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  • Eloquent description of a time long gone5

    Alan Hamilton I enjoyed this book and turned the pages with a pleasurable expectation of what would come next. The author has an artist's ability to picture place, whether in Britain or somewhere more exotic in what used to be the British Empire. This facility is matched by another of the visual artist's skills; being able to convey atmosphere, especially of weather and climate.
    But all this is secondary to the characterisation. I felt I knew George. With his range of strengths and weaknesses, he is beautifully and compassionately drawn. It's often said that writers find it difficult to put themselves into the head of the opposite gender but Sington-Williams has given the lie to that with George. George is an unusual man who genuinely likes women. Who gets on better with them than he does with men (with whom he seems to feel awkward), which is why women take to him and he can't help responding to what he perceives as their needs and feelings. This applies too to his difficult relationship with his daughter. How well the author understands the differences between men like George and his peers, presented as recognizably more 'blokeish' than he is. In that time and place a man who genuinely enjoyed the company of women rather than that of his fellows would have been regarded by most men with suspicion, bafflement, and probably contempt and this comes across in the telling.
    But it isn't just all about the male characters. The two main women are skilfully drawn; you can believe in them. Again, I felt I'd met women just like Dorothy. In the distant past I'd lived abroad in a British expat society and there were quite a few of them; dissatisfied, bored, frustrated and only there because of their husbands' jobs. In contrast, Hannah is the one who makes her own rules - and so her own particular difficulties.
    This is a historical novel; the characters behaving within an environment and adhering to norms that within fifty years have vanished for ever. Sington-Williams's skill is that she takes us to that far-off world and lets us experience it without any sense of incongruity or artifice. by Alan Hamilton

  • A rollercoaster ride of a story5

    John Adams Sington-Williams weaves a compelling story of passion set in1950s England and Malaya. Her finely crafted prose takes you inside the lives of a suburban family transformed by the affair George has with his boss's daughter. As punishment he and his wife Dorothy are posted to the tropics, while their daughter Susan remains in boarding school unaware of the truth.
    As Dorothy retreats into her dark interior, George finds solace in the company of more liberated expatriate wives. But when the violence of the Malayan Emergency impacts on the empathetic characters, these seething emotions are exposed and Susan's childhood is lost forever.

    The author creates such atmospheric visions in the mind that this rollercoaster ride of a story remains with you long after you close the book on the final sentence.

    John Adams by John Adams

  • ELOQUENT INDEED5

    DR S J WYATT THE ELOQUENCE OF DESIRE is an engrossing and atmospheric novel. This story of a married couple in the 1950s banished to Malaya after the husband's affair with the boss's daughter has the sharp edge, clarity and narrative drive of a Somerset Maugham.

    But Amanda Sington-Williams brings her own distinctive voice to the material. The descriptions of Malaya evoke the people, landscape and climate vividly and sensuously. The sounds and smells are almost tangible and there is a palpable background of unease and tension as the political situation constantly threatens to explode into violence.

    At the same time the writer has a wonderfully compassionate and insightful view of her all too human and believable characters. This is particularly true with George, the husband. On one level, this man is a selfish serial adulterer but we are lead to understand his motives and he emerges as a complex, if fallible, human being. The same understanding is offered to all characters, major and minor.

    Thoroughly recommended! by DR S J WYATT

  • The Eloquence of Desire5

    Lampworkbeader Passion and deceit in the tropics. Just what is needed for an excellent winter read. I loved this book. I believe this is the writer's first novel. Look out for her, she'll go far. by Lampworkbeader

  • Fans of Julia Gregson's 'East of the Sun', will adore 'The Eloquence of Desire'.5

    Bobbie Crawford-McCoy The Eloquence of Desire is breathtaking in scope and imagination; readers will be swept up in the lives of this once happy family as they are forced to move to wild unknowns. Powerfully emotive and profound, this literary masterpiece explores numerous themes with naked honesty and integrity. The setting and the scenery is so richly described and with such clarity that the reader will be transported to various locals alongside the characters in the story. Readers will both love and hate the main and supporting characters; if not for their human weaknesses, for their need of love and fulfillment. A self-absorbed mindset puts innocent people in danger and sets the stage for dramatic confrontations, secret meetings, heart-breaking betrayals and cultural clashes the may end in bloodshed. Amanda Sington-Williams is an author to watch; she has a very promising writing career ahead of her. If you are a fan of historical fiction, be sure to pick up a copy of this novel!

    Copyright (c) Nurture Your BOOKS --- Bobbie Crawford-McCoy by Bobbie Crawford-McCoy

  • Great Book5

    Mandy I loved this book. You just get engrossed by the haunting prose as it moves you along to follow the unfortunate events of this dysfunctional family who has to move from London to Malaya during the communist insurgency as punishment for the husband's affair with his boss's daughter. I love the way the writer conveys Dorothy's, the wife, oppression by her husband, the heat and depression. But the daughter suffers the most and starts to self-harm herself. Great, was sorry when it ended. by Mandy

  • Fascinating look at a little known place and time4

    Sue Guiney A lovely portrayal of expat life in Malaysia in the 1950's. If you like reading about other places and times, you'll really enjoy this. by Sue Guiney

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