What is Marty Wingate reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Marty Wingate, author of The Orphans of Mersea House: A Novel.

Her entry begins:

I find myself immersed in historical fiction lately—not the distant past of medieval battles and Viking invasions, but of the more recent past within the last century or so.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym (1953)

Barbara Pym excelled at writing about the lives of the women in the 1950s—what they want to do, what they are allowed to do, and what they do anyway. Jane and Prudence is about two friends from university, one married to a vicar and living in the country where she isn’t sure just what she should be doing, and one single, working and living in London and falling in love regularly with unsuitable men. Jane, the vicar’s wife, is determined to do the right thing, often fails, but stays mostly in good spirits regardless. Meanwhile, in town, Prudence imagines a love affair with her quite ordinary boss, because he once called her by her first name. The story meanders along, but it’s never boring. There is a...[read on]

About The Orphans of Mersea House, from the publisher:

In the tradition of Kristin Harmel and Elise Hooper, USA Today bestseller Marty Wingate transports us to postwar England’s Suffolk coast in a rich historical drama about love lost—and promise found.

England, 1957. Olive Kersey’s only love never returned from World War II, and now, she’s alone and penniless. Then, the last person she ever expected to see again returns to Southwold. Olive’s childhood friend, Margery Paxton, arrives to claim her inheritance: Mersea House, a stately old home she plans to turn into the town’s only lodging. Olive’s life takes a sunny turn when Margery hires her to run the establishment. But Mersea House holds its own mysteries—and its own dangers.

First, rumors begin to fly when two enigmatic lodgers move in: Hugh Hodson, manager of the town cinema, and Mrs. Abigail Claypool, a recluse and war widow. And then, the completely unexpected: Margery is informed she has a new ward, eleven-year-old Juniper Wyckes, the orphaned daughter of Margery’s first love. Mrs. Lucie Pagett, Children’s Officer at the local authority, informs Margery that Juniper was severely stricken with polio as a child, and makes clear that she could be taken away if her welfare is in jeopardy.

But the past is never far behind for the inhabitants of Mersea House, and looming secrets may destroy these friendships they’ve created.

Visit Marty Wingate's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue