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    The Care and Management of Lies
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    The Care and Management of Lies
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    The Care and Management of Lies
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Care and Management of Lies

    Written by Jacqueline Winspear

    Narrated by Josie Dunn

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    July 1914: the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained — by Thea's passionate embrace of women's suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea's brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia's responsibility. They must all find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateAug 7, 2014
    ISBN9781471271335
    Unavailable
    The Care and Management of Lies
    Author

    Jacqueline Winspear

    Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Consequences of Fear, The American Agent, and To Die but Once, as well as thirteen other bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels and The Care and Management of Lies, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist. Jacqueline has also published two nonfiction books, What Would Maisie Do? and a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. Originally from the United Kingdom, she divides her time between California and the Pacific Northwest.

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    Reviews for The Care and Management of Lies

    3.5/5

    200 ratings24 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I will confess that I didn’t finish reading this book. Or, rather, I read the first half, then read the last few pages to determine if it was worth my time to read to the end, then scanned the last half of the book just for the basics. The characters were not engaging and didn’t have much depth; the plot was thin, the writing just so-so. There were long “data dumps” to fill in the blanks and pages and pages of the characters’ thoughts, but little action to speak of. I thought it was boring. Maybe I was expecting too much. I’m a huge fan of the Maisie Dobbs series – one of the few I collect in hard-cover. I don’t know what Ms. Winspear was going for in The Care and Management of Lies, so I can’t know whether she accomplished it or not. I only know she didn’t capture my interest long enough for me to finish the book.
    • 4/5
      Sweet and sad. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it fits. I have read just the first Maisie Dobbs book (so far!), and the writing in this strikes me a somewhat more relaxed. Odd how coincidences occur on your reading list at times, this is the second book I have read in the past 6 weeks or so that featured a female ambulance driver in WWI.
    • 2/5
      2 1/2. The writing was excellent, but I did not like where she took the story line.
    • 3/5
      Historical fiction set during. WWI. I love Mausie Dobbs. Didn't like this as well. I found the ending unsatisfying.
    • 4/5
      Charming and sad, but felt like it could have been a short story rather than a novel.
    • 4/5
      Not a Maisie Dobbs novel, this historical fiction is the story of England before and during World War I, and the affects it had on two young women. At the outset, Kezia is a parson's daughter about to get married to Tom, a farmer who is her best friend Thea's brother. Each changes dramatically during the course of the novel: Thea becomes a devoted farmer's wife; Thea changes from a radical pacifist to an ambulance driver in the trenches; and Tom changes from being a farmer to being a soldier in France. There's romance, friendship, envy, loyalty, against a backdrop of the horrible toll of war. If you're looking for a happy resolution, this isn't for you.
    • 4/5
      Good writing didn’t save this book for me. Not as enjoyable as the Maisie Dobbs books. I lost patience with the continual food descriptions but know many readers were entranced with this device. A decent portrayal of farm life during The Great War. However, not a book that I fell in love with.
    • 4/5
      (Fiction, Historical, WWI) Two women have been friends since childhood. Now adults, one marries the brother of the other and moves to the family farm. War erupts and Tom enlists, and it falls to Kezia to run the farm, without much help because all the other young men are also enlisting. Interesting in that regard, but otherwise unmemorable and too easily tied up at the end. 3½ stars
    • 5/5
      Wow! I am amazed that this book has not been receiving rave reviews. The writing is superb and the author's approach to historical WWI is beautiful. I strongly recommend it.
    • 2/5
      Not up to the interest level of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries. This tale is set in the time of WW1, and focuses on the interconnected lives of a young married couple, and his sister. I kept waiting for the story to develop, and quit listening mid-way through the tape.
    • 4/5
      Not as compelling as her mystery series with maise Dobbs but a revealing look at how the war affected a small part of the population - it was kind of claustrophobic in that it only looked at these three characters, but that was in a way refreshing because it didn't try to be expansive and comprehensive. You fall in love with Tom, who tries to do the honorable thing, and even his sister Thea, who is confused about her place in the world though desperate to impact it, mostly as a result of being dismissed by her father all her life. But the heart and center is Kezia, who you are also drawn to. The ending is tragically predictable, but it also keeps you wondering what will happen.
    • 4/5
      Winspear has created a stand-alone story about life on a British farm during WWI. When educated Kezia marries the brother of her best friend, she’s in for an education about what it takes to be a farmer’s wife. When her husband, Tom, enlists and is sent to France, her letters about the marvelous meals she’s making for him help him and his fellow soldiers find some enjoyment in the foxholes. I really liked this gentle story and the strength that the common people of England found to survive the First World War.
    • 3/5
      The first Jackqueline Winspear book I tried was the first Maisie Dobbs book, and I didn't love it and didn't continue the series. However, so many people enjoy this author that I thought I'd give her another try with this stand-alone novel, “A Novel of the Great War.”I've decided this author just is not for me. The writing is too often overwrought, as in this sentence on the very first page:“A gentle sound, as if small glass beads had been run across fine writing paper, would on occasion fill the air when a light breeze caught leaves so fresh they might have unfurled especially for these days.”The story, about friendship and love and war, was interesting but not especially engaging. The characters did not have the depth I hoped for, although I did enjoy reading about them. The descriptions of food (you'll see what I mean) got to be a but much.There are excerpts from “The Woman's Book,” a present giving to one of the characters, and I did enjoy those.While I think this book will have many fans, and while it isn't bad, it just lacked the depth that I wanted, and didn't work well for me.I was given an advance readers copy of this book for review. The quote may have changed in the published edition.
    • 1/5
      I am a glutton for punishment, I hated Maisie Dobbs, but I saw this in the new book section at the library and saw it was a stand-alone "novel of the Great War" so I decided to give Winspear one more chance. I guess it was supposed to sound like it was written in 1914 too, that is the only reason I can come up with for the stilted, cornball style. I forced myself through about 30 pages, then skipped to every tenth page. I don't think I missed anything, and was actually chuckling at some of it, so it wasn't a complete loss I guess. Then (spoiler) she kills everyone (WWI was sad, you know) except the sappy main chick, who I was hoping would get it too. Maybe I'm just not a nice person, as others seem to think this is a sweet book, but I sneered.
    • 4/5
      Jacqueline Winspear takes time off from her Maisie Dobbs mystery series (but not forever one hopes) to write a novel of World War I. Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden have been friends since they were both scholarship students at an ENglish girls' boarding school, but lately have been going apart. Thea has become in volved in social movements - specifically the militant suffragette movement - while Kezia is taking the more traditional route of marriage to Thea's brother, Tom. Thea's wedding "gift" to Kezia of a copy of The Woman's Book, a 1911 book on household management is her not so veiled criticism of Kezia's decision to abandon her independent life for one of what Thea regards as drudgery. Also unspoken is Thea's jealousyin Kezia's supplanting of herself in her brother's affections.When war is declared a month after the marriage, Kezia and Tom initially ignore it, concentrating instead on keeping the farm going and providing food for both the army and the civilian population. Thea, true to form, finds herself gravitating towards the pacifist movement despite the danger of being arrested for sedition.When Tom decides that he must enlist, it is mild-mannered Kezia who finds inner strength to keep the farm running on her own as well as writing letters to her husband to take his mind away from the horrors of war. She writes of all the delicious dinners she is cooking for him - letters that cher not only Tom, but also his mates in the regiment. Kezia does not write to Tom about the growing food shortages, her too the bone weariness at the unending farm work, not the fact that they have cut down their apple orchard under orders from the government. Neither does Tom write to Kezia about the horrors of the war or of the sadistic sargeant who has singled out Tom as the regimental scapegoat. Instead, each attempts to comfort the other. Similarly, when Thea has to enlist as an ambulance drover to avoid arrest for her pacifist activities, her letters to both Tome and Kezia reveal little of her true thoughts and feelings.Beautifully written, The Care and Management of Lies is a bittersweet story of love and friendship that is strained by separation and the brutality of war. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This was quite interesting, another WW1 semi-epistolary novel. Many of the letters described delicious fantasy meals "created" by a wife to help raise her soldier-husband's spirits. A number of intertwining stories, and an ending I didn't expect. Might make an interesting discussion ...
    • 5/5
      I can only write this review after my tears have stopped falling and I have recovered my composure. What a lovely, lovely book. Winspear, whose Maisie Dobbs series has captivated me, diverges to a stand alone novel set at the beginning of WWI. Two best friends, one of whom has married the other's brother, must face the monumental changes which accompany the advent of the war. One becomes an ambulance driver and the other manages her husband's family farm. Juxtaposed throughout the novel are the "words of wisdom" found in a wedding gift from one friend to the other, "A Woman's Book" , which is filled with the proper choices and paths for any woman of breeding and the reality in which these two young women are living. The events chronicled in this story create a fascinating context for the reading of those words of womanly wisdom, written before female wartime ambulance drivers and females running farms. Another highlight of this novel are the letters sent back and forth from the husband and wife, from the farm to the war front and back again. They are poignant, unusual, and I don't want to spoil them for potential readers. Suffice to say that they become beloved by the husband's regiment and even the aristocratic officer in charge who must act as censor. Just read it or even better, listen to it. Soon!
    • 5/5
      This book was totally astonishing. What I found the most remarkable is that Ms. Winspear covers the human side of World War I better than any other fiction book I've read that has been set during the Great War. Ms. Winspear wrote this book to commemorate the 100 anniversary of the beginning of this terrible war. The setting is a farm in Kent and of course in France where the fighting was occurring. The time is 1914 and 1915. The book is all about Kezia Marchant who becomes Kezia Brissendon when she marries Tom Brissendon in early 1914. Kezia is a parson's daughter and well educated for the times. She is a school teacher when she marries Tom, a farmer in Kent. Kezia gives up her London life to become a farmer's wife. She has not got much experience in cooking, keeping house or farming for that matter, but her love for Tom encourages to embrace her new life with both arms. Kezia and Tom are deeply in love, but then Tom decides to join the army at the very beginning of the war (August 1914). At the time everyone thought it would be all over by Christmas. Kezia is left to manage the farm and the house on her own. She is only a few months married, but her optimism and the letters that she and Tom send to each other help her cope. The letters that Tom and Kezia exchange are the main things that drive the plot along in this surprising book. As we know, there was so much misinformation and outright lies divulged about the war and what it was actually like for the soldiers in the trenches, that people at home in England never really understood the enormity of the war and the huge toll it took on lives on both sides. This is apparent in Tom and Kezia's letters as neither one tells the other one what is actually going on with them. Neither one wants to worry the other one. Ms. Winspear introduces the real story of what happened in the trenches in between these wonderful warm letters and it is done in such an understated way, that it makes the war even more vile than what we the readers have thought it was. World War I was a despicable war with no redeeming qualities and nothing is solved by it as is made apparent when World War II began only 21 years after the end of WWI. The book raises a good many questions about patriotism, war-time sacrifices, and the damage done to human lives and psyche both at home and in the trenches. This is a remarkable book. It is both very dark and very warm at the same time.
    • 5/5
      Lots of WW I novels have appeared on the scene this year, what with the 100 year anniversary of the start of the war occurring in 2014. This is the only one of the crop that I have read since Jacqueline Winspear is a favorite author of mine. As usual, the book takes place in Britain but also in France on the battlefield in its later chapters. I thought it started off a little slowly as the two main characters, Tom Brissenden and Kezia Marchant had to wed, and a certain amount of background information had to set the scene. Tom & Kezia took up residence on his family's farm. Kezia and Tom's sister, Thea, formerly known as Dorrit, were close friends, having met at boarding school. As the book proceeds, almost all of the men in the area go off to fight in the war, leaving Kezia to run the farm. She prepares imaginary meals and sends Tom lengthy letters describing their ingredients and how she made them. These letters become very popular with Tom's fellow soldiers. As most war stories go, there is heartbreak at the conclusion of the book. It's a very well-written, heart-felt look at the life of a soldier and his family. Definitely recommended.
    • 4/5
      The key to understanding “The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear lies in its title. I don’t want to give that away. As the book starts out in 1914 in London with two best friends, Kezia Marchand and Thea Brissenden. The two are meeting before Kezia marries Thea’s brother, Tom. There seems to be change for the worse in their relationship. Thea gave Kezia a book with advice on what every woman needs to know about cooking and you name it. The inference that Kezia got is that Thea doesn’t think that Kezia will be suited to farm work and long hours that must be devoted to it.For me the story began slowly and dragged some at the beginning until Kezia is finally married. I really enjoyed reading about a well-educated city girl adapting to the farm not so much with knowledge or experience but through sheer love and determination to do it right. Her husband Tom goes off to the war and she is in charge of everything. Everything from cooking for the work crew to all the other housework that she was not used to doing. Her friend, Thea is first involved in Women’s Suffrage, then the Pacifist cause and later drives ambulances to ferry the wounded in France. There is a side story of how the farm was won through a gamble and Kezia meets the great grandson of the family who had previously owned the Brissenden farm. When Tom goes to war and Kezia has to learn how to survive on the farm, even do the ploughing, that is when the story took off for me. There is no mystery just a good story showing the reason why for the lies and result of the lies. I felt closest to Kezia and Tom of all the characters. They really loved with all their soul and cared for each other so much.I recommend this book to all readers of historical fiction and foodies.I received an ARC of this book as a win from First Reads and that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review.
    • 5/5
      I very much enjoy Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novels, so I was excited to review her standalone The Care and Management of Lies which is set during WWI.At the heart, we have a story about friendships and about love. Thea Brissenden grew up as a farmer's daughter and was a fellow scholarship student with Kezia Marchant. Kezia's family though equally unable to cover the school fees was a little more sophisticated/worldly and as a parson's daughter Kezia was better travelled, more introspective, and generally a kinder person. Keiza and Thea's younger brother Tom fall in love and marry. Instead of bringing the three of them closer together Thea pulls away, feels excluded, resents Kezia's closeness and good fortune.Kezia's good natured and kind enough to ignore the petty rivalries and jealousies that rule Thea. Instead, Kezia, continues to try to hold the family together even as Tom enlists and Thea joins an ambulance brigade. Kezia, the town girl, is left to run the family farm which she does with her unique blend of spirit, optimism, and bravery.Kezia tries to keep her husband's spirits up with loving letters to the front where she describes unusual meals that she prepares for him. These letters bring Tom all sorts of hope and love as well as the envy of senior officers. It's envy and spite that are the real enemies here, not the Germans. The heroes of the piece are Kezia and Tom.
    • 5/5
      As the story opens, Kezia Marchant is preparing to marry Tom Brissenden, the brother of her best friend, Thea. Kezia is a “town-girl” while Tom runs the family’s farm . . . and Thea has grave misgivings about Kezia’s ability to become a suitable farmer’s wife. As events unfold, the two women, aware of the strain within their since-girlhood friendship, seek to regain the closeness they once shared. When Britain declares war on Germany, the three find their lives have become defined by World War I. Tom, certain the war will be over quickly, enlists with the other young men from the village he and Kezia call home. Thea, caught in an unexpected dilemma as she supports the women’s suffrage movement, eventually finds herself driving an ambulance to bring the wounded from the battlefield. And Kezia, daughter of the vicar now serving as an army chaplain, becomes responsible for keeping the farm running until her husband returns from the front.In this compelling page-turner, several alternating viewpoints are used to recount the events that shape decisions and change lives. And while “The Care and Management of Lies” is the unfolding of a love story, it is also a compelling look at the realities facing people drawn into the horror of war. The Great War imbues the story with an overlay of depression that underscores the terrible price of such conflicts.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I had no idea until I turned the first few pages that Jacqueline Winspear's newest book, The Care and Management of Lies, was not an entry in the Maisie Dobbs series. Not that it mattered - I knew I would enjoy whatever story Winspear had written. The author's notes at the beginning of the book piqued my interest right away. "...on weekends I worked at a friend's stall on London's Portobello Road market. It was on one of my expeditions to find more stock for the stall that I came across a book on household management...More than anything it was the inscription that made me linger, for the book had been given to a young woman on the occasion of her wedding in July 1914 - just before the outbreak of what became known as the Great War." Kezia has known Tom since coming home to visit from boarding school with his sister Thea. Their gentle friendship has blossomed over the years, growing into a love that is sure and steady. Thea gives Kezia 'The Woman's Book' as a wedding gift. There is more than a hint of a barb in her choice of gift. Thea thinks Kezia will be bored as a farmer's wife and is disappointed that she is giving up her career and life in the city. But Kezia is sure of her choice and settles into life as a farmer's wife. Not without some bumps though - she has never cooked before. But Tom is happy no matter what she serves. Thea is pursuing her interests as well - she is part of the suffragette movement. But their lives all change when Britain declares war on Germany. And Tom enlists. Oh my, the letters between the two had me in tears. The love expressed between Kezia and Tom is heart wrenching. Winspear's choice to use food and meals as part of that expression is inspired. Just as heart wrenching is the depiction of war and it's effects. Winspear is incredibly accomplished at bringing this time period to life. Her settings and descriptions of time and place create a vivid backdrop for her plot. The social customs, manners and mores of the times are all faithfully observed in Winspear's writing. But it is the characters that bring the story to life. I became so invested in Kezia's life - her joy and sadness, her determination, her kindness and more. She seemed so real. Tom was just as well drawn. Thea was a prickly character, more difficult to like, but provided an alternate view on war. Each chapter is prefaced with an excerpt from The Woman's Book, that relates directly to the chapter. I find historical views on women's roles fascinating. From that inscription in an old book, Winspear has brilliantly imagined a war bride and groom and their love - and losses.....have an tissue box close by. Historical fiction fans, you'll want to add The Care and Management of Lies to your summer must read list.
    • 4/5
      When I first learned that this was not the latest book in Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, I did feel a moment of disappointment. I've grown to love Maisie, and I look forward to seeing how her life changes; however, this book-- written to coincide with the centenary of World War I-- is about one of my favorite time periods, and I wasn't about to ignore it. I'm glad I didn't.This elegiac and slow-moving narrative was inspired by a book Winspear found in a London book stall. The battered book on household management was inscribed to a bride on the occasion of her wedding in July 1914, and Winspear couldn't help but wonder about the changes that young woman's life underwent in the succeeding years. In The Care and Management of Lies, we see the hardworking, honorable and compassionate Tom enlisting after several of his farm workers do. (The war was going to be over by Christmas after all.) Kezia, a vicar's daughter totally unused to the workings of a prosperous farm, is left to carry on with the help of a couple of the old and disabled and a variety of workers brought in to make do. Thea reluctantly finds herself learning how to repair ambulances and driving them back and forth to the front lines. Each, in his or her own way, depends on letters and care packages from the others to help them cope with the seemingly overwhelming difficulties and horrors of what they must do.Kezia, the only one of the three left behind, finds herself the primary caregiver to the other two. Her letters to Tom become eagerly awaited items by Tom's entire outfit. In them, she describes in detail the meals she has lovingly prepared for her husband, and while Tom reads them aloud to his mates, each one is comforted by the memories these words from home evoke. Kezia sends care packages containing food and small items that Tom and Thea need, and her words bring love and respite. None of the three tell the truth of what they are facing. All three want to shield the others with loving lies and omissions.As I said at the beginning, this book is slow moving, and it's not about Maisie, but there's gold to be found in the pages. If you love food, you're going to love Kezia's descriptions of the meals she prepares-- they can make your mouth water. There's quite a bit about those meals, but I didn't find it repetitive. Kezia uses those descriptions to care for those she loves in the only way she can, and as you read about her life on the farm, it's easy to see that, in the writing of them, she's taking herself away from reality for a while, too.Winspear brings the reality of war in the trenches and living with men from all levels of society to life in all its smells, pettiness, filth, horror, and heroism. The relationships between Tom and the other soldiers show so much of the human condition. By book's end I realized that I had just read about the trial by fire of a generation who would go on to "keep calm and carry on" twenty years down the road. This is a lyrical and sobering book indeed.