Written by Tracy Chevalier in 2001, Falling Angels was not a novel that I was greatly aware of. It was somewhere on my radar, one that I’d like to read at some point. I have enjoyed everything I have read by Tracy, which was up until this month just The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Remarkable Creatures. I am a great believer that on occasion a book will find you at that perfect moment when you are absolutely meant to read it. I often find it hard to ‘choose’ a book myself and am much happier when the book choose me.

When I look back on my search history I can see that I have taken a closer look at Falling Angels, I can’t remember exactly why, something I listened too had perhaps prompted me to seek it out but I hadn’t taken it any further. So earlier this month (January 6th to be exact) my mother-in-law asked if I’d like to borrow it. She had recently read it and enjoyed it immensely. I had just finished Agatha Christie’s The Hollow, which I had really enjoyed and was having difficulty settling on my next read, but this one said, ‘Read me. It is time.’ And so I did.

The first few days I picked it up and flirted with it a little, The Hollow still on my mind. Eventually I sat down and let myself sink into the novel and found it absorbing and difficult to put down.

Falling Angels begins on New Years Day 1901 just before Queen Victoria dies. Each chapter is narrated by a different character as we see the world through their eyes, their experiences and emotions. These are days before woman’s suffrage when there were so many rules for women to follow.

Kitty Coleman is a woman aching for something more in her life than that which is on offer to her. She is a woman who questions the status quo and the expectations that control her life and how she lives it. She loves her family but I feel is jealous of the relationship that exists between her daughter and husband. Their daughter Maude is intelligent and curious, concerned more about the stars and planets in the sky than the latest fashions and trends. Perhaps Kitty is beginning to see possibilities for Maude that weren’t available for her.

When Queen Victoria dies the family visit the local cemetery. I found the novel to be fascinating insight into the attitudes towards death at the time. Even in life they were judged (and also happy to judge) the plots where they would eventually be buried. The day to day life of the cemetery is a large (and interesting) part of the story. Whilst visiting the cemetery on this day in January 1901, The Coleman’s finally meet their neighbours (cemetery neighbours that is), The Waterhouse’s.

Lavinia Waterhouse is the same age as Maude and the two quickly become firm friends. Along with a young cemetery worker called Simon, the girls soon spend many hours playing together amongst the burial plots.

We then follow both families through the next nine years as the children grow and the world continues to change. Women’s suffrage and the changing world is reflected through their eyes. It is an interesting read and one that Tracy expertly weaves the different sexes, classes and ages. It reminds me of much that I am grateful of as a woman in 2024 and how much the world has changed, and yet… Most importantly it was a highly enjoyable read with moments of sadness but with characters that I quickly came to care about. Not always likeable but always relatable in their quest for finding their place in this world and very, very human.

Synopsis

Falling Angels is published by Harper Collins and is available in paperback, eBook and on Audiobook.

‘The girl reminded me of my favourite chocolates, whipped hazelnut creams, and I knew just from looking at her that I wanted her for my best friend.’

Queen Victoria is dead. In January 1901, the day after her passing, two very different families visit neighbouring graves in a London cemetery. The traditional Waterhouses revere the late Queen where the Colemans have a more modern outlook, but both families are appalled by the friendship that springs up between their respective daughters.

As the girls grow up, their world changes almost beyond measure: cars are replacing horses, electric lighting is taking over from gas, and emancipation is fast approaching, to the delight of some and the dismay of others…