A Terrible Kindness: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick

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A Terrible Kindness: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick

A Terrible Kindness: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick

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And this article by the author some six years ago gives an excellent introduction to the author’s research and her views that the embalmers were unsung heroes of the aftermath

The restorative power of music is most clearly shown however when William revisits Cambridge to discover his friend is the organiser of a choir formed from the city’s homeless population. William challenges the idea of men who have nothing being asked to sing about love and loss but his friend’s belief is that these are exactly the sentiments the men should be able to voice: Her book is steeped in a historical event: in the mid-60s, the Welsh Village of Aberfan suffered a landslide at a coal mine, killing 116 children and 28 adults. The village needed embalmers and William, with his newly minted embalmers designation, answers the call. What he witnesses there is so horrendous that he resolves never to have children of his own. It almost, but not quite, causes him to leave the love of his life, Gloria as well. It will be William’s first job as an embalmer and what he experiences over the next few nights in the makeshift mortuary in Aberfan, re-awakens memories of his own childhood trauma. As he tends gently to the bodies of small children dug out from the slurry and witnesses their parent’s grief, “the flotsam and jetsam of his own life is washed up by the tidal wave of Aberfan’s grief.” There are so many ways in which this could have gone wrong, but Jo Browning Wroe gets it pitch-perfect, I think, never once straying into mawkishness, sentimentality, exploitation, facile psychologising or any other of the traps looming around such a story. The opening section at Aberfan brought me to tears more than once with its delicate humanity and compassion, and I was close to tears at other times in the book, too. Wroe’s depiction of William is quite brilliant and utterly believable, and her evocation of his work as an embalmer is engrossing, moving – and fascinating, too. She is also really good at writing about music; the Welsh song Myfanwy and Allegri’s setting of the Miserere both have a very powerful part to play here and she conveys their power as well as any writing about music I have ever read, as well as the joy and transcendence which can come with performing.In 1966, a colliery spoil tip above the Welsh village of Aberfan collapsed; 116 children and 28 adults were killed when the village was buried under a wave of slurry. Jo Browning Wroe’s debut novel, A Terrible Kindness, purports to be the story of a young embalmer who attends the disaster. The first thing to say is that it resolutely isn’t: it is, in fact, the kind of novel I used to enjoy reading off my grandparents’ shelves, a domestic saga about a young man struggling to overcome his childhood while joining the family business. In the opening chapters of A Terrible Kindness, they dutifully arrive with embalming fluid, technical paraphernalia, and tiny coffins, travelling through the night from all over the UK to ‘take care of the dead’ with the sombre focus of their profession. I think anyone above a certain ages in the UK will be familiar with Aberfan, as it was a disaster that was and still remains seared on the national conscience due to both the huge loss of life – including 116 young children and 28 adults – and the aftermath – in particular the refusal of the National Coal Board to accept their clear corporate culpability. freshly graduated … with top marks for every piece of practical and written work, William looks at what’s left of the little girl who he’s just found out is called Valerie, and realises none of it counts for anything, not a thing, unless here and now he can do his job and prepare this child’s broken body for her parents, who are right now standing on the wet pavement behind.

To William, the intricacies of embalming are logical and calm and provide both an escape from and a framework for the more unpredictable elements of his life – his love for the beautiful and patient Gloria, and his dear and mischievous friend Martin.What was it about William and his experiences that made him such a good embalmer, and why was the activity so good for him? It’s utterly magnificent and had to pull car over twice to cry. Intricate cobweb of love, family and friendship, so delicately wrought. Beautiful. A masterclass in character.’ VERONICA HENRY His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget. But compassion can have surprising consequences, because – as William discovers – giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves. What was it about the make-up and purpose of the Midnight Choir in Cambridge that made it so central to William’s rehabilitation?

William is a complicated character whose life has been shaped by some difficult events, despite this, I found it hard to like William's character though. I did understand what he had been through and loved his kindness at the beginning and I totally understood how the events affected him, however, his behaviour at other stages in his life did frustrate me. My favourite character was Martin, I loved his resilience and joy of life, his understanding and forgiveness; he was lovely.

Mark then turned his attention to Jo’s upbringing. ‘You were brought up surrounded by the business of death, bereavement and funerals. You were brought up in a crematorium. What was that like?’ What we discover is a tale of a childhood blighted by the death of his father when he was eight years old. William’s mother is determined that her son will not get caught up in the family’s undertaking business but instead will pursue a career in music. But her plans are thrown into chaos and the relationship with Williams is destroyed because she cannot overcome her jealousy over the boy’s relationship with two other people, her dead husband’s twin brother Robert and Robert’s partner Howard. Martin Bond The author, Jo Browning Wroe. Her novel was inspired by her experiences growing up in a crematorium



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