I'm a huge fan of memoirs and love discovering new ones, so I was pleased to come across The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club by Lucy Edge. Lucy's first memoir, Yoga School Dropout, was published in 2006 and chronicles Lucy's adventures as she leaves her professional London life to head to India to find herself and learn more about yoga.Unfortunately I hadn't read Yoga School Dropout before picking up this latest book, but it's now one for the wishlist. In The Handbag and Wellies Yoga Club, Lucy is back in London with new partner David. Tiring of bustling city life, they feel it would be a good idea to move to the countryside for a new beginning - especially with the family they're planning.
Lucy embraces the idea of moving to the idyllic countryside of Norfolk, and pretty soon she and David have found a house, complete with the usual country chores and welcoming neighbours in a place where everyone knows each other - a big difference to their London lifestyle. Pretty soon they're meeting new friends, and Lucy tries out yoga classes around the area. But how successful is yoga in close-knit Beccles? Will Lucy still be able to maintain her love for yoga?
Admittedly I have never tried yoga, and don't particularly know much about it. But that was what made this book interesting. I wanted to find out more about yoga and the premise of a yoga-loving professional finding her roots in the country was appealing. However, after the first 100 or so pages, I still couldn't really get into ths book. I loved reading about the move, but after that nothing much really happened; nothing that made this book as interesting as I'd hoped. I felt myself wanting to skip over the conversations with her middle-class girlfriends as they simply weren't that interesting, or funny for that matter.
However, Lucy does touch on the subject of infertility in women over 40, which was interesting although I feel that she could have written more about this issue in the book. Lucy is very truthful when writing about her struggle to conceive, and with so many women in a similar situation who could relate, I felt that this could have been more of a stronger subject.
I had high hopes for this book but really didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. That said, I'm still looking forward to reading Yoga School Dropout, as I feel that Lucy's original travels to India would make a wonderful read. Lucy has an intriguing writing style which works wonderfully in her memoirs and I'd love to check out her first book - but this one just didn't grab my attention.
Rating: 3/5
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