Beautifully written and a nice way to end the trilogy. However there was something I can’t quite put my finger on - i didn’t connect with it as much as the others. Definitely worth a read though.

I really love Rachel Joyce and I adored both Harold Fry and Queen Hennessey and so I had high hopes for this book. I did really enjoy it but I didn't feel like it held my attention the way the first two books did. Overall though I would recommend it to fans of Harold and Queenie as a nice way to end the story.

I was familiar with Rachel Joyce's writing from Mrs Bensons Beetle and thought this was a follow up. So I was a little disappointing to find out it was nothing to do with Mrs Benson and it was the final instalment in a trilogy. But I had read the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so did know something about Maureen Fry. There is not much to the story, which can basically be summed up as "Harold's wife makes her own pilgrimage", but what I loved about this book is the descriptions of people and their activities. They are so insightful and so real. The writing was a joy from the first page. I'll have to pick up book number 2 in trilogy now, to round out the stories.
I read this book via @netgalley courtesy of Random House UK, Transworld Publishers.

The trilogy is completed with Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North. This beautifully written novella comes with the emotional punch that you we’ve come to expect from Rachel Joyce. Love the characters she has created in the Harold Fry trilogy and the uplifting yet moving quality of the novels. Maureen, perhaps a harder character to like in the earlier novels is now given her own epiphany. A short but perfect novel.

When I picked this up to read, I didn’t realise it was the third book in a trilogy, however it gave me enough information that I didn’t feel like I needed to read the other two before. However, on reading this, I really want to read the previous two as I enjoyed this one so much.

Maureen follows in the footsteps of her husband, Harold, to see the legacy Queenie left behind in the form of a garden. Maureen had been informed that their was a statue dedicated to her son, who we discover killed himself when he was young. Harold had previously walked to see Queenie on her deathbed and became quite well known for his journey. Maureen decided to drive to the garden, so she can put her thoughts about Queenie and her son to rest.

This is quite a short book, but it is packed with sorrow. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Maureen, especially when she found it so hard to interact with people that had previously befriended her husband. She is quite a tough character to like, but you begin to easily accept her for her odd ways.

This book is beautifully written and makes you thankful for the family you have around you. I’d imagine anyone who reads it, will be like me and want to read the previous two.

The last in the trilogy giving Maureen a voice. I found Maureen quite unlikeable in the previous books so I might of clouded my judgement of this book. It didn't really change my opinion of her and the shortness of the book meant it was over before you could invest in it.

This is the finalstory in the trilogy following on from Harold and Queenie’s stories [ you really need to read these two first ]

Maureen is Harold’s wife and 10 years after his epic journey she decides it’s her time to complete a journey of her own. Her own pilgrimage.

She drives from Devon to Northumberland alone in her little car. She meets people along her way and slowly learns to be a different version of herself. She is a woman of few words and can be quite prickly at times as well as not really liking people, or getting on with them. She has lost a part of herself and doesn’t know how to get it back.

There are some things Maureen hasn’t faced up to or let go and she is on a mission to go and visit Queenie’s garden.

This is a lovely story about loss and also about finding yourself again. It’s about Motherhood and forgiving yourself. Grief and acceptance and moving on with your life.

Beautifully written with a great ending for the trilogy.

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce

In a previous book, Harold Fry walked across England to visit a friend in trouble. In this sequel, his wife leaves him at home to drive to visit a garden this late friend of her husband has created. Maureen doesn't walk but drives, but her drive isn't without incident, and she uses the time to reminisce about events in her life.

This is a short story, and an easy read, but didn't quite grab my imagination. Possibly since I hadn't read Harold's story, although it is supposed to be a stand alone book.

I quite enjoyed it, but it wasn't one of the best that I have read this year.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/60171472

I just loved this little book, a beautiful and heartbreaking tale with plenty of laughs along the way too. This follow up to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was short but sweet, following Maureen on her own adventure from Devon to the North East.
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Maybe I love these books because they're full of familiar places or maybe it's the brilliant writing, either way I recommend them wholeheartedly.

A beautifully charming and understated story that neatly completes the trilogy that brought us Harold Fry and Queenie. Now it is Maureen's turn to journey towards, well, she isn't sure quite what.

Devastated by David's suicide, Maureen is merely existing in a ball of grief and rage. She is on her own pilgrimage to visit Queenie's garden, where it's said there is a memorial to her beloved son.

With time to sit with her feelings, Maureen decides to be nicer to people. And when she has an accident, she realises how kind people actually are, and how wonderful it feels to be comforted and taken care of.

A short but incredibly moving story and the illustrations are, as ever, charming.

Short but absolutely necessary glimpse of hope for Maureen and, by extension, the rest of us. The depths of her grief excused her prickliness and downright disagreeableness, I thought magnanimously in my previous encounters with her. Easy enough from a distance but less so when you find yourself empathising with the unwitting souls who cross her path. I found this incredibly moving.

An emotional and heart-rending return to the Fry family and Queenie’s continuing influence upon their lives. Maureen isn’t a character who purveys warmth and friendliness yet despite this, the deft character-building invokes a sympathy and longing for her to find peace, from fellow characters as well as the reader. The book is a short one, but packs into it some important life lessons in the form of exquisite writing.

Maureen Fry undertakes her own journey to Queenie’s garden to see her memorial to David - their son who committed suicide. Maureen drives up north through various mishaps and comes face to face with her garden and her memorial to Harold, David and Maureen. This brings out both negative and positive emotions which Maureen has to work through under the care of Kate.
An emotional read and a fitting end to the trilogy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

How lovely to be able to revisit Maureen Fry and get to know how so much better. While she played pivotal roles in both The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Queenie Hennessey, she felt like a support player with so much more to say. While a short story, it felt like a perfect length to get to know her and see where her and Harold are in their lives after such a long break.

As always, Rachel's writing is spectacular and so beautiful. I sobbed. And laughed out loud. And my heart broke a million times over. If you loved any of her books you should definitely read this.

What a beautiful book to finish the trilogy of Rachel Joyce's book series that started with the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey.

In this book, we follow Maureen, Harold's wife on her journey that will help her deal with the path that life has dealt her.
A compassionate and moving story as she finds healing in unlikely places with unlikely people.

Almost ten years ago I read Rachel Joyce’s first novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, in which a man sets out to walk almost the entire length of England, from his home in Devon to a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, to visit an old friend who has been diagnosed with cancer. A second book followed – The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, written from the friend’s perspective – but I didn’t read that one. Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North is the final part of the trilogy and I wondered whether I would struggle with it because of not having read the middle book first, but luckily that wasn’t the case.

At only 133 pages, Maureen Fry is a short, quick read but contains an entire journey, both physical and psychological. This time, though, it’s not Harold who is making the journey, but his wife, Maureen. It’s been several years since Queenie Hennessy’s death but the garden she created in Embleton on the Northumberland coast has become a tourist attraction. Hearing that the garden contains a memorial to her own son, David, who committed suicide, Maureen decides to go and see it for herself. It’s something she wants to do alone so, leaving Harold behind, she prepares to head north – not on foot like her husband, but by car.

Maureen’s journey is very different from Harold’s, not just because she chooses to drive instead of walk but also because she has a very different personality. While her husband was easy to like, she is not. She’s rude, unpleasant and unlike Harold, who made new friends during his pilgrimage, Maureen seems to make only enemies. It took me a long time to warm to her at all, but eventually I began to understand the reasons for her behaviour. For such a short book, there’s a lot of emotion within its pages as Maureen begins to face up to the grief she’s been trying to suppress for so many years.

If you’re new to this trilogy, I would definitely recommend reading Harold’s story before Maureen’s. I didn’t feel that I’d missed anything essential by not having read Queenie’s, but I would like to go back and read it now anyway – as well as all the other Rachel Joyce books I still haven’t read!

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for an ARC of this novel in return for an honest review. I requested this book, having enjoyed “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” some years ago. I didn’t realise that it is the third in a trilogy but have now acquired “The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesy”, the second book, to be read shortly.

This exquisite little book proves that you don’t have to write a doorstopper to produce a piece of perfect writing. It is written in simple, straightforward language that all can understand. This is an author who has the ability to really, consciously observe what is going on around her and the talent to be able to put it into words for us to share her joy. Rachel Joyce shows time and again that she really understands her odd, warped characters, what has motivated them, and what has helped to begin their healing. Here we have one deranged woman dealing with grief for her only child who committed suicide thirty years before.

It was a joy to see more of her delightful black and white pen drawings heading up each chapter. This is a perfect little gem of a book that should be read and understood by all. There is not enough writing of this caliber and happiness. There is so much to think about, long after you have finished reading. I need to quietly digest what I have read and then, later, read again.

Harold Fry's wife Maureen has decided to undertake a journey North. She has more than a certain degree of ambivalence about undertaking this journey. However, Harold (he of the long walk to visit a a friend who was ill) has persuaded her that she will regret it if she does not bite the bullet and go. The author cleverly only reveals the purpose and distance of this journey as the road unfolds before her. This makes it difficult to review but not reveal too much.

Maureen has lived a life encumbered by past events, the feeling that she has been badly done by or suffered more than most and a certain insecurity. She has done things about which she is embarrassed. . This journey will cause her to change and grow. Such a short book yet it is full of emotion, some humour and not a little pathos. I felt drawn into the life of Maureen, loved the depiction of her relationship with Harold and his male friend and almost lived through the ups and downs of her journey alongside her.

A beautiful tale so well told

Another lovely offering from Rachel Joyce. Probably not my favourite but simply too delightful to say anything negative about it. It’s not a stand alone I don’t think but mainly because it’s predecessors shouldn’t be missed.

I actually re-read the companion novels to this so that the stories of Harold, Maureen and Queenie would be fresh in my mind. Maureen has always been a little bit unknown, compared to the affection we feel for Harold Fry, and this short novel gives her the space to tell her own story, which is moving and beautifully written. A lovely conclusion to the trilogy.