All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

George McGlory – recent widower, part-time librarian, pub quiz enthusiast and lover of loud shirts – witnesses a public health funeral and is deeply moved by the sight of the lonely coffin with no flowers and no mourners in attendance.

He joins forces with Elena, a florist, Edwin, an undertaker, Sid, the owner of a bric-a-brac and second-hand furniture emporium, and Roxy his library colleague to form The Light a Candle Society and banish lonely funerals for good.

As they honour the dead together, George reflects on his own life and the rifts within his family. Can he find the courage and humility to face the demons of his past and repair his broken relationships before it’s too late?

My Review

As I have said before, I’ve read all of Ruth’s novels, my favourites being The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes and The Keeper of Lost Things (in that order or maybe joint first). But nothing could have prepared me for The Light A Candle Society and the emotion it stirred up in me. I listened to it on Audible and at first I wasn’t sure about the male narrator, but I grew to love him with his great voices and impressions.

Having had a busy Christmas Eve and a quick drink in the pub on Christmas Day morning, I had the rest of the day free – dinner notwithstanding. Not particularly interested in the repeats on TV, I listened to the last two hours of the book and spent most of it in tears. It’s not because of the funerals themselves – the Light A Candle Society is a beautiful idea – but because we learn so much about the people who supposedly die without freinds and relatives, and the interesting lives they had before they found themselves alone. There but for the grace of God etc…. Arthur and Captain in particular stole my heart along with crisp-eating Sailor the dog (all my dogs have loved eating crisps in the pub so I can identify).

So how did the Light A Candle Society come to exist? Librarian George McGlory is a widower who visits his late wife Audrey at the cemetery once a week. He always takes flowers from Elena’s flower shop. It is at the cemetery that he meets undertaker Edwin and learns about public health funerals. It’s when people with no relatives or friends are given a funeral with only a member of the council present. George finds this very sad. So he decides one day to ‘gatecrash’ a funeral and even starts singing The Lord is My Shepherd. This attracts the attention of newly appointed council employee Niall, who reprimands George for ‘interfering’ as he didn’t know whether Derek, the deceased, was even a Christian.

George works part time at the Library with Roxy who is almost forty and still unmarried or in a relationship – her mother is in a care home. Together with journalist Briony, the small group start to attend all the public health funerals, trying to find missing friends and relatives of the deceased and even having a wake at the Dog and Donkey pub where they are also a regular quiz team.

As anyone familiar with Ruth’s books will know, there is always a cast of slightly eccentric, colourful characters in addition to our main protagonists. I just adored this book and I shall miss them all.

About the Author

From Ruth herself: ‘I was born in the house where my parents still live in Bedford: my sister was so pleased to have a sibling that she threw a thrupenny bit at me. As a child I read everything I could lay my hands on: The Moomintrolls, A Hundred Million Francs, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the back of cereal packets and gravestones. I was mad about dogs and horses, but didn’t like daddy-long-legs or sugar in my tea.

‘I studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths College which was brilliant, but then I came home and got a ‘proper’ job. I worked for ten years in a senior local government position (I was definitely a square peg in a round hole, but it paid the bills and mortgage) before a car accident left me unable to work full-time and convinced me to start writing seriously. It was going well, but then in 2012 I got cancer, which was bloody inconvenient but precipitated an exciting hair journey from bald to a peroxide blonde Annie Lennox crop. When chemo kept me up all night I passed the time writing and the eventual result was The Keeper of Lost Things.

‘I live in a chaotic Victorian house with an assortment of rescue dogs and my long-suffering partner (who has very recently become my husband – so I can’t be that bad!) I am a magpie, always collecting treasures, and a huge John Betjeman fan. My favourite word is ‘antimacassar’ and I still like reading gravestones.’