Val looked around. The baby appeared to be all on its own. There was no sign of a mother. No sign of anyone.

Val didn’t think about it. She didn’t even break her stride. She kicked the brake off the pram and pushed it as if she did it every day.

#BecomingLizTaylor @elizabeth_delo @AllenAndUnwin #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Val, a widow living in Weston-super-Mare, spends lonely evenings dressing up as the movie star Elizabeth Taylor. It seems to be a way of coping with the loss and sadness she has experienced in her life. One day, when Val sees a pram left unattended on the seafront, on a whim she kicks off the brake and walks away with it…

Set in the present and the 1970s, Becoming Liz Taylor is a vivid and touching depiction of love, loss and bereavement – thought-provoking, moving fiction for fans of Rachel Joyce, Emma Healey and Ruth Hogan.

My Review

This would be a great bookclub read because the main discussion is – do we feel sorry for Val? In order to ‘root’ for her (as someone put it in a review) we have to assume that her overwhelming grief following her loss, led her to completely lose sight of reality and what she has done.

I had three issues with this. Firstly, why it took her almost 50 years to completely lose it, secondly, she made an assumption that she was ‘rescuing’ a neglected baby from a teenage mother who wanted someone to take it, and finally, I felt desperately sorry for her son Rafe. He never recovered from the feeling of being second best, being told he was a difficult child, and from the embarrassment of his mother’s obsession with dressing up like Elizabeth Taylor – fur coat, drawn on eyebrows, beauty spot, the lot.

I’ve often wondered whether Madeleine McCann’s siblings have ever been able to have a normal life, or whether their parents have been so wrapped up in grief that they couldn’t love the other two. And then there was my own mother, who lost my sister at 17 months to tubercular meningitis before I was born. There were no photos of myself or my brother when we were babies or toddlers. And yes, she would often talk about how perfect my sister was (compared to me I guess). But I did understand, really I did, and while she always had delusions of grandeur, she never went out dressed as a film star, or stole a baby.

Because that is what Val has done. Taken a baby from under the big wheel at Weston-Super-Mare’s seafront and walked off with it. I say ‘it’ because she doesn’t discover whether it’s a boy or a girl for ages. She doesn’t look back to hear the hysterical mother screaming, she just keeps on walking. Then she goes home, gets her car, straps the baby’s carrycot into the front seat and starts driving.

It was heartbreaking to witness her total disintegration, but also to read about poor Rafe, whose sad lifestyle after his relationship has broken down is like witnessing a car crash. He hasn’t seen his mother in decades. Can they ever be reunited? I hoped for that more than anything else.

But back to whether we have sympathy for Val. The jury is still out, but ultimately, this shows what a well-written and emotional book this is, otherwise it wouldn’t have raised all these questions.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Elizabeth Delo trained as a teacher and has worked in schools in London, Birmingham, Paris and Somerset. After writing fiction in her spare time for many years, Elizabeth took a break from teaching to do a master’s degree in creative writing at Bath Spa University, graduating with Distinction. She runs creative writing classes and has worked as a freelance editor. She lives in Somerset with her husband and has three children.