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04/03/2018

#BlogTour: A Blindefellows Chronicle by Auriel Roe @AurielRoe #Blindefellows

Published by Unbound Digital, A Blindefellows Chronicle is available now. My thanks to the author and the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Thing's Tours for having me on the blog tour. You can purchase your own copy of the book here.

At midday on 31st August, Sedgewick, the new history master, arrives at Blindefellows, former charity school for poor, blind boys, now a second division private school for anyone who can pay. The naive newcomer is quickly taken under the wing of the rumbustious, philandering Japes, master of physics, who soon becomes something of a mentor, though not in an academic sense. A Blindefellows Chronicle follows the adventures of Sedgewick, Japes and a handful of other unmarried faculty at an obscure West Country boarding school including the closeted headmaster, Reverend Hareton, stalwart Matron Ridgeway and loathsome librarian, Fairchild.

My Thoughts:

A Blindefellows Chronicle is the author's debut novel, and my what a debut it is. The right side of quirky to make me interested and a distinct change of pace from all of the thrillers and crime that I have been reading lately. I adored this book. 

Blindefellows is a private school and this book follows the span of many years via the medium of interrelated stories of events that take place, some humorous and some a little more serious. The reader arrives at Blindefellows the same time as Sedgewick, the new history master, who is rapidly taken under the wing of Japes, Physics Master. The two are poles apart and this is what makes this book so memorable. 

A Blindefellows Chronicle is very character driven and as a reader I found it richly rewarding to be able to follow the characters over such a long period of time, by the end of the book it was as if I had known them personally. 

This is not a book with fast pace or twists and turns but it doesn't need them. The strength here is in those wonderful characters and the gorgeous writing that brings it all together in all its glorious technicolour. 

This book is funny and enormously entertaining with a touch of the serious about it too. I found it utterly memorable and charming and I will be recommending it hugely.

This one is perhaps the best I have read so far this year. 


About the Author:
Blindefellows is my first published novel and is the result of a few years' worth of quirky scribblings in a stack of notebooks. I wrote the novel I always wanted to read but couldn't find, partially inspired by my favourite authors, Stella Gibbons, PG Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh.

In addition to my writing, I am also an artist, from ram-sized pugs to sedate still life. I add a small observation and image to my blog on a daily basis which can be found on my website - https://aurielroe.wixsite.com/aurielroe


Twitter @AurielRoe

Please have a look at the other stops on the blog tour:





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