THE APPLE BARREL
Susan Sallis
Published by Transworld (Corgi)
ISBN 0 552 14747 8

Review by Jean Currie

When Hope and Jack Langley arrived at their 'honeymoon hotel' he was appalled. He wanted to give Hope the world and instead what he saw was a half-derelict cottage - 'the slate roof had collapsed in the middle and brambles grew from the broken windows.' Despite this and that they had to wash in the stream or the sea and that there was no electricity or any of the other modern conveniences taken for granted in the Sixties, they were blissfully happy, young, innocent, naive and happy.

All too soon they had to leave this remote patch of Cornwall and return to Gloucestershire and the workaday world. Hope was her parent's only child, born to them late in life, and they had given her everything they could, but she knew after she was married that they had to be restrained because Jack was fiercely independent. He wanted to provide everything. Their neighbours, Henrik and Mandy Petersen, offered help to both of them and when the time came for the birth of her first baby and Jack was not available, Henrik took care of Hope and the child. At the birth of Hope's second daughter it was Mandy who came to the rescue and so the lives of the two couples became enmeshed.

All should have been perfect, but life is never so simple, certainly not in books by Susan Sallis. This is a wonderfully readable book with unexpected twists and turns, and we follow Hope through all her ups and downs throughout a quarter of a century to a satisfying ending. Published in 2000, this is her latest paperback, and I unreservedly recommend it and look forward to her next.