In the summer of 1969 Jen Boyde, a self-conscious 15-year-old living with her family on an RAF base in Germany, falls in love with lean and blond Kit Avery, back from boarding school for the holidays. The pitfalls of teenage romance are compounded by the fact that his father is a wing commander and hers is a sergeant; Kit has dinner and receives an allowance, Jen has tea and gets pocket money. Kit’s glamorous mother drinks Dubonnet and has affairs, Jen’s is a dowdy housewife. Oh, the social embarrassment of it all! Jen eventually grows up to marry a wealthy estate agent, run her own property business and live in a posh part of London, but she never forgets her first stomach-fluttering love. Over 30 years later, after discovering that her husband has been unfaithful - possibly with a man - she decides to track Kit down. Both are older and wiser, but is it too late for a distant summer romance to become a rekindled autumn love – especially as Jen’s husband is desperate to win her back? This is enjoyable romantic fiction, done with skill and subtlety. Julie Highmore is witty about class differences, and perceptive about young love, with all its insecurities, awkwardness and self-absorption.
Julie Highmore was born in Surrey, but as her father was in the Royal Air Force, she spent a happy childhood living in lots of different places, attending fourteen schools altogether. The regular uprooting has stayed with her, and she still feels the urge to move house every few years - enjoying doing up places that need a little work.
Before becoming a published writer, Julie taught English to foreign students and was a reader for Oxford University Press’s children’s books. Although she’d always had literary ambitions, she didn’t start writing until one day, at home with flu, she heard about a short-story competition on her local radio station, and to her surprise won first prize.
She eventually went on to study creative writing under a great tutor, Philip Pullman, who gave her invaluable advice and encouragement when she began writing her first novel. Unusually, Country Loving was picked up by Headline from the slush pile and was published in 2002.
Julie lives in Oxford and has three grown-up children. She has written eight novels for Headline: Country Loving, Pure Fiction, Play it Again, Sleeping Around, Your Place or Mine, Kiss Me Quick,Beautiful Strangers and The Message.
1. The plot turns on a misdirected phone call. Is this credible? 2. Is Jen too quick to abandon her 25-year marriage? Do you think she’s happy for an opportunity to get out of it? 3. As teenagers, Jen and Kit are divided by social class. Do you think things have changed since 1969? 4. How successful is the author in creating a sense of the 1960s? 5. Do you recognise her portrait of young love? 6. Why do you think Kit never married? 7. Who do you think has changed for the better over the years, Kit or Jen? Do they still retain any of their youthful idealism? 8. Would things be have been different if either of them had children? 9. Does their teenage relationship have any effect on their future lives? 10. Do you think young love can be rekindled many years later? What does the future hold for Jen and Kit?
Have you ever called a wrong number from your mobile, or sent a text to the wrong name? With such a tiny screen and the quick press of a button, it’s easily done. Not everyone has their own personalised voicemail, so when you hear the automated woman issuing instructions, do you sometimes hesitate before leaving a message? I know I do, and this led me to imagining a scenario in which a tiny mobile-phone error might have massive repercussions.
The Message opens with Jen receiving a misplaced message from her husband, which causes her long-term marriage to instantly and quite dramatically collapse. In the space of a few hours, while waiting for Robert to come home, a distraught Jen questions her judgement, her naivety and her attractiveness.
The narrative then moves back to 1969, where 15-year-old Jen, a sergeant’s daughter, is living on an RAF station in Germany. She meets and falls for a senior officer’s son, Kit, who’s home from boarding school for the summer holidays. The feeling seems to be mutual, but Jen feels completely out of her depth in Kit’s world. In spite of her insecurity, Jen is on a high - in love for the first time - and although she suffers the wrath of her father, her airmen-daughter friends and Kit’s snobbish mother, she continues to see Kit, often secretly.
Having briefly lived on an RAF station in Germany in my late teens, I felt the cosy and secure but rather insular setting would be ideal for exploring issues such as class, hypocrisy and Sixties’ promiscuity. For example, Kit’s blonde and beautiful ice-maiden mother disapproves of Jen and her lowly status, while happily having an affair with a corporal. What I enjoyed was taking an environment I’d known, even though I was older than Jen when in Germany, and my father was an officer rather than an airman, and filling it with a completely made-up set of characters.
Their heady summer in Germany comes to a dramatic end, with consequences that reach far into the future. When Jen and Kit meet again after her devastating message, its repercussions are still haunting his family. I wanted to explore meeting your first, idolised, love again, when you’ve both grown up. What it would be like? How would Jen deal with the unanswered questions of their sudden parting? Jen and Kit have changed, although not in major ways. Having gone up the social ladder a rung or two, Jen now sometimes displays similar prejudices to those she was once on the receiving end of. Kit, meanwhile, has gone from juvenile Marxist hippie, to property-owning journalist with the beginnings of a desire to finally settle down. Meeting again makes them both look at where they’ve come from, and what they want from life.
To me, the book is about the exquisite pain of first love, the effect of disapproval and double standards, the impact of family secrets and the fragility of relationships at any time of life. It touches on the highs of life as well as its darker corners, and I hope the humour and warmth I feel in my characters and their lives make The Message an enjoyable read.
Julie Highmore was born in Surrey, but as her father was in the Royal Air Force, she spent a happy childhood living in lots of different places, attending fourteen schools altogether. The regular uprooting has stayed with her, and she still feels the urge to move house every few years - enjoying doing up places that need a little work.