{"id":2392,"date":"2017-01-03T20:12:28","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T14:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2022-03-30T21:52:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T16:22:38","slug":"book-review-secret-orchard-roger-ackerley-diana-petre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/book-review-secret-orchard-roger-ackerley-diana-petre\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley by Diana Petre"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley<\/em> is Diana Petre’s recollection of growing up with her sisters in South London as the illegitimate children of a wealthy business man. She tries to find out her mother’s past through her letters, broken conversations and silent observation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The book begins with \u201cIt was Uncle who was your father<\/em>,\u201d she said<\/em>. What a powerful sentence! It grabbed me right away. The \u2018secret orchard\u2019 is what Roger Ackerley mentions in his will as \u201cNow for the \u2018secret orchard\u2019 part of my story. For many years I had a mistress and she presented me with twin girls ten years ago and another girl eight years ago. The children are alive and are very sweet things and very dear to me<\/em>.\u201d This is the story of the \u2018other woman\u2019 penned down by her youngest daughter. After reading Petre\u2019s book, I want to read My Father and Myself<\/em> ( an autobiography penned down by J.R. Ackerley, son of Roger Ackerley) about the other side of the coin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Muriel Perry was a young girl working in a bar when she met Roger Ackerley, a man many years her senior who later became her protector and lover. Muriel was happy being the \u2018other woman\u2019 and Roger was every woman\u2019s dream man. Though Petre later points out that Roger was not married when he first met Muriel, a fact he kept from her, we see no resentment on Muriel\u2019s part (perhaps because she never knew that he could have married her).<\/p>\n <\/p>\nReview<\/h3>\n