Shire Hell - Books (Rachel Johnson, Paperback)

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Customer Reviews of Shire Hell

M. Huerta

14th November 2008

A tribute to a biblical institution
Both Notting Hell and Shire Hell are nothing but tributes to the "Family" a sacred institution, by judging the emphasis the author gives it, I wonder if Ms. Johnson tales have been sponsored by the Vatican, if not, she should send a copy because I predict a Xmas hit in the Vatican library, she might eventually be canonized by the Pope. No joke.
How on earth can a youngish woman like the author have such an unsophisticated third world mentality that life is all about having children and a husband, topped up with a few adornments like a low profile career, a few friends to compete with and a couple of lovers to stray with, not to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh outside the "institution" but to re-reassure themselves that the husband and the "institution" are the Way.
Vicious "Family" propaganda with some funny twists in Notting Hell and far too many soporific chapters in the sequel including a yet more tiresome happy ending.

Jessie
England
9th November 2008

Sheer hell
Some people obviously like this book, and that's great, but I can't see why. It's little more than a string of designer label name-checks and two-dimensional posh characters who I couldn't care about or be interested in. It's really not for me.

Mr. C. G. Leggatt

4th October 2008

Not so impressed
The Sloane Ranger died a death of many blows - sadly - including self-inflicted wounds from the family black sheep: "Hooray Henry." What a pity, therefore, that Rachel Johnson here brings "Hooray Henry/Henrietta" back to life (if with brains) in her cast of amoral, smug, super self-confident, brittle, insincere characters who are all strangers to true self-doubt (or any degree of niceness, despite the old solipsistic boo-hoo in the larder). Anything and everything louche - especially adultery - is of little import to them.

Furthermore, SHIRE HELL is peppered with construction faults that would surely have had the manuscript, if penned by an unknown name, consigned from Slush Pile to WPB faster than one can say: "Mayor of London/newspaper columnist." Is it not an absolute rule that all characters in commercial fiction must be cast with an individual voice? Here, Mimi and Rose are almost interchangeable. Equally, are not false scents only allowable if, ultimately, they have a contribution to make to the overall intrigue or forward movement of the plot? So why did the author note Jesse Marlon's preference for sex by the back door, rather than the front? What did that achieve or lead to? And the departure of the Au Pair to be replaced by an Australian hunk (sketched nigh invisibly)? What insight did that offer? Oh! thinking of insights - what was the relevance to the plot of the Hedge Fund Manager deciding to train in Psychotherapy? Was he anticipating the Credit Crunch, perhaps? Yes/No? Whatever; it came to naught.

Still, the seemingly endless references to Boden and Cath Kidson must have made their marketing people purr with pleasure. Not me.

Ralph Blumenau
London United Kingdom
11th September 2008

Plus ça change ...
Mimi and Ralph Fleming have sold their house in Notting Hill and moved to Honeyborne in West Dorset. The population of that village is made up of a few people - gentry and lesser folk - who have lived there for ages and of a number of wealthy newcomers. The latter in particular bring with them all the competitive attempts at one-upmanship that characterized them in Town; and Mimi, ever fashion-conscious, now has to learn what is fashionable in the countryside. There is a lot about horses and horsy women, and a nice extended set-piece description of a country house shooting party.

Rachel Johnson ploughs much the same furrow as she did in her previous novel, Notting Hell. If you were amused by the recounting of what is chic in Notting Hill, you will be amused by this novel also; but if, like me, you wearied a little of this relentlessly sustained theme by the time you came to the end of the former book (see my review), your heart may sink a little at more of the same here. In Notting Hell there were some hilarious situations which made me laugh; but in this book, though it has some intricate plotting, the comedy of manners is not matched - at least in my opinion - by comic situations. It seemed to me that the author was for long stretches somewhat on autopilot. As in the last book, we have alternating female narratives: one by Mimi and the other by Rose, the only companionable friend and confidant Mimi has been able to make in Honeyborne. The situations are similar also: in Notting Hell a wealthy American outraged the other residents of the garden square by erecting an intrusive `garage'; in Shire Hell a (somewhat) impoverished local landowner plans to erect a huge wind-turbine on a beautiful hill-top, for which he will collect a handsome sum from an electricity company. There are the same erotically-described infidelities, though in the countryside this is apparently so natural that it is not a subject for gossip and side-taking as it was in Notting Hill, and husbands have to put up with it because, apparently, divorce puts you out of the loop in the countryside. Clare, whose narrative had alternated with Mimi's in Notting Hell, makes her appearance and towards the end fruitfully ties the two books together. Just how fruitfully emerges at the very end; but, in between, Rachel Johnson inserts a sensational revelation which, contrary to the notion that in a village community everyone knows what everyone else has been up without that being a subject of gossip, does create a buzz.

Mimi is involved in one heart-felt situation, and in the end I did rather like her.

Lady V
London
22nd July 2008

Maybe I missed something...
I'd never read any of Rachel's books, but fancied something easy to read that would conjure up lovely countryside images - the concept of a blanket and cup of cocoa in a book. I don't know if I missed something, but I really didn't get that from this book. I found it confusing to switch between Mimi and Rose from chapter to chapter, I honestly didn't see much of a story emerging.....it was a teensy bit dull really!