Yesterday, we posted this as being for Rosie’s Review Team #RBRT but it was an error. For some reason, my brain went out to lunch and never came back! Getting old you know…

“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…”

Cathy’s immortal words from Wuthering Heights change Heathcliff’s life. At just seventeen years of age, heartbroken and penniless, he runs away to face an unknown future.

Three years later, he returns – much improved in manners, appearance and prosperity.

But what happened during those years? How could he have made his fortune, from nothing? Who might his parents have been? And what fate turned him into literature’s most famous anti-hero?
For almost two centuries, these questions have remained unanswered. Until now…

Our Review

 I remember liking Heathcliffe rather a lot when I read Wuthering Heights all those years ago. I was ever a romantic and his story appealed to me and I have never forgotten him.

This was one of the reasons I bought this book, as I too had wondered about the rest of his story.

It couldn’t have been easy to fill in the blanks, so to speak, but Sue Barnard is to be praised for adhering to the original complicated storyline, and I found her account to be the most likely truth behind Heathcliffe’s missing years. It not only sounded right but rang true to his character.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could have said so much more, but not sure if even small spoilers would be acceptable. I mean, everyone knows what happened at the end of the original story. It’s just a shame the author couldn’t have rewritten that too…

Sue Barnard is a British novelist, editor and award-winning poet. She was born in North Wales but has spent most of her life in and around Manchester. After graduating from Durham University, where she studied French and Italian, Sue got married then had a variety of office jobs before becoming a full-time parent. If she had her way, the phrase “non-working mother” would be banned from the English language.

Sue has a mind which is sufficiently warped as to be capable of compiling questions for BBC Radio 4’s fiendishly difficult “Round Britain Quiz”. This once caused one of her sons to describe her as “professionally weird.” The label has stuck.

In addition to working as an editor for Crooked Cat Publishing, Sue is the author of four novels: The Ghostly Father, Nice Girls Don’t, The Unkindest Cut of All and Never on Saturday.

She is also very interested in Family History. Her own background is far stranger than any work of fiction; she’d write a book about it if she thought anybody would believe her.

Sue lives in Cheshire, UK, with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.

In addition to working as an editor for Crooked Cat Publishing, Sue is the author of four novels: The Ghostly Father, Nice Girls Don’t, The Unkindest Cut of All and Never on Saturday.

She is also very interested in Family History. Her own background is far stranger than any work of fiction; she’d write a book about it if she thought anybody would believe her.

Sue lives in Cheshire, UK, with her extremely patient husband and a large collection of unfinished scribblings.