This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing

Zusatztext A 2021 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Critical/Biographical Fall 2021 ABA Indie Next Reading Group Selection An IndieNext Selection for November 2020 A LibraryReads Selection for November 2020 Praise for This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing The author of the Maisie Dobbs series of cozy British mysteries picked hops as a young girl to help support her family, which struggled to subsist in the hardscrabble landscape of rural Kent. This childhood memoir, though frank in its details of postwar privation, is at heart a love storyher parents' love for each other, and hers for them and the meaningful life they gave her. The Wall Street Journal The best-selling author of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series pulls back the curtain on her hardscrabble postwar childhood in rural Kent, England, in which bitter poverty was offset by good cheer and family love. The New York Times I fell in love with Jackie Winspear almost at once, right there on Page 24 of her engaging, amusing and moving memoir of growing up in the post-World War II English countryside . . . You don't have to be a boomer or have had a mirror experience to get pulled into the world Winspear re-creates. It's a world both nostalgic and soberly realistic, full of crystalline descriptions of the Kentish countryside and the now long-gone hop gardens that once flourished there. The Washington Post The book is heartfelt and humorous, poignant and frank, and as with the Maisie Dobbs books beautifully written. Buzzfeed A lovely memoir whether you are a fan of Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries or not. This is her personal account of her English childhood, including the harrowing stories and trauma of the second world war on her grandparents and parents, and her young life living on farms around Kent. Book Riot Evocative . . . Walking with her through this complex thicket of rumination and reminiscence offers readers a chance to understand more about the writing process, while revealing details of a family heritage well worth recording. Bookreporter.com As we have seen in her Maisie Dobbs series, Winspear's talent as a writer shines in her attention to detail and expert depictions of the emotional impact of war. AudioFile Magazine Has there been another title this fitting to the moment released this year? I doubt it . . . An extraordinary story of a childhood that spanned huge changes in society and a family grappling with the world lurching ahead. It was the perfect read for this year. The Secret Library Podcast Jacqueline Winspear has created a memoir of her English childhood that is every bit as engaging as her Maisie Dobbs novels, just as rich in character and detail, history and humanity. Her writing is lovely, elegant and welcoming. Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author of Almost Everything: Notes on Hope Jacqueline Winspear's memoir takes the reader through the early and adolescent years of the author's life as well as the history of her parents' young marriage in a fashion that is simultaneously endearing, touching, amusing, heartfelt, and astonishing . . . It's a love letter and a beautiful work of gratitude toward the people and the place that made the author what and who she is. Elizabeth George, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Lynley novels A beautifully rendered, elegant work of literary architecture joining the present to the past. Jacqueline Winspear's memoir of an English country childhood is also an homage to the remarkable parents whose choices and outlooks shaped her. Their stories of hardship and gratitude became hers, and...

A 2021 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Critical/Biographical
Fall 2021 ABA Indie Next Reading Group Selection
An IndieNext Selection for November 2020
A LibraryReads Selection for November 2020

Praise for This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing

“The author of the Maisie Dobbs series of cozy British mysteries picked hops as a young girl to help support her family, which struggled to subsist in the hardscrabble landscape of rural Kent. This childhood memoir, though frank in its details of postwar privation, is at heart a love story—her parents’ love for each other, and hers for them and the meaningful life they gave her.”
—The Wall Street Journal

“The best-selling author of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series pulls back the curtain on her hardscrabble postwar childhood in rural Kent, England, in which bitter poverty was offset by good cheer and family love.”
—The New York Times

“I fell in love with Jackie Winspear almost at once, right there on Page 24 of her engaging, amusing and moving memoir of growing up in the post-World War II English countryside . . . You don’t have to be a boomer or have had a mirror experience to get pulled into the world Winspear re-creates. It’s a world both nostalgic and soberly realistic, full of crystalline descriptions of the Kentish countryside and the now long-gone hop gardens that once flourished there.”
—The Washington Post*

• “The book is heartfelt and humorous, poignant and frank, and — as with the Maisie Dobbs books — beautifully written.”
  —Buzzfeed
  
  “A lovely memoir whether you are a fan of Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs mysteries or not. This is her personal account of her English childhood, including the harrowing stories and trauma of the second world war on her grandparents and parents, and her young life living on farms around Kent.”
  —Book Riot
  
  “Evocative . . . Walking with her through this complex thicket of rumination and reminiscence offers readers a chance to understand more about the writing process, while revealing details of a family heritage well worth recording.”
  —Bookreporter.com
  
  “As we have seen in her Maisie Dobbs series, Winspear's talent as a writer shines in her attention to detail and expert depictions of the emotional impact of war.”
  —AudioFile Magazine
  
  “Has there been another title this fitting to the moment released this year? I doubt it . . . An extraordinary story of a childhood that spanned huge changes in society and a family grappling with the world lurching ahead. It was the perfect read for this year.”
  —The Secret Library Podcast
  
  “Jacqueline Winspear has created a memoir of her English childhood that is every bit as engaging as her Maisie Dobbs novels, just as rich in character and detail, history and humanity. Her writing is lovely, elegant and welcoming.”
  —Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author of Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
  
  “Jacqueline Winspear's memoir takes the reader through the early and adolescent years of the author's life as well as the history of her parents' young marriage in a fashion that is simultaneously endearing, touching, amusing, heartfelt, and astonishing . . . It's a love letter and a beautiful work of gratitude toward the people and the place that made the author what and who she is.”
  —Elizabeth George, *New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Lynley novels*

“A beautifully rendered, elegant work of literary architecture joining the present to the past. Jacqueline Winspear's memoir of an English country childhood is also an homage to the remarkable parents whose choices and outlooks shaped her. Their stories of hardship and gratitude became hers, and hers became this unforgettable book.”
—Hope Edelman, New York Times bestselling author of Motherless Daughters and The Aftergrief

“This is a memoir both evocative and unflinching. Without a trace of self-pity, Jacqueline Winspear portrays a childhood of rural poverty overcome by hard …