Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Bad Blood

By Lorna Sage

This is a compelling book. From the beginning we are involved with the startling life being lived in a rural Welsh vicarage and in particular that of Sage's vicar grandfather from whom she inherits her love and skill for language. The portrait of her childhood self as a needy ,often miserable misfit and later as a clever wayward teenager is unsparing in its honesty and makes one think about the unconscious gloss memory can apply to our young selves. In addition the faithfully rendered portrait of immediate post war attitudes and way of life is evocative and difficult for the generation now to comprehend except as social history 8/10

I enjoyed the journey through life of a young female at a time when little was expected of them other than to get married and produce children. I feel the author was ahead of her time and had the determination to achieve her goal despite all the odds 5/10

I did not find this an easy read but I plodded on in the hope it would get better but it never did. It is a sad story but a realistic one. I found the writing odd and the grammar difficult in many places which was surprising. The last chapters were perhaps the best but all too brief. I think the bad blood shows her discontentedness and her frustration with her way of life living ,as she did with her grandpa and grandma who quarrelled incessantly. I never got really interested and was glad when I had finished it. I give her credit for her creation but I'm not inspired.