EVIE EPWORTH IS TEN YEARS OLDER. BUT IS SHE ANY WISER?!
1972. Ten years on from the events of The Miseducation of Evie Epworth and Evie is settled in London working for the BBC. She has everything she’s ever dreamed of (a career, a leatherette briefcase, an Ossie Clark poncho) but, following an unfortunate incident involving Princess Anne and a Hornsea Pottery mug, she finds herself having to rethink her life and piece together work, love, grief and multiple pairs of cork-soled platform sandals.
Ghosts from the past and the spirit of the future collide in a joyous adventure that sees Evie navigate the choppy waters of her messy twenties. Can a 1960s miseducation prepare her for the growing pains of the 1970s?
Big-hearted, uplifting, bittersweet and tender, All About Evie is a novel fizzing with wit and alive to the power of friendship in all its forms.
Book Info: Print length: 397 pages. Publisher: Scribner UK. Publication Date: 21 July 2022
Matson Taylor grew up in Yorkshire (the flat part, not the Brontë part). He comes from farming stock and spent an idyllic childhood surrounded by horses, cows, bicycles, and cheap ice-cream.
Matson now lives in London, and works simultaneously as a novelist and design historian. He studied at the Royal College of Art and has taught at museums and universities around the world. He has also worked on Camden Market, appeared in an Italian TV commercial, and been a pronunciation coach for Catalan opera singers. He gets back to Yorkshire as much as possible, mainly to see family and friends but also to get a reasonably-priced haircut.
He has always loved telling stories and, after writing extensively about luxury goods manufacturing during World War 2 (think glow-in-the-dark fascinators & alligator-skin gas-mask cases) he decided to enrol on the Faber Academy ‘Writing A Novel’ course.
In 2016 he started writing his first novel, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, inspired by his work at the V&A museum. Published in April 2021 by Simon & Schuster, the book was chosen for both the Richard & Judy Bookclub and the BBC Radio 2 Bookclub, and went on to become a bestseller.
His second book, All About Evie, is a sequel, charting the messy end of the 1960s and the choppy beginnings of the 1970s. It was published in hardback in July 2022, and is now available to pre-order as a paperback.
Matson is now working on his third novel, which, like his first two, will be a funny book about serious things.
My Review:
This is the sequel to The Miseducation of Evie Epworth which I read last week (see my review here) and it’s now 10 years later – it’s 1972 and Evie is 26 years old and lives in London and in her own words…..
“I’ve seen Beatles strolling, two Stones rolling, Coward Noeling, Quant- tights holing; great trains robbed, long hair bobbed, pop stars mobbed (hormones throbbed); white heat, dancing feet, plastic seats, groovy streets. I’ve watched a World Cup win, been to West Berlin, had a fridge built- in, dyed a coat (sheepskin), made a dress (sequin), met a Redgrave (Lynne). Motorways, a trim- phone craze, All You Need is La Marseillaise. Yellow Submarine, Harper’s & Queen, no more scouring thanks to polytetrafluoroethylene. Flower power, Woman’s Hour, revolving dates in the GPO Tower . Paris precarious, vexatious boyfriends (various), the age of Aquarius. Vidal Sassoon, tripped- out car-toon, women on a wage strike and a man on the moon. Power cuts, decimal nuts, shag haircuts.”
Once again Matson Taylor provides the reader with a laugh-out loud scenario in the opening few chapters and luckily no cows were involved this time but a member of the royal family may have been slightly upset and so we begin to follow Evie in her own inimitable way as she is still trying to work out what kind of woman she will be.
If you enjoyed The Miseducation.. then you will be delighted to know all the main characters are back. The wonderful Caroline and Digby are more involved this time and we are introduced to the equally quirky and adorable Geneviève, Mrs Swithenbank’s niece, who arrives on Evie’s doorstep fresh from Yorkshire needing a place to stay.
With another stellar cast of characters I thought it would be hard to beat the revolting Christine in the first book, but Matson Taylor has outdone himself by creating Griffin, possibly the worst work colleague/boss ever, but I would love to hear her do her lunchtime chants one more time!
There are several laugh out loud moments, Evie getting stuck in Genevieve’s dress was probably my favourite and once again this book had me smiling throughout.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who needs a giggle, or was a child of the 60s or 70s or just loves a feelgood story.
