The Visitors

Product Information

Esme Nicholls is to spend the summer in Cornwall. Her late husband Alec, who died fighting in the war, grew up in Penzance, and she’s hoping to learn more about the man she loved and lost. From award-winning author and playwright Jane Harrison, The Visitors is an audacious, earthy, funny, gritty and powerful re-imagining of a crucial moment in Australia's history - and an unputdownable work of fiction. The novel contains the most beautiful descriptions of the Cornish coast and countryside. You feel as though you right there, so vividly are things described: you can hear the sea, see the drifts of cow parsley along the lanes, feel the sultry heat of the Cornish summer. Please note on Monday evenings throughout the season, Moogahlin Performing Arts will host a post-show Yarning Circle in the Centre for Creativity. 7.45 - 9pm on Monday 18 September, 2 October and 9 October. Free and no bookings required.

The Visitors is a book that rewards the reader on so many different levels. It’s a meditation on grief, betrayal and loss but also an affirmation that, despite discovering what you always believed to be true may have been an illusion, it is possible to find the strength to start over again and the courage to follow your heart. The characterisation in this book is quite exceptional. Esme herself is enveloped in her sadness – everything about her echoes her loss, the dark colours she wears, her attachment to convention, the solace she finds only in the beauty of nature – but there are glimpses of the independent and vibrant young woman she used to be. Through the course of the book and the unexpected twists and turns of the story, she shows extraordinary strength and resilience and slowly rediscovers that vibrancy and sense of fun – it was a sheer joy to see her blossom once more. But the individuals of Espérance are equally fascinating – their camaraderie forged through the most difficult of times, their separate fragilities hidden beneath their eccentricities, their air of bonhomie and their bohemian lives.Copp, Dan (8 March 2017). Fascist Lizards from Outer Space: The Politics, Literary Influences and Cultural History of Kenneth Johnson's V. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476667126. The Visitors is a story set five years after the end of The Great War, it's about the lasting impact it had on the men who fought so bravely, many struggled mentally, and they couldn’t to return to work, and their marriages failed. Caroline Scott has a way of writing about WW I, that immediately grabs your attention and through her narrative, you feel and experience the burden of the war to end all wars. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK, brilliant, and five stars from me. The Visitors Book is a story about Victoria and her strange partner Aaron who get into a huge row when she refuses to sign the visitors' book at his London flat. Although from the short glance Victoria had at the book, there is something rather peculiar about the names in it, soon Victoria realises she could be in danger. I liked that the characters in the book read each other’s body language and are not afraid to mention it, that when at cross purposes they talk about it.

The Visitors is a 1980 science fiction novel by American author Clifford D. Simak. It is based on a similar story of the same name, which was published in serial form in Analog magazine. Esme Nicholls is a war widow. With no money she secures a housekeeping job wit Fenella. They go to spend the summer in Cornwall, at the home of her employers’ brother, Gilbert. Not a usual household. It is made up of men who befriended one another while fighting for their country in World War 1. They all have different characteristics, which makes for enjoyable reading. Gilbert, who is the brother, is the one who got the men to all move into this rambling Cornish house. Sebastian, who does seem rather grouchy most of the time. Rory is understanding and he has written a book detailing his time in Flanders. It is through this that we learn a little about the men. Hal, is unable to speak brought on by the war. The time we are in Cornwall is written through the eyes of Esme.Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets. The Last Boy to Leave is a heartbreaking short story and probably my favourite within the book. After relocating to a new area, Jen and Greg decide to throw their son Max a birthday party in their home. It soon descends into chaos with kids, running around everywhere, practically destroying the house and ignoring all Jen’s rules. Yet one young boy stops and helps Jen to clean and tidy, he’s polite and kind, yet something is not quite right about him. It’s 1923 and Esme Nicholls has decided to spend the summer in Cornwall. With her husband having died fighting in the war, Esme hopes that her sojourn in the county Alec had grown up in will help her feel closer to him and enable her to learn more about the man she loved and lost. Esme is going to be staying with Gilbert in his rambling house by the seaside, where he lives with his former brothers in arms. She immediately finds herself fascinated by the community of eccentric artists that welcomes her from the very moment she arrives in Cornwall. However, Esme soon realises that this Cornish utopia isn’t quite as idyllic as it initially seemed… This stunning novel focuses on the impact that the First World War had on people, from the widows of men who died in foreign fields, to the soldiers who returned to a world that they no longer believed they belonged in, and the families who did not know how to handle them.