Tainted Tree

Jacquelynn Luben

The Artist

The artist, Janice Windle, created a painting of a house in Guildford, based on my description of the house inherited by Addie Russell, the heroine of Tainted Tree. Around it, she included foliage painted in Cornwall, in a representation of the West Country interest in the novel. It was painted in guache and is now in the author's living room.

This is what Janice had to say about Tainted Tree.

Well, I know you'll say I have an axe to grind, and I have to declare an interest because I designed its cover, but I have to write this to anyone who will listen - Jackie Luben's "Tainted Tree" is a real humdinger of a book (excuse my American). Jackie was very secretive about the plot and never let me read past the third chapter while I was doing the art work, so I've had to wait till now to read the whole thing. I'd begun it midweek, having had a nice posting at a school that finishes its day at 2.30pm. This morning I simply couldn't put the novel down. The pace of the second half, in particular, is incredible, and you're rushed along from high to low, good news to bad news, from place to place, along with the central character. It had me in tears some of the time and wishing I WAS Addie, the main character, at other points (she does meet some very nice chaps, all very different and all interesting).

And you find yourself sharing thoughts with English people, Americans, people from the past and from the present, and seeing problems of family and love from all kinds of perspectives. OK, it's probably more a women's read than a man's - but who am I to be so sexist as to think that men don't enjoy reading about love and family relationships? At times it reminded me a little of Sebastian Faulkes' "Birdsong" in feeling - though the theme is different - and I know that book has plenty of male readers.

It's one of those books where you get two-for-one, too - a story within a story. Jackie has done her research very thoroughly. With her heroine, we read a diary written by someone who like me grew up in the 1960's, who gives a first hand account of hearing the news of John Kennedy's assassination (I always remember that moment, as most people my age probably do), the problems of sexual mores and contraception issues that we struggled with - and takes us again to the student parties of our far off youth. And that is interleaved with the ups and downs of a modern romance. The cultural differences between Britain and America are in there too, seen from an American perspective. Running through the book like a connecting thread is a puzzle that the heroine has to solve in the near present (the book is set in the 1990's).

Jackie is an author of great sensitivity and she tells a compelling story, with a lot of humour, compassion and a wonderful sense of pace and style. I don't think I've given too much away - you have to read it to enjoy the complex and fascinating plot.

Janice Windle, artist

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