Goodbye Dearest Holly (book review)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0907633021/qid=1125524326/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/202-1025626-8554246
Everyone remembers the summer of 2002 for all the wrong reasons - the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the discovery of the bodies and the subsequent arrest of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.
3 years on, reading this was a fairly surreal experience for me. Normally I can't wait to get stuck into my next novel - I hoard books like you wouldn't believe, saving my favourite authors' latest offerings for my next beach holiday. The reason I love reading so much is, I believe, I can always identify with the protagonists in some way and always want the best possible outcome for them. Escapism - that's all it boils down to. As an aspiring novelist, that's exactly what I want to create for my prospective readers.
This was very different kind of reading for me. I knew that the protagonists were real, and that there was no happy ending (there is a section at the end that explains what happens to their son Oliver but that's about it). There was no point rooting for them.
The book explains in agonising detail everything the Wells family went through, and instead of getting involved, I felt myself trying to distance myself from their experiences. Had I actually dwelled upon the fact that these people actually DID go through all this and that lovely little girl in the pictures actually IS the girl who died at the hands of a paedophile the system so catastrophically failed to root out, I believe I would have broken down in tears too many times to enable me to finish reading.
But don't let that put you off trying - this is a story that deserves to be heard. For me, most poignant is the family's wish not to be treated any different from anyone else - Kevin talks about how people crossed the street when he and Nicola walked through Soham after the tragic event and how people went silent in the queue for the aeroplane as they were about to embark on a holiday to Gran Canaria. There is a message here - sometimes it is best not to treat people any differently. I remember how I returned to work nearly nine years ago when my mother had died - the people who made it easiest were the ones who made me feel that while I had their sympathy, I was important to have around and it was good to see me.
At the end of the day, there's nothing you can say to a bereaved person to make them feel better, so just let them know you care.
Anyway, on a very different note entirely, I recall how I reacted angrily at the time at how Ian Huntley was being treated by the prison system and that, as I seem to remember saying, "there's only one place he should be sent, and it's called the gallows". Not everyone agreed with me.
I have changed my stance since then. In the meantime I have read Jeffrey Archer's excellent prison diaries (volumes I, II & III) and now know what happens to paedophiles and sex offenders in British prisons.
Execution would have been far too merciful for Ian Huntley.
Everyone remembers the summer of 2002 for all the wrong reasons - the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the discovery of the bodies and the subsequent arrest of Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.
3 years on, reading this was a fairly surreal experience for me. Normally I can't wait to get stuck into my next novel - I hoard books like you wouldn't believe, saving my favourite authors' latest offerings for my next beach holiday. The reason I love reading so much is, I believe, I can always identify with the protagonists in some way and always want the best possible outcome for them. Escapism - that's all it boils down to. As an aspiring novelist, that's exactly what I want to create for my prospective readers.
This was very different kind of reading for me. I knew that the protagonists were real, and that there was no happy ending (there is a section at the end that explains what happens to their son Oliver but that's about it). There was no point rooting for them.
The book explains in agonising detail everything the Wells family went through, and instead of getting involved, I felt myself trying to distance myself from their experiences. Had I actually dwelled upon the fact that these people actually DID go through all this and that lovely little girl in the pictures actually IS the girl who died at the hands of a paedophile the system so catastrophically failed to root out, I believe I would have broken down in tears too many times to enable me to finish reading.
But don't let that put you off trying - this is a story that deserves to be heard. For me, most poignant is the family's wish not to be treated any different from anyone else - Kevin talks about how people crossed the street when he and Nicola walked through Soham after the tragic event and how people went silent in the queue for the aeroplane as they were about to embark on a holiday to Gran Canaria. There is a message here - sometimes it is best not to treat people any differently. I remember how I returned to work nearly nine years ago when my mother had died - the people who made it easiest were the ones who made me feel that while I had their sympathy, I was important to have around and it was good to see me.
At the end of the day, there's nothing you can say to a bereaved person to make them feel better, so just let them know you care.
Anyway, on a very different note entirely, I recall how I reacted angrily at the time at how Ian Huntley was being treated by the prison system and that, as I seem to remember saying, "there's only one place he should be sent, and it's called the gallows". Not everyone agreed with me.
I have changed my stance since then. In the meantime I have read Jeffrey Archer's excellent prison diaries (volumes I, II & III) and now know what happens to paedophiles and sex offenders in British prisons.
Execution would have been far too merciful for Ian Huntley.
posted by Jon | 9:37 pm
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