![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/New-Blog-Book-Review-Graphic-14.png\")
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When I was young, just after I’d been reading the Redwall books, and having devoured\u00a0Frances Hodgson Burnett’s\u00a0Little Lord Fauntleroy<\/em>, I asked one of my parents for a novel to read.<\/p>\n Reading a novel – particularly on a parent’s recommendation – is a rite of passage for all sorts of families. For me, reading the stories my parents gave me resonated with all sorts of questions and deeper thoughts. So, as a reading child (I literally remember my childhood as interludes between books, of various memory-generation) I was invited into a range of worlds beyond the one I lived in. As a Strict\/Grace Baptist (an honour I share with this author) child, I devoured a wide range of books, whilst ultimately loving and celebrating one particular book, the ultimate story.<\/p>\n The Essex Serpent\u00a0<\/em>is a book that I’d heard about before it was published, but read after I’d left the publishing industry. I even enjoyed a pint of ‘Essex Serpent’ beer at a bookseller Marketing and Publicity Conference. It is, and was, an excellent story. Touching on issues of class, gender, science and faith,\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em> follows the life of Cora after her husband, someone involved in government, dies.<\/p>\n The rest of the story remains to be read.<\/p>\n I don’t want to spoil how this story ends – and so my review does also end here.<\/p>\n Thus, as my old geography teacher would say, you should<\/strong> read this book. And attempt to understand it. Because ultimately the places that we do our lives\u00a0matter<\/em>. And, similarly, the kinds of relationships we set ourselves as damaged humans in\u00a0matter<\/em>. And, at the end of the day, that is exactly what this novel is about. And this is a good story, I hope. A very, very readable novel.\u00a0The Essex Serpent<\/em>. And I would recommend it.<\/p>\n As a story, written by someone thoughtful, about a people, some prayers, and a place.<\/p>\n And also as a publishing phenomenon (which I might have accidentally contributed to, but probably not) of a novel\u00a0meaning<\/em> something.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was young, just after I’d been reading the Redwall books, and having devoured\u00a0Frances Hodgson Burnett’s\u00a0Little Lord Fauntleroy, I asked one of my parents for a novel to read. Reading a novel – particularly on a parent’s recommendation – … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,554],"tags":[370,833,120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1996,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989\/revisions\/1996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.thomascreedy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/essexbeer.jpg\")
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