Jack be Nimble

Description

A saga that spans six decades across two countries in Burgundy and Derbyshire. At its heart is a love story, that survives the tumultuous social changes of the last sixty years. By turns humorous, it blends romance, mystery and the value of second chances. An affectionate, and well observed history of our times.

Nancy is fostered at around the age of five, after being found wandering around the Railway Orphanage. Her life with Edna her foster mum and Bill, Edna’s lodger, in the back streets of Derby is relatively happy, until Bill’s obsession with Nancy turns ugly. Nancy flees and embarks on a totally different life.

Jack fifteen years younger meets Nancy at the Rolls-Royce factory. He is a draughtsman, and she is secretary to one of the directors. Their short but passionate affair is brought to a brutal halt when Bill reappears. In the intervening decades Jack battles with his loss of Nancy, his disastrous marriage to Mary and the conundrum surrounding his father’s death. Nancy with skill and courage ploughs her own way, eventually finding contentment. Forty years later when Jack and Nancy meet by accident, courtesy of Nimble the dog, who too was abandoned, they are finally able to untangle the spectre of the past before it is too late.

REVIEWS

“Chris Palmer tells a story full of wisdom and humour, in language that fairly crackles. It sweeps over time and borders in the company of characters you come to care about. This is a first novel that will leave you looking forward to her next”.   IMTIAZ DHARKER

Decades, countries, genres “Jack be Nimble” is a tale that spans them all. It is the debut adult novel of Christine Palmer and does not lack ambition. It is a story of regret, love and takes place predominately in England and Burgundy between 1944 and 2015. It tells of a tragically short love affair that gets a breath of new life. It is perhaps appropriate as this is Palmer’s first adult fiction novel, it reveals she is no debutant to the world. – THE CONNEXION

A terrific summer read from Christine Palmer. Spanning several decades of the 20^th and 21^st century it is full of feisty characters all making their way through life’s challenges and dealing with an ever-changing society. Told in the present tense back and forth across the years it is impossible not to get involved in what in the end is a great love story and how it impacts on so many lives. I didn’t want to put it down, so I didn’t.     ELAINE CASSIER-CAMPBRLL

I have this thing about books, I live inside them almost if I was there, reading about Jack and Nancy in ‘Jack be Nimble’ was as real as my neighbours next door. I may well send you the bill for tissues.    JOY – HIGH PEAKE BOOK SHOP

THE AUTHOR

Christine Palmer was born in Derbyshire an ‘enfant terrible’ of the sixties. She worked in Canada and America returning to England she juggled several jobs, a family, university and then joined the BBC in which she describes as a ‘rags to riches’ career starting in Local Radio.  In the 1980s she moved over to television as a studio director at ‘Pebble Mill’, a documentary film maker, and finally to London as an Executive TV Producer.  She has worked in many different parts of the world with a secondment to South Africa Broadcasting. She was awarded a Royal Television Award for a documentary she and her team made in Mumbai. Her final years at the BBC were as a Commissioner and Creative Director at Television Centre.

After taking early retirement she and her husband moved to France, where they set up a small holiday business, tea-room and art gallery. She also developed a passion for walking, starting with the 750km walk from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago Compostela, this resulted in her writing her first book ‘Walking Back to Happiness’ to be followed by three illustrated children’s book and her first novel ‘Jack be Nimble’. She continues to walk the medieval routes around Europe and with her husband visits England regularly, where they have a canal boat in the East End of London.

By the same author: https://hayloft.eu/product/walking-back-to-happiness/