February book club - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep

Agh Only just found where to review - apologies; it was so straightforward too. Loved this book Funny, straightforward telling reminded me poignantly of times gone by. I am passing this on to my daughter who I know will enjoy it. Looking forward to Joanna's new book!

I enjoyed the book but was disappointed with the ending. I prefer books that give me a defined ending.

Thank you very much for my copy Am Not finished yet, I remember heatwave vividly was year. Met my husband!

I know I am a few days late sorry but just had to say I have enjoyed this book took me back to my teens and that heat wave the only down side is I am still confused about if they did start the fire and kill the old woman if so does that mean they have got away with it are is there a follow-up book if so I would like to read it

Like 'Shineyredcar' and a few other readers I struggled to finish this book.
When it arrived I went back to bed with a cuppa and read the first 50 pages very quickly -each time I returned to it was confused by all the names and time switches
Descriptions of the 1976 heatwave were very evocative -remember it well !
I was still married,3 children in school -very uncomfortable car journeys -and dancing naked at night in the garden when we had the first rain shower after weeks of drought!
I would also have liked a map,a timeline and a cast list of the many characters

Thank you for my copy. This was the first book rather than kindle read for me in many years and I was pleased with the format as I needed to flick back and forth quite a lot initially to keep track of who was who? I enjoyed the read and thought the hot summer was well captured and overall the story held together. In particular the relationship of Grace and Tilly felt authentic.

I enjoyed this book and found it very visual and real in the everyday details. I think that Joanna Cannon has a gift for making the words come alive and engaging all the senses. I could almost feel the stifling heat of that summer in 1976. I also love her clever use of metaphor, for example....'with a wind that bit scarlet into faces....' on page 271.
There are so many themes running through it......addiction, secrecy,
victimisation...... It was an interesting approach, sometimes humorous,
sometimes disturbing about a group of people forever drawn together by a deep secret which is hinted at throughout.
I'd like to ask Joanna why she decided to tell the story from the perspective of a child and about the religious element, searching for God, and how that relates to the rest of the story. I feel they must be linked, but I would need to read it again!
Once I started the book I couldn't put it down, but I was slightly disappointed by the rather abrupt end. There were some surprises....that it had been Mrs Morton who had taken the baby in 1967, for instance, but I was still left wondering. It is a book that I would like to read again!

I was thrilled to receive a copy of this book, but was sadly disappointed when I came to read it. I struggled through about a third and then gave up. I found the characters unlikely and the dialogue didn't fit with the way that young girls converse, in my experience (30 years of working with children). I didn't think that all of the 70s references were particularly accurate and I felt that it needed a really good editor to sort it out and tighten up all the loose ends, airy fairy bits and incongruities.

"The Trouble With Goats and Sheep" written by Joanna Cannon.

The very hot summer of 1976, I remember very well. The story well told through the eyes and thoughts of 10 year old Grace, who I thought was a bit old for her years. All the good descriptive and very correct history of the mid 1970s. I found some of the characters a bit boring but that aside they were necessary to the story.I felt that the story would have been better had it been from beginning to end , rather going backwards and forwards all the time. It did all become clear in the end, however a " time catalogue" at some point might have helped, also as another reviewer wrote a map of the houses and who lived where. I did enjoy the book and have already let a friend borrow it.

Phew - last day to review. I have not got to the very end, partly because I was reading a long book when this one arrived so I started a bit late in the month. (I somehow cannot cope with reading two books at once). However, I'm really enjoying the three quarters read so far. The narrative suits the period very well and there are many references that take you right back to that hot summer. I would like to know from where the idea of the story came and a small point, a map of the numbers of the houses in The Avenue at the front of the book would have been a good reference, I have to keep going backwards to find out exactly where people live in relation to each other - but maybe that's just me!

Finally, while the print of the book is lovely (big!) I hope that physically large sized books don't become too fashionable because they are a bit unwieldy while reading in bed and to take away travelling. Sorry, this is being picky and not meant to take away from what is an unusual and very enjoyable novel. Thank you GN and Joanna Cannon.

(Sorry if I've repeated, not read all the reviews as don't want to know the ending!)

I am loving the book, and well remember the long hot summer of 1976 as I was very pregnant! Thank you for sending it to me.

I've not finished this yet but I wanted to put something here before the end of the month. I have followed the author's blog for a few years not and the content in it is so lovely it always had me in tears. I always knew she would one day write a book but this was not the kind of book I expected her to write. I know this book is about mental health problems and fitting in to society which I expected it to be but it is done in such a subtle way which is very clever. I am enjoying the story and Joanna has such a lovely way with words which she uses through the story. Grace really made me laugh she had such funny ideas. I know there was many salutes to the seventies, I just thought at times there was maybe too many. If I could ask Joanna a question it would be, where did the idea come from for the story.Was it from the goats and sheep from the bible or did the story in your head then lead to that quote? Right I'm off to finish the book now.

Just finished the book. A good read, I like the style. I got to grips with the characters and the house numbers in the end. Lovely portrayal of the two girls. I lost what happened in the fire, because I was so wrapped up in Jesus in the drain pipe. I think Walter Bishop was misunderstood, not sure if he was having an affair with Margaret Creasy. I didn't understand why he was so changed at the end. I felt for Mrs Morton about the baby, if she had owned up it would have been so different, but then that's life .....

I just loved this book for so many reasons - the evocative depiction of the 70s and particularly our long hot Summer, Grace's voice which to me was spot-on for a rather precocious child of that age, the character of the much-underestimated Tilly, the interwoven tales of intrigue and loss in that narrow community and yes, the big print (a treat for the eyes, though maybe not the shoulder when carrying it around!). For me, it is the best book I've read for ages.

My question to the author would be: I'm intrigued by the fact that in your 30s you went back to college, completed your A-levels and become a doctor, and that you got the idea for your first novel from the blog you started while working in hospitals. You're such a natural and gifted writer, did you not consider writing as a career from an early age?

Had Tilly recovered or was she an apparition?

Yes after a slow start I really got into the book. Such a narrow minded group of spiteful people. I did get the people a bit confused but kept up most of the time.

I enjoyed the idea of Jesus bringing them together over the drain. I laughed a lot and also got annoyed with the adults. I need to think why Tilly was nearly dying then recovered.

All in all a rather good book.

I really enjoyed this book and there was some lovely use of language. "Widowhood wore a beige cardigan and said very little." Like others, I did find the ending a bit abrupt. Tilly miraculously recovered, Mrs Creasy reappeared, but visited the police first. What did she tell them? I should like to ask the author whether she intended readers to find their own ending and whether a sequel is planned?

I really enjoyed the book but agree with others that some bits were hard to follow and would have liked a map.
I too began to reminisce about the Summer of 1976 and remember not enjoying it much.
Although a lot fell into place gradually throughout the book there were things that were left to the imagination.
Was Mrs Creasey the woman in the car crash with Mr Morton? Did Tilly make a miraculous recovery even though the glances exchanged by the nurse and Grace's parents during their visit seemed to signify otherwise?
I wonder if Walter and the Kapoors were ever accepted into the clique?

I seem to be an ungracious lone voice about this book. I did read it all (and in my dotage I have at last decided it is permissible not to finish something I am not enjoying!)

I found it very worrying as I read it, and then came to the Acknowledgement at the end, where the author thanks all the patients she worked with in the mental health field. There seemed to be no one in the book who was not suffering from some mental health problem, and I was concerned whether we were supposed to find them funny, annoying, strange, or what?

At a practical level, yes, the large size of the book was unusual and made it a bit of a handful, but the larger typeface it allowed it to use was a relief after most paperbacks. I agree with the poster who suggested including a map of the Avenue with the names of the people who lived in the houses. That would help a lot.

Stylistically I found the use of so many complicated linguistic 'tricks' rather trying, like consuming a box of chocolates at one sitting, and also confusing when Grace, a 10 year-old, used the same style of language as the narrator.

I was curious about why the summer of 1976 attracted the author, and what research she had to do to describe the continuing heat.

Really enjoying this book. Will recommend it to anyone.

Thank you so much for the book which I have enjoyed reading ..bringing back memories of life in the sixties and seventies .
I've been looking at Joanna's website .. It's really interesting.
Even the photographs of the printing process !
It was good to hear Paula Wilcox doing the audio version. She is brilliant.
I too loved " Man about the House ".

Joanna ....you mention a presentation you did, so I would like to ask these questions.......
1. How did your experience in psychiatry inspire the novel ?

2. Why was writing this story so important to you ?

Looking forward to your next book !

Just finished the book and loved it. Reading it in February I could feel the heat of the long hot summer coming off the pages. I loved the way we gradually got to know more about all the residents and the way information was gradually brought to light. It is so true that children pick up on things we adults think we are clever enough to conceal from them.
Does Joanna have plans for another book? I would imagine a sequel would be difficult but will look forward to reading whatever she publishes next. I will recommend this to all my book mad friends. Thank you.

Have now finished the book which I thoroughly enjoyed. Liked the title, how it was referred to during the novel so that you were aware of what it was referring to. Must admit I found it difficult to imagine Jesus in the drainpipe! But then he is everywhere - as Grace and Tilly repeatedly reminded us.
Was this a story you had in your mind for some time Joanna before you finally put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard!)
Am I right in thinking Margaret went away to give people time to reflect on their past actions or have I got totally the wrong end of the stick?
Can't wait for your next book.

I really enjoyed this book and agree with the comments made by others so won't repeat them but would like to ask Joanna if Grace and Tilly's conviction that Jesus was not just 'everywhere' but lurking in their community was inspired by Mary Hayley Bell's book, (and subsequent film and musical) Whistle Down The Wind?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which can be read on several levels .I felt it important to read it fairly slowly in order to adjust to the different dates and different characters. It seemed to me that Asperger's, dyslexia and OCD were well portrayed and their effects developed. The descriptions of the Summer of 1976 with the frequent mention of Angel Delight were evocative and Grace's relationship with Tilly was interesting.
I may be missing something but I found the drainpipe incident bizarre and somewhat boring. I think that the residents would have been more sceptical and less gullible but altogether a beautifully written novel.