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Journey into Solitude   by Ann Petre

This book, its author says, is not a family memoir, rather a myth, a blending of fact and imaginative recreation, written partly in the first person, partly in the third. In it, Ann Petre, summons up the ghosts of the past: the rather grand Catholic childhood, her parents, her nannies (very skilfully drawn) and her later life – time with a lay Catholic organisation, an unhappy love affair, time in therapy. All of this makes an interesting, impressionistic and rather strange book, which truly bursts the bounds of known literary genres.

David McLaurin “The Tablet” 9 June 2007  Page 24

“I felt I accompanied you every step of the way, and found the Crucible experience particularly moving. The whole was pervaded with a love of the natural world, and of the poignancy of human relations, as well as the sense of journey.” 

Dilys Phipps-Nilsson, Psychologist.

“I found it moving, well-written, mysterious, frustrating, beautiful in places, wonderfully generous. I thought the pages on Albert, the gardener, quite marvellous." 

Professor Robert Markus

“I have just, this minute, finished reading your book and wish to tell you how much I enjoyed it. The various stages of your life come through with colour, attention to detail – giving a rich taste of what life was like, in your youth for example – and without sloppiness or sentimentality (in fact you are quite tough with yourself at times).

I was interested … in your catholic upbringing, including boarding school & the Crucible, and its impact on your life from the denial, the sense of guilt, a bursting need to explore to putting the other(s) first.”

Anne-Marie Storey, Poet

“What a beautiful thing you have made. The story has moved and inspired me. As I turned the last page, having read the last words, I did not really want to let it go or put it down. It felt like a loss to do so –that is the sign of what you have achieved. …

The voice: so clear and recognisably human; the honesty in the voice; the beautiful lyrical descriptions of nature; the interweaving of other voices and dreams (the first chapter where monks enter from the past gripped me immediately and sent a tingle down my spine); and, of course, the story itself”

Chris Matthews, Account Manager

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