Customer Reviews

The Silent Tide

I have read and enjoyed all Rachel Hore's previous novels and this one does not disappoint. It is a dual time novel set both in the late 1940s/early 1950s and the present day. Both Emily the present day character and Isabel the 1940/50s character work in publishing. The link between them is Hugh Morton a best selling author of the 1950s. Emily is editing a forthcoming biography of Hugh whilst Isabel edited his first novel and actually became his first wife. However she gets little or no mention in the biography and this surprises Emily. Hugh's widow and second wife Jacqueline is intent on controlling the content of the biography and wants little mention of his first marriage. Then, from an anonymous source, Emily receives a manuscript written by Isabel about her life and this determines her to find out more about Isabel and her role in Hugh's life. That basically is the plot of the book though there are many twists and turns to it. There are number of interesting and well drawn characters in the book and I found the publishing background interesting. It was an engrossing and enjoyable read.

Emily Gordon, editor for a publishing firm in London, is thrilled when she is asked to take lead on a new commision; the book in question a biography of one of England's most beloved novelists, Hugh Morton, though on meeting his widow, Jacqueline, Emily rather fears the woman is quite intent on having the biography just as she wishes it, and hopes she won't exert too great an influence on the author Joel. When Emily then starts to receive secret missives telling the story of Hugh's first wife, Isabel, she quickly finds herself intruiged at this buried story of a woman in the 1950s and her struggle to exert her independance. Isabel's is a sad story; that of a modern woman striving to fight against the norms and expectations of her era, juggling her career aspirations with her personal life, and ultimately slowing sinking under the weight of it all. Emily begins to develop a deep connection to her, determined that her story should be forgotten no more, but that justice should be given to Isabel in Morton's biography; though with Jacqueline and Joel determined to keep Isabel's voice silent, will Emily succeed?

The Silent Tide is another classic Rachel Hore novel; elegantly written in its dual time narrative, with a wonderful recreation of 1940s/50s Britain, a sweeping love story at its heart and slowly emerging secrets. It is a novel that draws you immediately in with its rather dramatic opening chapter; and though thereafter the story is told at a sedate pace, it makes for a cosy and engaging read, with its attention to detail and sense of period. The story at the heart of the novel, that of a woman's struggle for a balance between her career ambitions and independance with a family life is deftly portrayed, and not completely irrelevant even in today's day and age. Hore captures the day to day frustrations for a woman in Isabel's shoes very well, and the novel certainly doesn't paint a rose tinted view of life after marriage, rather portraying the compromises and sacrifices that often have to be made.

Whilst I thought that Hore did a commendable job in exploring such issues, I did however, have difficulty always feeling sympathy for Isabel more personally as a character. For me she came across as too self-absorbed from very early on in the novel, always putting her own wants above everything else and having a somewhat superior attitude, such as the way she seemed to look down almost on her family. Furthermore, she seemed unable to take any responsbility for her own part in how things turned out for her, rather always looking to lay the blame elsewhere; nor did she often do much to help herself. More hypocritical was her inability to even try to understand Penelope's situation, when it had so much resonance with her own; they both after all had found themselves not cut out for motherhood, though at least Penelope dealt with the situation in a way that she felt was best for all. As such I often found Isabel as a charcter irritating, despite having sympathy for her overall struggle.

Perhaps by extension, I found Emily rather too obsessed and biased in her views of Isabel's story and her preoccupation with it regards to Hugh's biography. As an editor I didn't think she was particularly objective. Emily's modern day love triangle which formed the other part to the story was easy enough reading; though I simply wasn't as invested in it, and felt it all rang rather too familiar.

As for Hugh, I don't think Hore really explored him fully as a character. He mostly came across as merely a man very much of his times, yet there were hints of more to him beneath the surface, linked perhaps to his troubled past in the war and lost love; however, in the novel he was only really ever portrayed through Isabel's eyes.

I did think there were some interesting secondary characters, such as Berek; and I did particularly enjoy the first section of the novel which focused on Isabel during her career, and the people she met. By contrast the second part feels oppressive, which obviously was the writer's intent; though in places I must say it did feel rather overly drawn out and depressing.

Overall an absorbing read, and an interesting exploration of a woman's struggles in the 1950s; though for me personally let down a little by some of the actual characterisation.

It is ironic that in a book about editors the book would have been better for more judicious editing. It is just too long and has a few too many foci. The prologue is beautifully written, and parts are page-turningly good. If you are already a fan you will enjoy it. If you enjoy a bit of romance and a bit of mystery, read it. If you prefer tightly written fiction this is maybe not your best bet.

Format feels a bit too tried and tested and plot line quite thin. Outcome was quite obvious from the start

Rachel Hore's latest book is, like her previous novels, a romantic dual time-frame story which is shared between two young women: Emily Gordon in the present day and Isabel Barber in the 1940s and 1950s. In the present day we meet Emily, a young and attractive book editor, who works for Parchment Press, a London publishing house, which owns the publishing rights to the works of recently deceased novelist, Hugh Morton who, in the 1950s, wrote the best selling novel: 'The Silent Tide'. When her employers decide to commission a biography of Hugh Morton, Emily finds herself travelling to Stone House, Salmarsh, in Suffolk to meet Hugh's widow, the rather formidable Jacqueline. At Stone House, Emily meets Morton's biographer, Joel Richards, an ambitious and good-looking young man, who makes her aware that he finds her attractive. But Emily's affections are already spoken for as she is in love with Matthew, a tall and darkly handsome, but rather unreliable poet. However when Matthew calls a halt to their relationship, saying he needs more time and space for his writing, Emily throws herself into her work and, in consequence, becomes much more involved with the charming Joel than she intended. But Joel is not all he appears to be, and Emily soon becomes concerned about the Morton biography, feeling that Joel is allowing himself to become intimidated by the indomitable Jacqueline Morton, who has very firm ideas about what should be included in the biography of her beloved husband, which involves Joel practically ignoring the importance and influence of Morton's first wife, the beautiful and ambitious, Isabel.

In the late 1940s we meet Isabel Barber, a beautiful, auburn-haired young woman who runs away from home and turns up on the doorstep of her Aunt Penelope's London home. There she meets refugee Czech poet, Alex Berec, who helps her get a job at his publishers, McKinnon and Holt. At McKinnon and Holt, Isabel comes into contact with debut novelist Hugh Morton, an older, sophisticated man and, after a whirlwind romance, the pair fall in love and marry. Marriage, however, is not a bed of roses for young Isabel because Hugh expects her to give up her job at McKinnon and Holt to look after his ailing mother, Lavinia - but Isabel's work is not just a job in her eyes, she thinks of it as her career. And Lavinia Morton, a rather imperious and cold woman, has no hesitations in making Isabel aware that she thinks she is not good enough for Hugh, and when Hugh's old childhood sweetheart, Jacqueline, makes a reappearance on the scene and ingratiates herself into their lives, Isabel begins to think she might just be disappearing. (No spoilers - there is a lot more for prospective readers to discover).

Unashamedly romantic, Rachel Hore's latest novel makes for entertaining downtime reading. The author's description of both Emily's and Isabel's working life in publishing was very well-depicted and I enjoyed the descriptions of the Morton family home and its environs. The author also carefully described her main characters' appearances and personalities - although I would have liked to have learnt more of their inner thoughts and feelings, and I would have been interested in reading more about the Czechoslovakian poet, Alex Berec, and also more about Isabel's friend, Vivienne, a young Jewish scientist. I thought Isabel's frustration at having to give up her editing job was realistically portrayed by the author, as were the latter stages of Isabel's pregnancy and her post-natal depression. I should perhaps mention that I found some of the situations and language rather romantically cliched: "..my temptress, we must wait... I want you madly.." says Hugh when Isabel offers herself to him before their wedding and, later: "I want my wife and I will have her!" However, this is not intended to be a great literary novel; it has been written with entertainment firmly in mind - and, on that basis, I found this an enjoyable story which I started and finished in one long and very lazy sitting; so, in summary, if you are feeling in the mood for a light, romantic holiday, downtime or bedtime read, then this should fit the bill nicely.

3.5 Stars.

From the first brief chapter telling of Isabelle's death I could not put this book down. The twists and turns of relationships and the parallels of the two periods in time are spell-boundingly intriguing.

I think this is Rachel Hore's best book yet. I loved the plot and the characters, especially Isabel, and I found the detail about the world of publishing really interesting.

This book was a bit long getting into the story but when it finally did it had great twists in the end

I have enjoyed all the previous novels by this author, but I just gave up on this one. The characters were not engaging and the plot unfolded extremely slowly. I think that the alternating chapters, describing different women in different times , was not executed well. I have read novels using this technique and really enjoyed them, but this one just didn't work for me.

I thought this was disappointing. There were far too many coincidences, characters and confusion. The way the plot was resolved was very unsatisfactory.