The Vanishing of Margaret Small: An uplifting and page-turning mystery

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Save Well-Edu Launch Event. Meet, connect and celebrate! to your collection. Share Well-Edu Launch Event. Meet, connect and celebrate! with your friends. Overall this was a quirky kind of read with lovable characters and a gut wrenching story. If I could hug Margaret I would. Vanish is exactly what happens to seven-year-old Margaret in 1947 when her maternal grandmother and Mr. Gray decide she should be 'dropped off' at St. Mary's Hospital, a long-stay institution for children with learning and physical disabilities. Thank you to Bonnier UK Audio, Embla Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: But someone is sending her notes with cash, signed with “C x”: she believes it’s Cilla but, except for the one read to her by the young man in Sainsbury’s, she has no idea what they say, and she’s reluctant to ask Wayne, because he will probably think she’s lost it. She likes the life she has now, her routine and the people in her life, and the last thing she wants is to be put away again. There are some memorable secondary characters as well, both good and bad. Wayne was among my favourites. It’s such a charming story. Lots to think about, poignant at times but Margaret is a wonderful character you can’t help but like her. Much of the inspiration for Neil Alexander‘s debut novel, ‘ The Vanishing of Margaret Small‘, came directly from the voices of people with a learning disability, and the incredibly moving first person accounts of living in long stay institutions, which he heard while working for the UK charity Mencap. Neil, who has a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Kent at Canterbury, began his career working in health journalism. Originally from Northern Ireland, he now lives in the seaside town of Whitstable in Kent. He currently teaches English part-time and is working on his second novel.Let me introduce you to Margaret Small, our narrator. She has spent most of her childhood and much of her adult life at St Mary’s – a home for children with learning difficulties and disabilities and now aged 75 she lives by herself in Whitstable with the support of Wayne, her care worker. Plans for Novellas in November #NovNov23 #NovellasInNovember #Fictionophile#novellas October 28, 2023 It is written in the same language and style that I imagine her talking in. Bad grammar and all. This makes the story feel authentic. I imagine the audible version would be good. There are a few characters that are a bit clichéd at the home where she grew up. But there are lots of interesting secondary characters. It is written in the same language and style that I imagine her talking in. Bad grammar and all. This makes the story feel authentic. I imagine the audible version would be good. There are a few characters that are a bit clichéd at the home where she grew up. But there are lots of other interesting secondary characters. Margaret is such a lovely character. Not always easy to read but sadly very relevant and it has me really hoping that something good came for her by the end. So glad I read it

Close to the end, we were told Margaret's birth date. I'd like to think this is why I felt that she was so special to me. My own daughter was born on Margaret's birthday.

I really hated the way those nuns behaved at the special homes***, but I also understand it was important for the story to show that aspect of people. The audiobook is narrated by Annie Aldington who does a remarkable job of bringing Margaret to life, as well as, providing believable voicing to the other characters. Save The Launch Party - Retreats of Empowerment to your collection. Share The Launch Party - Retreats of Empowerment with your friends. Her story takes a few unforeseen directions (and som The difference between the sympathetic and the intolerant is never more obvious than in the chapters set in Margaret’s past, where she is a long term resident of St Mary’s, a home for people with physical and learning disabilities that sought less to help prepare the residents for their place in society, as to hide them away. There is no attempt to make Margaret’s life better, to help her with her literacy challenges. Taken there as a very young girl, St Mary’s is all that she knows, her friends there her only family.