Never Greener

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Ruth Jones is best known for her outstanding and award-winning television writing, most notably BBC One's Gavin and Stacey, which she co-wrote with James Corden and in which she played the incorrigible Nessa Jenkins. The 2019 Christmas Day special of Gavin and Stacey gained national critical acclaim, drawing an audience of over 18 million, winning a BAFTA for TV moment of the year and a National Television Award for Impact. Ruth also created and co-wrote Sky One's Stella, which ran for six series. Ruth has starred in several other television comedies and dramas. This isn’t a book that romanticizes infidelity by any means – it really is warts and all, and examines the effect of an affair not only on those involved but on those on the periphery. It is difficult and upsetting for all concerned and wasn’t an easy read/listen at times especially as Ruth Jones highlights the selfish nature of affairs and the almost disdainful way in which those having the affair treat the people they have hurt. My heart broke for both Matt and Belinda – their sadness is palpable. Seventeen years later, life has moved on - Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all. And if most happy stories are based on finding reality better than a dream, this is not a happy story. At least theirs is not. The Judd Apatow Netflix series, Love, recently wrapped up with its third and final season, does the same at the outset. You are forced to question why you should be rooting for any of these less than shiny happy people, and yet you are. Or at the very least in both cases, you're chomping at the bit to see what happens to them.

Never Greener provides no laughs, so again if it's Nessa from Gavin and Stacey you're after, you'll be disappointed. These are sad and messy lives and what redemption there is hard earned both by the reader and the characters. But those characters are well rounded and believable, their yearning and heartache is palpable, and their flaws are stark. And just like with Apatow's Love, or O'Neill's Almost Love, you're uncertain for much of the book who you should be rooting for, if anyone. But you'll get there, don't worry. Emer McLysaghtLa moglie vuole fare l'amore con lui (giustamente, essendo suo marito) e lui si sente in colpa di tradire Kate e pensa a lei durante l'amplesso. Ho pensato: "ma non ti fai schifo come uomo? Questa donna ti ha amato, perdonato e ha cresciuto i tuoi figli e tu hai il coraggio di riempirla di bugie per una donna che ti fa perdere il senno?". Now, I wondered if I was just being really harsh on this book – because my hopes were up? But then I read this Guardian books review, and I was relieved to find someone else who had the same frustrations; “Jones may have a good novel in her, but even her spark can’t set this soggy material alight.” Ouch. But – accurate. Suffused with a warmth, wit and wisdom that will steal into your heart and fill you with myriad emotions, Never Greener is a gorgeously written book from an immensely talented author about making mistakes, redemption, second chances and sometimes realising that the grass is greener right where you are. It’s written like a TV show/film, you can picture everything in detail but you still get the joy of being in the characters’ heads. Jones dips in and out of these many lives and these many timelines and between London and Edinburgh, but never once loses you, and never once stops you from wondering when redemption will come for Kate and Callum, or will it ever come? Kate gets the hardest time. Her issues with food and alcohol surface again and again. Her mental health struggles are framed through Matt’s concerned eyes. Her obsession with her appearance and her desirability build and build, while her fragility only occasionally pokes through. In contrast, those weaker souls: the acquiescing Matt, the unsuspecting Belinda, the bumbling Hetty, they begin to shine. They give you something to root for.

The characters are so real that you just do not want to let them leave your life. We meet Kate and Callum who had a passionate affair, Kate was young in her early twenties and Callum old and married, he should have known better, was he looking for some excitement in his ‘mid-life’ what was Kate really hoping for? Sadly, for Kate it ended and left her bereft and heartbroken. Callum carried on with his life his secret hidden. Callum is married to Belinda and they have two children with another on the way. Everything seems to be going well now after surviving an affair twenty years ago when he cheated on Belinda with aspiring actress Kate, just hours after meeting her. It's an affair that threatened to end their marriage and hurt so many people. So when seventeen years later Callum and Kate meet by chance, marriages and lives are threatened again. On reuniting they both find it impossible to stay away from each other and the troubles begin. I decided to read this novel after enjoying her second novel 'Us Three'. This is her debut novel Never Greener and tells the story of two marriages. One couple who are enjoying married life and the other one less so mixed with an old affair that is rekindled and threatens to rip them apart. Imposterò questa recensione diversamente da come ho sempre fatto. Non mi è possibile spiegarvi un po'di trama prima, perché è un libro un po' complicato. Tutto ha inizio nel 1985 quando Kate ha ventidue anni e incontra Callum, un uomo sposato con una donna stupenda e con tre figli. Tra i due la passione scoppia all'improvviso e non riescono a stare lontani. Quella che doveva essere una storiella diventa amore. La storia, grazie ai salti temporali, ci porta al 2002. Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.Many will have come to love Ruth Jones for her role as Nessa Jenkins in the hit TV comedy Gavin and Stacey and also her other roles she has become so well known for as well as a script writer, but now we can add author the list. Released on 5th April is Ruth Jones’s debut novel Never Greener (Bantam Press). This is a story of second chances in life. Ruth Jones expertly details just how unexpected a second chance can be as Kate and Callum meet again; seventeen years after the end of a relationship that almost tore both of them apart.

Blendia I feel did the least wrong and did not deserve what happened to her twice. However her kids are so loyal to her to her possibly that would be all that matters. It also showed the strength she always had when confronting the second affair in the hotel with Matt. I was cheering her on. Kate you really should not like her at times I really hated her. However she defines a human being who has made some big mistakes but she pays for them big style. She is seriously messed up and times. The most fantastic of actress who can hide it to most. I love how her and Matt become better as friends with now their twenty one year old daughter. Her ending though makes way for so much more with a grown up son to get to know. My struggles with the book were mainly with the way Kate is written as a contemptible person whilst Callum is quite likeable. Kate is in her early 20s when their affair begins and Callum is in his late 30s yet she is seen as a seductive temptress and Callum is just a hapless man who cannot resist her charms. I got annoyed with myself for liking Callum when he was as much to blame for their affair (it takes two to Tango after all). I am unsure whether this was intentional by Ruth Jones and whether she is holding up a mirror on the portrayal of women in this sort of situation but if she was it wasn’t immediately obvious to me. Gosh this is going to be a difficult book to review. I’m going to start by saying that I did enjoy Never Greener, the debut novel by actress Ruth Jones but I didn’t love it and I am unsure whether it was the fact I was reading it as an audiobook (is that right? Am I reading it if I am listening to it?!) but I struggled with it a little in places.It felt like we only got glimpses of insight, Kate is definitely carrying a great deal of darkness but why? The most interesting character is Belinda and I almost feel that this story would have been better told from her personal perspective, but that has been done before. Kate is an actress at the top of her game; she's married to the wonderful Matt and mother to five-year-old Tallulah. Callum is an older guy, a schoolteacher with three grown children, and obviously in love with his wife Belinda. Kate and Callum's lives couldn't be more different, yet when they meet again, all these years later, that spark is still there and despite any attempts to resist, it seems inevitable that the spark will create flames that could destroy so many lives. Saying that though, Ruth Jones really can write people and she writes them incredibly well. Kate is brittle, fake, toxic and a huge contrast to her kind, loving, compassionate husband Matt (who I really liked). Callum and his wife Belinda are both brilliantly written and the insights into relationships of both couples are drawn with an expert eye and deft touch. It is also laugh out loud funny in places with clever observations of emotions and the complications of life. I had such high hopes for this book, and I did come away disappointed … but I don’t think I had unreasonably high expectations. ‘Gavin & Stacey’ was a solid British comedy; ‘Stella’ was a more blue-collar drama, but no less charming. ‘Never Greener’ though reads like someone who is very green when it comes to novel-writing.