26 Comments

Fabulous revelations, keeping the pace alive (as if a mislaid child wasn’t pacy enough 🤩) These first 15 episodes have kept me entertained throughout my morning, and I’m loving it

Expand full comment

So many great gems in here that, as so many others have pointed out, are so fitting of the current moment in society. Who says fiction can't be truthful? Not me, and this piece proves it. Thank you for this!

Expand full comment

Lipstick and eyeshadow.... but what got me here is that "every other granny must be drugged." Brilliant writing and so much relevant to our times.

Expand full comment

I smiled at that bit too! Brilliant

Expand full comment

And here we are! Always correcting what we thought we knew... even about Ray. Love it!

Expand full comment

🙌🏻

Expand full comment

Whaaaaaa?!! Such a reveal.

The layering of depth—of the characters we know as well as those we meet—is sooo wonderful.

Expand full comment

Yes… Ray…

Expand full comment

Ahhh! What a crazy good twist! The truth of the revolt rearing its head on all sides. Brilliant decision. Now I can lay down my judgement and invest in everyone.

Expand full comment

🙃

Expand full comment

🙌

Expand full comment

Oh!!! I love a secret life! Ray! Granny Reynolds? You can't stop there!!

Expand full comment

🤐

Expand full comment

Goddamnit Ray! It was easier when you were just unlikable.

Expand full comment

😂

Expand full comment

What a complex and nuanced chapter. The philosophical bit at the beginning, of war seen through the eyes of a child, and the dad revelations. I love how well-rounded all the characters are. The dad might very easily have been flat, but you managed to make me really want to know more about him. Kudos to you, Eleanor!

Expand full comment

🙌🏻

Expand full comment

“He had on the same jumper and trousers he’d gone out in, but he was wearing lipstick. And eye shadow.” That was unexpected 😂

Expand full comment

🙃

Expand full comment

All of the above and “We act with our hearts,” said the Granny Reynolds look-alike who was so switched on and alive it made Bridget think that every other granny must be drugged.”

And Rays secret life, I was wondering about him…

This just gets better and better!

Expand full comment

Bridget is never going to be the same again! Your writing gets more gorgeous with each chapter.

Expand full comment

❤️

Expand full comment

Love that Bridget wonders how all the women knew these things. And the woman’s answer: “‘We act with our hearts,’ said the Granny Reynolds look-alike who was so switched on and alive it made Bridget think that every other granny must be drugged.”

My other two faves: “You can’t stop war with war.  It’s like fucking for virginity.”

and

“one wrong word, one bad day, one narcissist psychopath despot tyrant waking up on the wrong side of bed and that’s that.”

What a marvelous turn for Bridget.

Expand full comment

She’s on a fast track to learning about life outside St Biddulph’s….

Expand full comment

"the immediate mass of song and twisting arms, the mess of life a wave against this flat black line, the void beyond like air ripped out, life zapped and laid with tarmac, a watchtower built to watch over its death in case life should spring up again." Such a gorgeous sentence (or rather, part of one). Brilliant.

Expand full comment

Thanks, Jeff.

Expand full comment