Tumbledown Manor

It’s a popular theme in modern women’s fiction:- the burned-out professional seeking a fresh start in life in some out of the way place no rational person should ever consider. Such plots usually feature an escape to Bali, Corfu or Tuscany, perhaps due to a relationship breakdown or life-changing illness, and often involves the renovation of a ramshackle - but always utterly charming - building. In the process there is bound to be a lot of raising the hackles of irascible locals, negotiating the scorn of dismissive family members and falling for a  younger bloke whose stubble is more indicative of his laid back unreliability than his keeping up with designer facial hair trends. A mystery or family secret completes the trifecta of course.

​This novel is packed with most of these ingredients so if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll love it. 

Lisa Trumperton, an author who had made her name with racy novels about the Bronte Sisters, leaves her unfaithful husband and self-obsessed daughter in the USA and returns to be closer to her son in Australia - and more specifically the Goldfields area near Castlemaine - where she discovers the ancestral pile (of junk) is for sale. She can just about afford to buy it, but needs another bestseller to bring up to a liveable standard and to secure her future. Naturally, she suffers writerly block as she juggles sisterly scorn and her son’s revelations about his personal life, plus the challenges of the grumpy aged workmen of the Grey Army, a wounded cockatoo, a one-eyed feral cat and attraction to the hunky Scott.

In places, you’ll laugh out loud and even if you start to forget the plot by the time you reach the last page, it is just the sort of book to read when you are not in the mood for serious.


3.5 stars.


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