The Road To Cromer Pier (audio book) by Martin Gore

 

The Road To Cromer Pier (audio book) by Martin Gore.

Narrated by Penny Scott-Andrews.

Released August 2020 by Martin Gore Publishing. Unabridged, 7 hours and 55 minutes.

Originally released in paperback and ebook April 2019.

From the cover of the book:

Janet’s first love arrives out of the blue after 30 years. Those were simpler times for them both. Sunny childhood beach holidays, fish and chips and big copper pennies clunking into one armed bandits.

The Wells family has run the Cromer Pier Summertime Special Show for generations. But it’s now 2009 and the recession is biting hard. Owner Janet Wells and daughter Karen are facing an uncertain future. 

The show must go on, and Janet gambles on a fading talent show star. But both the star and the other cast members have their demons. 

This is a story of love, loyalty, and luvvies. The road to Cromer Pier might be the end of their careers, or it might just be a new beginning.

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What a charming tale of love, friendship, and new beginnings! 

Easy on the ear and heart-warmingly nostalgic, this is a tale of a good old fashioned end-of-the-pier theatre, in a good old fashioned sea-side town, that takes you right back to the sunny summer days of childhood, but mixes in more than a few interesting modern twists along the way.

Set a year after the banking crises of 2008, this is a seaside town struggling with survival in a recession - especially the hotel and entertainment sectors - and Martin Gore gives us a pretty realistic glimpse of the struggles a little town like Cromer was dealing with at this time. 

Forced to make some pretty drastic cutbacks, our theatre gang is made up of a slightly different blend than normal this year, and this introduces some fun characters to the mix - veteran luvvies have to brush shoulders with down on their luck former stars, faded dancing girls, keen young wannabes and haphazard magical performers to try to make ends meet, and keep the wolf from the door. And the wolf in question proves to be of a particularly nasty businessman variety, intent on expanding his empire and shortening the odds to his advantage by less than honest means. 

I enjoyed every single character here, and they all had their part to play in the overall scheme of things - whether they be a good, bad, or a very realistic mix of the two - and I loved getting to know them all. I was also very impressed with the way Penny Scott-Andrews handled narrating all the different accents, especially since there was such a range of characters of disparate ages and from so many different locations around the country!

The threads of the tale played out well, for the most part, and the ending and accompanying little twists were completely charming and warmed the cockles of my heart nicely. There are more than a few laughs in this story too, especially from the antics of the hapless Polish magician.

The Road To Cromer Pier is a lovely little tale of pulling together in adversity, helping each other through the hard times and finding a way to move on, which is absolutely perfect listening for the current topsy-turvy times - and it is available to buy now HERE.

Thank you to Martin Gore for gifting me a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review and to Rachel Gilbey of Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.