I am a huge fan of all books by Sophie Kinsella. I have read every one of her books on more than one occasion. I was getting a little tired and impatient of waiting for her to release another book so I decided to visit her website to see if there was any information as to when she is due to release another book and what I found out to my surprise is that she writes under two names Sophie Kinsella and her real name Madeleine Wickham. I have now slowly started making my way through the books by Madeleine Wickham and I loved Sleeping Arrangements and Wedding Girl and have now picked up Swimming Pool Sunday to read. The books written under Madeleine Wickham are a completely different style of book compared to Sophie Kinsella books. I think they feel more mature and more of a believable storyline but they do not hold the humour factor which the books by Sophie Kinsella have. Having said this I still have enjoyed both styles of books. ***PLOT*** Louise and Barnaby Kenmber have recently split up. Their two children Katie and Amelia still live at home with mummy Louise and Barnaby comes to see the girls once a week. When he arrives to take the girls fishing the girls do not want to go as it is the same day that Ursula and Hugh Delaney open up their swimming pool for all of the village to come for the day to raise money for charity. Although Barnaby is not happy about this it is what the girls want to do so they all head off to the Delaney's. As the day begins to draw to an end Barnaby expresses his anger to Louise about not being able to spend enough time with the girls and it is whilst this happens that Katie has an accident and is rushed to hospital in a coma fighting for her life. The new love of Louise's life is Cassian who works as a lawyer and he insists straight away the best thing to do for Katie's sake is to sue the Delaney's for the accident. Trouble is the Delaney's and the Kenmber's are friends and have had enough tragedy in their lives. Will Katie be ok and will the Kenmber's decide to take their friends to court? ** My Opinion** As i mentioned this is a different style of writing compared to Sophie Kinsella books. There is no humour in this book at all. Aside from the plot I mentioned above there was also a side storyline about an older man Alexis who is friends with the Delaneys, who begins to have a relationship with 18 year old Daisy who has just moved to the village. I didn't really feel this fit into the book. I would have much preferred if they took the side storyline back into the relationship with Louise and Barnaby before they split so we could get to know their characters a little more. I don't feel as though we was given enough connection with Louise she came across as quite a cold character so I didn't connect to her and feel the emotion we should feel for this lady who could be losing her daughter. Before the accident the two sisters Katie and Amelia had such a close bond so Katie's accident must have affected Amelia in a big way this was slightly touched upon and I enjoyed this part of the book but I do think this could have been used a little more. This book in my opinion is not a challenging read and the storyline slowly paces along. I do feel that this is a book which will be forgotten about in a few weeks as there was nothing shining about this book. Unfortunately this book is not in the same league as the previous Madeleine Wickham books or Sophie Kinsella books. It will not be a book which I shall read again and also not one which I would recommend in a hurry. Alos on my blog http://reabookreview.blogspot.com/
Madeleine Wickham en Sophie Kinsella, één persoon en toch een heel andere stijl. Als Sophie schrijft ze luchtige, grappige romans en als ze weer in de huid van Madeleine kruipt, dan komen er serieuzere onderwerpen naar boven.Heb ik een voorkeur? Ja, toch wel. Ik kies dan voor Sophie alhoewel ik ze ook niet allemaal even goed vind :)Stel je deze situatie even voor : een zomerse dag, een familie dat hun privé zwembad en tuin openstelt voor hun dorpsgenoten in ruil voor een kleine bijdrage die naar een goed doel gaat en iedereen lijkt ten volle te genieten tot het plots fout gaat. Was het een ongeluk of is er iemand verantwoordelijk voor? En dan gaan de poppen aan het dansen ...De buitenkant eerst even onder de loep nemen. De cover brengt je direct in de zomerse sfeer maar het feit dat de zon ontbreekt in de blauwe hemel en je een wolkje ziet staan, geeft de indruk dat er iets minder leuks te gebeuren staat. De titel spreek voor zich. Het is daar dat het allemaal mee begon.Je beseft dat het een voorval is dat ook jou kan overkomen. Je stelt je in hun plaats en dan denk je : hoe zou ik hier reageren? Logisch dat je doet wat voor jou het beste is, maar is dat achteraf bekeken wel het beste geweest? Laat je je soms niet leiden door anderen omdat je op dat moment, wat heel normaal is, niet helder kan denken?Het verhaal is vlot geschreven, maar de hoofdstukken zijn vrij lang. Ik hou daar niet zo van, maar desondanks blijft er wel vaart in zitten. Een paar typfoutjes heb ik opgemerkt. Verder geen nutteloze herhalingen of omschrijvingen. Wel was ik wat teleurgesteld in het einde. Ik kreeg ergens de indruk dat de auteur zich voorgenomen had een boek van 367 blz te schrijven en die waren nu vol, dus stop ik er maar mee. Jammer, want ik blijf een beetje op mijn honger zitten. Ik ben echt een epiloog mens (bestaat dat? ;) ). Ik heb graag dat elk verhaal dat in een verhaal begonnen is, ook afgewerkt wordt, zelfs als is het maar door een zinnetje toe te voegen. :)ConclusieIk heb het boek met veel plezier gelezen, maar door dat vreemde einde kan ik slechts 3,5 sterren toekennen. Met een epiloog(je) hadden er het 4 geweest. :)
This book is based around a family - the Kempers. The parents Barnaby and Louise have recently seperated and Louise has started seeing another man - a lawyer- Cassian. The Kempers have 2 children Amelia and Katie who live with their mother. On a hot Sunday afternoon, the Delaneys host a pool party for the village to raise money for charity. One of the children are injured in the pool and this starts a long complicated story with the Kempers deciding to sue the Delaneys who are actually thier fri
—Natalee
Madeleine Wickham : Swimming Pool Sunday (AKA Sophie Kinsella)While I enjoyed this book, I felt a little cheated when I found it is a re-issued book. It was not obvious to me, but when I was reading about costs of houses and similar, I was a bit taken aback, then looked closely and find it was published in 1997, then re printed this year.That aside, it was a pleasant book which I did enjoy reading. There were no surprises, as the story was very straight forward; Louise and Barnaby live in a small village, they have 2 daughters, but there are problems in their marriage and they have split. A couple in the village have a swimming pool and every year they open their garden and pool to the village for an entrance fee for charity. This year there is a terrible ‘accident’, and the bulk of the book is how this is dealt with by the parents, the village, the owners of the house with the pool, and the lawyers. It does make you think, and the book is a light read so the dilemma is also fairly lightweight, but it does show up how these situations can affect all parties involved and can create even more distress. It also leaves a nasty taste as it shows the way we are all so ready to sue other people, and how you really need to think hard and investigate your liability if you are going to host any sort of gathering. What happens if there is an ‘accident’. Does your insurance cover it? Pretty frightening to think of how easy this kind of incident can occur.
—Jackie
Cricky, another Wickham! But this is the last of the bunch, for the moment. I think I have read them all now, except for the current one, which is on my reserve list and who knows when I'll get it. Hopefully not for a while. This book was so British, it made me want to scream at some parts how they could and would never happen in the US. Well, it is a British book, so I should shut up now anyway. ANYWAY. A rich (duh) family in town throws a pool party every summer to raise money for a local charity. A family shows up that are going through a divorce. The parents are fighting and not paying attention and their youngest child hits her head on the diving board and has major brain trauma. The new boyfriend of the mother is a lawyer and wants to get ahead at his firm, so insists that the family sue the family with the pool for negligence. It sucks, but I can see the reasoning behind it, just to get money so that the family can pay for the medical bills and all the money that the father lost, not working and having to deal with his child. The families, who were sort of friends, of course are not longer friends anymore. The legal proceedings take a lot out of everyone. The wife of the pool family is such an IDIOT and so British, she makes me want to jump in and just scream at her. She thinks that a nice note, some toys and like a thousand quid can solve anything, but seriously lady, this whole thing just screams guilt. This would never happen in the US. Anyway, the kid gets better and the parents drop the lawsuit, the boyfriend dumps the wife because she can't "help" him anymore and the parents get back together. And in all this there was some side story about a local girl and the lawyer for the pool family getting together, which was like so pointless, except for the fact that the daughter-in-law for the pool family (she was married to one of their sons, but he died) was living with them and she liked the lawyer but he didn't like her, so they just gave him some random to like? It didn't have anything to do with the story at all.Grade: C
—Rebecca
