A Hoopoe is a colourful African bird which has a distinctive ‘crown’ of feathers. King Solomon made the Hoopoe a queen, the Hoopoe is also the favourite of Benedict and he loves all creatures passionately. So when a Hoopoe is found dead by the side of a funeral truck so great is his sorrow the funeral director is compelled to make a bird sized coffin for a decent Swazi burial. This unusual friendship leads Benedict to come up with a plan to give his mama an ‘edge’ for her failing cake making business.
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The Soldier’s Wife is a very readable novel about life on the ‘patch’, and focus’ on one particular family, the Riley’s. Dan, a major, in the British Army has just returned from a 6-month tour of Afghanistan to his wife, Alexa, two daughters and step-daughter. And, as many of us know, once the sex is out of the way, huge readjustments have to take place.

To be fair, I have never lived on the ‘patch’ so cannot comment on how realistic Joanna Trollope’s portrayal of this phenomena is. However, her account of the interactions between husband and wife really do strike a chord. There is the difficulty of trying to reconnect with your other half, when although you know what they have been through, one does not really ‘KNOW’: Dan’s preference for hanging out with his mates, for working within the structure that he is so familiar with and trying to negotiate the minefield of family emotions when all his concentration for the previous six months has been on trying to stay alive and keep his men in one piece. Sound familiar?
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