After half a century confined in a psychiatric hospital, Matty has moved to a care home on the Cumbrian coast. Next year, she’ll be a hundred, and she intends to celebrate in style. Yet, before she can make the arrangements, her ‘maid’ goes missing.

Irene, a care assistant, aims to surprise Matty with a birthday visit from the child she gave up for adoption as a young woman. But, when lockdown shuts the care-home doors, all plans are put on hold.

But Matty won’t be beaten. At least not until the Black Lives Matter protests burst her bubble and buried secrets come to light.

Will she survive to a hundred? Will she see her ‘maid’ again? Will she meet her long-lost child? Rooted in injustice, balanced with humour, this is a bittersweet story of reckoning with hidden histories in cloistered times.

Lyrics for the Loved Ones is the stand-alone sequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home.

My Review

I am still reeling from the sheer brilliance of this book. I have previously read Matilda Windsor is Coming Home, which I thoroughly enjoyed (though parts were difficult for me to read – you can see my review for the reasons) and Stolen Summers, but Lyrics for the Loved Ones is in a league of its own.

I confess it did take me a while to work out who was who and the relationships between eg Gloria, Tim and Brendan, Wesley and Oh My Darling (Clementine), Denise aka Mrs Jefferson and Goodnight Irene and Scarlett, who Matty calls Bluebell etc. Then there are the Loved Ones ie the rezzies (residents), their rellies (relatives) and all the other names for the various characters. I loved the names. I tried to work out the connections with Matilda Windsor, but could only remember Irene and her relationship with Matty’s brother Henry.

Approaching her hundredth birthday, Matty’s celebration is put in jeopardy with the arrival of Covid. The nursing home in Cumbria is in lockdown, along with the rest of the country, the Loved Ones mostly confined to their rooms. No visitors allowed, insufficient PPE, hospitals and the NHS overwhelmed, we were told to stay home and only go outside to exercise for a maximum of one hour a day. And self-isolate if elderly or clinically vulnerable. I shudder to think about it.

Down in Bristol, Tim and Brendan are about to get married. But Tim’s mum Gloria doesn’t know about Tim’s illness, while she keeps secrets from him. How does this connect with Matty 300 miles away? I was quite a way into the book before this began to make sense. Then suddenly it all became clear.

At times very emotional, at others filled with warmth and humour, it’s so beautifully written, it’s stunning. It will stay with me for a long time and is one of my favourite books of the year so far.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.

Anne writes about the darkness that haunts her and is wary of artificial light. She makes stuff up to tell the truth about adversity, creating characters to care about and stories to make you think. She explores identity, mental health and social justice with compassion, humour and hope.

An award-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.

Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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