I like Rachel Joyce’s books. She writes good fiction. She has characters with heart and resilience and she crafts good, robust stories as the stage for these characters to present themselves to us.
This is true of Miss Benson’s Beetle which tells the story of Margery Benson mainly and her lifelong ambition to find a golden beetle believed to inhabit the island of New Caledonia.
Set in 1950s’ Britain at first, there is a sense that any expedition to the other side of the world will be an endeavour only taken on by the most intrepid, and Margery Benson, Home Economics teacher (cooking and sewing to you) and spinster, seems an unlikely candidate to embark on such a trip. But when an incident at school sends her into a bit of a spiral, rather than propelling her further into a life of drudgery and complacency, it does the opposite and she finds herself planning the adventure of which she had always dreamed.
However, Margery does not feel like she can do it alone and it is in the finding of an assistant that the book begins develop into something more than a book about Margery and her interest in natural history and more about who anyone can be in terms of your own story.
It is the arrival of Enid Pretty which alters the whole tone of the book and also the whole course of Margery Benson’s life. But in order to find out how, you must read the book.
I will tell you this: Margery and Enid are like the proverbial chalk and cheese but perhaps have more in common than can be seen at first glance and can be gleaned from their very different physiognomy and dress sense. There are challenges for them in the book but as a reader, you are always willing both Margery and Enid to come out on top.
It is overall a heartwarming tale of friendship, sisterhood and triumph despite the odds and who doesn’t love an underdog story?
Two other things that I will mention is Joyce’s depiction of PTSD in one of her characters which is very vividly conjured in the visions that character experiences as well as his insecurities. Joyce creates a great deal of sympathy for what could have been an unsympathetic character.
And finally, the postscript where she talks about her inspiration for writing. I love the novel but I loved this bit best and I would urge you to explore it too as it was insightful to see inside the things that prompt a writer’s storytelling whether a feeling or a photo or a place…
Scuffed Granny 