The Purveyor of Enchantment - Hardcover

Marika Cobbold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754030016 ISBN 13: 9780754030010

Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C, 1997

Synopsis

'A life lived in fear is a life half lived,' Clementine Hope's sister, Ophelia, is fond of quoting to her. Clementine, thirty-something and newly divorced, lives in a small Hampshire town, teaching music and working on a collection of fairy tales left to her by her Great Aunt Elvira. But mostly she worries. She worries about the rising crime rate. She worries about disease and illness, about offending God and, in the rare moments when she is at peace with Him, about upsetting the man in the carpet shop or Mrs Challis who runs the cafe where she meets with her friend Jessica. Clementine enjoys as little of the life around her as any Sleeping Beauty, Just as she thinks she has found love with Nathaniel Scott, the son of her next-door neighbour, her fears cause her to lose him. Then, at a moment of a real crisis, Clementine sees the destructive quality of her life and resolves to change and make amends. To do so she must turn from victim to heroine, slay her personal dragon of fears and phobias, and rescue her own Prince Charming.

About this title

About the Author:

Marika Cobbold was born in Sweden and is the author of seven novels: Guppies for Tea, selected for the WH Smith First Novels Promotion and shortlisted for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award; The Purveyor of Enchantment; A Rival Creation; Frozen Music, Shooting Butterflies, Aphrodite's Workshop for Reluctant Lovers, and Drowning Rose. Marika Cobbold lives in London.

From Kirkus Reviews:

In this light, endearing story of love and modern anxiety, second-novelist Cobbold (Guppies for Tea, 1994) peoples an English village with characters worth getting to know. Inadvertently trapped with Mr. Scott in his attic, Clementine is compelled to explain why she and his son parted company. Starting at the beginning, we learn of 36-year-old Clementine's inheritance of the house next door, once belonging to poor old Aunt Elvira. She moves into the house with her younger sister, Ophelia, and almost immediately proceeds to dither. Clementine is the champion of all worriers, a devoted reader of the newspaper's crime page, the queen of evasive action. Recently divorced from a Swedish painter, she plans on giving piano lessons by day and continuing on with Aunt Elvira's major work, the compilation of fairy tales, by night. Working from her aunt's notes, Clementine intends to polish and publish the fairy tales as a reminder to the hustling modern world of an older, gentler, better way of life. And how fortuitous to have Prince Charming living next door as a role model--namely, Nathaniel Scott, a successful photojournalist, who's temporarily staying with his father to dry out. Clementine falls head over heels, and Nathaniel warmly reciprocates the affection, until Clementine's worry and pessimism spike the growing romance. Heartbroken when sister Ophelia starts courting Nathaniel, Clementine vows to slay her dragons and face the myriad fears that engulf her. She walks around the town after midnight. She works hard to be less fussy. And she begins to speak her mind. Her newborn frankness provides the greatest shock; best friend Jessica and Ophelia can't understand why meek, fretting Clementine can no longer be pushed around. Clementine, an unlikely heroine, undergoes a believable, moving alteration as she acts to shake off the past and pursue the future. Full of fun and wit and keen insight--an ideal fireside read. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0754030016
• ISBN 13: 9780754030010
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304