The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price by Wendy Jones
The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price, Purveyor of Superior Funerals is Wendy Jones‘ first outing into fiction.
Jones was the first person to complete the MA in Life Writing at the University of East Anglia and now teaches writing at Goldsmiths.
She’s also the biographer of Grayson Perry, making this fictional début surprisingly sweet, a beautifully recounted tale of love and lost innocence.
Don’t be mislead by the title – this isn’t a ghostly thriller or a zombie versus vampire fest, with a funeral director as the hero.
Set in the sleepy quiet of a small, coastal Welsh village after the First World War, it is a sweet and highly readable tale of love and miscommunication.
Although the funeral director, Wilfred, is the silent and steady hero. The story begins with childlike Wilfred enjoying the prettiness of the village doctor’s daughter Grace at a picnic.
On an impulse he proposes, but soon realises he doesn’t love or want to marry poor Grace. This one moment of spontaneity sets off a whole chain of events and the story rolls itself out with plenty of misplaced love, unspoken words, un covered secrets and tangled lies.
The young and naïve characters at the start of the book are by the end of the novel transformed into adults, braver, wiser and ready to face a bigger and wider world.
With straightforward but atmospheric prose, Jones shows how easy it is to get trapped in a life you didn’t choose but how, inevitably, love conquers all.
In the darkening days of winter this book filled my head with sunshine. The characters seem simple, but their dilemmas are those we all face, making it very easy to empathise with them.
The high points of the action are written with drama that makes you hold your breath with anticipation and keep turning the pages. If you’re the kind of person who likes a great well-told story with a happy ending, then this is the perfect read for you.
It has romance, but isn’t schmaltzy, and has tragedy without being too dark. A tale of lost innocence that doesn’t moralise and which leaves you feeling filled with brightness and optimism.
Published by Corsair next month, you can pre-order it in hardback for £7.29, or pre-order the Kindle edition for £6.39.
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended for: Suckers for nostalgia and a decent romance, people fond of Welsh villages and anyone who is intrigued to read a book about a funeral parlour that doesn’t involve zombies or vampires.
Other recommended reading: I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson, another love story set in South Wales, but a little nearer our times. Or if you really want spooky weirdness with your romance, try Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.
Johanna Derry
I’ve just finished reading and reviewing this, and completely agree with your sentiments. It’s not too stark, or too romantic; it sits nicely in the middle ground and, in so doing, becomes a thoroughly enjoyable read.
My review: The Thoughts and Happenings of Wilfred Price by Wendy Jones