Lead Review (Becoming Meg)
- Book: Becoming Meg
- Location: The North East (England)
- Author: Jane Stephenson
After the death of her parents, the author – together with her siblings – amassed all kinds of family heirlooms, records and photos from the family home. Once she felt ready to embark on sifting through the history, she went on to collate her findings in the form of a book. “Becoming Meg” is her family’s story of life in the North East England, focussing on Pretoria House, New York (Tyne and Wear), and on the individuals who lived in it and in the wider community. Meg is the author’s mother.
She has researched both time and place and has crafted a narrative, real and imagined, gleaned from the mementoes she discovered in her parents’ house. It is a story of community and memories, a history of life in the North East, forged into a very nice collection, which will prove to be a great book to pass onto future generations within the family. Photos are also included – maybe a description of what/who is depicted would be an added bonus.
The author opens with the story of her grandparents, Baden and Molly, who ran a butcher’s shop. Meg arrives into the family, after her brother and sister, and she affectionately comes to be known as Babsie. Details of the children’s early childhood are shared as they go to school and move into their teen years. WW2 takes its toll on the area, but the carefree days of childhood are still possible. Milestones are marked and Meg’s twenty-first birthday celebrations see the start of her relationship with Bill, whom she goes on to marry.
Clearly the book has been created from a place of love for people who are no longer in this world. It might be helpful for the author to re-engage the services of the proof-reader because there are a lot of missing apostrophes and commas, which can make the flow of the text feel quite stilted. The formatting at times also needs addressing.
The book cover is a sketch created by Meg and therefore feels like a very personal presentation. If the book is destined to be a more commercial venture, more, that is, than a compilation of family memories, then a stronger, more eye-catching cover would definitely be worth considering.
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