One of those books I picked up for no particular reason, might have something to do with liking her writing…then again, maybe not. But seriously, I was buying a couple of things from Edwina Harvey and thought I’d get a couple more for the same postage. Bundling is a great thing for the seller, and often for the buyer. When I took it off my TBR Pile I’d forgotten what it was about and didn’t bother reading the back. I just dived right in as I often do.
What I discovered is a story I’d read before. No, not the entire book, just the first short story. This book is more a series of short stories held together by a narrative rather than a book with chapters. It’s really quite fun once I got past the first story (it was disconcerting rereading it).
The narrative is that of a person who wants to hide out somewhere out back, write, grow veggies, buy a horse, and basically ignore the world. She is made redundant from her job and with this money buys some property out the back of the back of beyond and moves there.
So, what is the back of beyond?
It’s an area in Australia that is really far away from everything. Your neighbours might be half an hour’s drive from your front door; it might be one kilometre from your front door to your letterbox. And the nearest town? A long way. Depending on the reason for selling, the acreage might be cheap, and it might not be very fertile. And our narrator’s redundancy package was not as plump as she’d hoped. The acreage she bought was a long way from anywhere. And the other problem is that the internet is not as good as you’d expect. Apparently she could only get internet on her phone by sitting on her horse (a nice, large Clydesdale) somewhere in the paddock.
This is the cue for her lovely neighbours to help out. She provides them friendship and Coca-Cola, they provide her with free, unlimited internet. And you have to see how different they are to really understand how they can provide this internet.
I’m not going to even mention the dragons in this story, not because they’re not worth mentioning, but I really don’t like giving spoilers. And have you ever tried disciplining a dragon? Is it possible?
Once I got through the first story I found myself immersed in this world and unwilling to come out. Escape wasn’t necessary, but I really didn’t want the book to end.
You can buy this book and two others for a reasonable price here.
The post The Back of the Back of Beyond by Edwina Harvey appeared first on Suz’s Space | Book Reviews | Editing | Proofreading.
