson is a very good writer. But then it started going wrong: it didn’t hold my interest, and I was restless with all the details and stories leading to nothing.

The 1960s research felt very carefully inserted (and occasionally wrong – you didn’t cross the road with a green man in 1965, and the Beatles song hadn’t been released) but not real enough.

This is the policeman talking:
‘The thing about truth, Miss Treadway, is that it’s not always the friend of narrative. My job is to figure out your friend, Miss Green, and to construct a likely narrative that will help us to determine if she left of her own free will or was taken. And there are two ways I can go about this. I can invent plausible narratives and try and hold them up against the fact until I find one that fits. Or I can listen to all the facts – with no particular narrative in mind – and then assemble the known knowns in such a way that they reveal the basic truth of the matter.’
Now, this is nicely written and has a certain rhythm and conviction about it (there’s quite a lot more of this speech). But - nobody talked like that in the 1960s, certainly not an Irish policeman in Soho, because the word (or concept of) ‘narrative’ simply was not used like that. It is also not remotely in line with the way Hayes talks in the rest of the book, nor with the plot of the book, nor with what actually happens in the investigation, nor with the outcomes.

I think Emmerson needs a really good editor. The ending of this book is abrupt and annoying, and is ‘about’ two different characters who have been absent from 99.9% of the action. I am guessing this means there is going to be a series, or at least a sequel. Maybe they will be better.

And I should say – many early reviewers absolutely loved this book, and I can understand that others would not at all share my impatience with it.

By picking London 1965 for the setting of Miss Treadway and The Field of Stars Miranda Emmerson has picked the perfect setting for her first novel. When you look at everything happening in the world at that time, both in the current affairs of the time and the aftermath of WW2 it was probably one of the points of British 20th Century history that was pivotal in making us the society we are today. We were becoming more and more multi cultural, women were testing their independence and we were losing our innocence with areas such as Soho becoming prevalent and the horror of the Moors Murders. So this is the setting for Miss Treadways adventures. She's seemingly a naive young woman working as dresser for American actress Iolanthe Green while she stars in The Field of Stars on the London stage. Then one night Iolanthe says she is going back to her hotel but vanishes without a trace. The press soon lose interest and the police only put one fairly inexperienced sergeant on the investigation. But Anna needs to know if Iolanthe is safe so begins to investigate herself. Soon she is learning about a London she didn't know existed and discovering much about herself.

For the first 20 or so pages of this book I must admit this didn't grab me at all. It struck me as one of those books so enamoured with its own cleverness it forgets it's meant to be telling a story and entertaining it's reader. But then suddenly it hits its groove and I found myself reading a great story. It's thought provoking and enjoyable in a sort of quietly sedate way. Anna is a character you can root for - she wants to be a modern woman but isn't quite there yet, but at the same time she's far more enlightened than many of her contemporaries. Don't read this book expecting a rip roaring thriller or overly clever mystery, read it for its loving portrait of the 1960's, without any rose tinted glasses, read it for great characterisations and a well thought out plot. This deserves a place on any TBR pile.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.