Jenny Overton - also, AF and Carols
Dec. 11th, 2005 02:24 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
trennelsCross posted from my own journal.
I wondered if any other AF fans had also encountered Jenny Overton? Also published by faber, her two "modern day" novels, Creed Country and The Nightwatch Winter (only the latter of the two do I own) has a tone remarkably similar to AF, particularly in relation to the Easter Play in Nightwatch Winter, which is not dissimilar to the play in End of Term (as it is used as a catalyst for action, as well as how it is described except that - more realistically, to my mind - the Overton play "wasn't a runaway success at all, just some good bits and some ordinary bits, and some dodgy bits in between". She's also like Forest, too, in the importance of religion in the lives of her characters without them ever being pi or preachy (quite remarkable, since one of them has a vocation as a nun).
I thought of it recently because I see Overton as a Christmas writer - the Easter play has the Seven Joys of Mary and the Cherry Tree Carol in it, quoted extensively - but also because she was the writer of The Thirteen Days of Christmas which is a very definitely non-AF charming fantasy set in a sort-of 17th century in which the rather staid and unimaginative Francis (who as the son of a prosperous merchant is a good catch but rather unromantic) is wooing the Mariannish Annaple, whose numerous younger siblings would be delighted if he carried her off and out of her scope for micro-managing their lives, so decide to help him with the romance side of the matter.
Anyway, are there other Overton fans out there? And did she write anything after Nightwatch Winter?
I wondered if any other AF fans had also encountered Jenny Overton? Also published by faber, her two "modern day" novels, Creed Country and The Nightwatch Winter (only the latter of the two do I own) has a tone remarkably similar to AF, particularly in relation to the Easter Play in Nightwatch Winter, which is not dissimilar to the play in End of Term (as it is used as a catalyst for action, as well as how it is described except that - more realistically, to my mind - the Overton play "wasn't a runaway success at all, just some good bits and some ordinary bits, and some dodgy bits in between". She's also like Forest, too, in the importance of religion in the lives of her characters without them ever being pi or preachy (quite remarkable, since one of them has a vocation as a nun).
I thought of it recently because I see Overton as a Christmas writer - the Easter play has the Seven Joys of Mary and the Cherry Tree Carol in it, quoted extensively - but also because she was the writer of The Thirteen Days of Christmas which is a very definitely non-AF charming fantasy set in a sort-of 17th century in which the rather staid and unimaginative Francis (who as the son of a prosperous merchant is a good catch but rather unromantic) is wooing the Mariannish Annaple, whose numerous younger siblings would be delighted if he carried her off and out of her scope for micro-managing their lives, so decide to help him with the romance side of the matter.
Anyway, are there other Overton fans out there? And did she write anything after Nightwatch Winter?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-11 09:25 pm (UTC)I thought I had A Ship from Simnel Street, which is in the Thirteen Days of Christmas mould, but a quick check of the shelves hasn't revealed it. (Though that may not mean anything.) It is inspired by the Polly Oliver song, though it's told from the point of view of her sister Susannah, who helps to run their parents' bakery, and I liked it very much.