Books by Sylvia Murphy
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BARLY BEACH
After the break-up of her ill-judged marriage, Jenny Sharpe takes refuge in unspoilt Barly Beach with her young son, Thomas. After an idyllic summer she decides to stay and they begin to carve out a place for themselves as part of the local scene. That is, until the Black Corporation decides it is time to exploit Barly’s potential for redevelopment and the sleepy backwater wakes up to defend itself.
“Written with subtlety and cunning and every page, sentence and word is completely delightful” – The Daily Telegraph
“Ominously entertaining” – The Guardian
RRP £9.95 + £2.00 p&p
INTRODUCTION
The little fishing village of Barly provides an ideal refuge for recently divorced city girl, Jenny Sharpe, and her young son Thomas. Over the years, as Jenny and Thomas become absorbed into the close-knit community, Barly comes under threat: not only is it being slowly swallowed up by the encroaching suburbs of the neighbouring seaside resort of Innismouth, it also proves to be an irresistible attraction for greedy property developers who have secretly been buying up land in and around the village.
Intertwined with Jenny's story is -that of present-day Barly and its fight against plans to turn it into a giant leisure complex - plans which seem to have every chance of success until they are opposed by the tough, beer-swilling trawlerwoman of Barly Quay.
In her sparkling second novel Sylvia Murphy cleverly dovetails past and present and casts a coolly ironic eye over the dubious practices of big business and the wheeling and dealing of petty officials looking after their own interests. Against a background of sun and sand, of treacherous tides and near-disasters at sea, The Life and Times of Barly Beach is a witty and delightful read.
Reviews
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Reviewed by Selina Hastings
SYLVIA MURPHY'S second novel, "The Life and Times of Barly Beach", is an apparently simple story of ordinary people in a little seaside town threatened by the plans of a black-hearted family of property-developers. But it is written with subtlety and cunning, and every page, sentence and word is completely delightful.
Jenny, a young divorcée, settles in Barly with her small son Thomas. She is not clever, but over the years she manages to make a good living for herself, eventually buying and running her own guest-house. Thomas, meanwhile, develops a passion for the sea and for building boats. The locals are, on the whole, nice; life is, on the whole, pleasant. Until the day the local paper carries a report on the Black Corporation's plans for the redevelopment of Barly - a marina, shops and restaurants, a row of Mediterranean-style flats on the quay - and a time of upheaval and change begins.
Miss Murphy's style is delicate, lucid and witty; she shows a pleasingly ruthless streak, and imposes on her beautifully told tale an intricate time scheme that adds significantly to the emotional impact of her story. I greatly look forward to her next book.