Jilly at her best

Forget Rupert Campbell Black. This is the real heart warming story of Jilly's early years with her dogs, family an d friends on Putney Common. Written in her inimitable caustic yet very readable style her world comes alive an d you will love the descriptions of changing seasons, banter with fellow dog walkers, occasional sad times and the undercurrents which exist between people who live nearby and also love Putney and the Common. A delight of a book!!!

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A love letter to the common

I really enjoyed listening to The Common Years, it is part nature journal, part diary and very honest. The common was easy to listen to although surprisingly heartbreaking in places. Imogen Church did a fantastic job with the narration and really brought everyone to life.

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Charming and Revealing

This book caught my ear so to speak when listening to the sample as it was set in the very area I grew up from teenager until moving a few miles down the road many years later. In fact, my local pub, The Spencer Arms, was mentioned and the nostalgia for the area caused me to purchase this book. I was also familiar with Cooper's work, having read "Riders", so hoped this memoir would also delve into her process of writing.

Alas, and rather surprisingly, this book does not give readers an insight into Cooper's writing of her best seller, other than to briefly mention losing her manuscript on a drunken bus journey home and having to start over.

What this book does inform us on is Jilly's eye for nature and her love of dogs. Oddly, given the subject matter of her aforementioned best seller, Riders, no such affection for horses is evident.

If you're a dog lover and/or a person who enjoys plants and flowers, this is right down your street. Cooper takes the reader on a ten year journey as she walks her dogs on Putney common and the colourful characters she meets and gets to know along the way. As someone who is familiar with the common, I was surprised how so many places have names that I had no clue about. To me, the common was a place I walked my dog in the 90's. There was grass, trees and bushes. I had no further attention paid to this flora. However, Cooper's encyclopedic knowledge of the multitude of plant and flower varieties, as well as the types of trees,is astonishing. It goes to show how little the likes of me are aware of the huge variety in every day nature.

For me, what made this book most appealing apart from being set in my old stomping ground was the people she got to know and the sense of community, good and bad, that seems to have all but vanished today.

This account is charming, funny, sad and revealing. I have to say that it is beautifully and intuitively read to perfection by Imogen Church. Her skills at infusing just the right intonation and feeling into every word is incredible. She is also capable of perfect French and is able to do multiple accents with ease. She is truly a most talented narrator and brings this account to life.

My main critique of this is that it's perhaps a shade too long and once you've heard about various trees, plants and flowers for the umpteenth time, it becomes a tad tedious. This account is revealing into Cooper's character in ways that, for me, were not so flattering. She loves her dogs but tends to over anthropomorphise them, giving them way too much leeway that led to tragic outcomes more than once. I used to keep my dog on a long extendable lead while walking him because of his unpredictable nature, as a result, I never had any cause for concern or had to take the actions Cooper did as a result of her over indulgent attitude toward her dogs.

I was also shocked how the death of her father, something she claimed she was "hellishly" too busy to make the time to see him before his passing, barely covered a paragraph or two and yet the loss of a dog saw her grieve far more intensely. Her routine, such as it was detailed here, saw her spend hours each day on the common with her dogs. I don't consider that to be too busy to visit your dying father. She also seemed to consider waking around 8AM to be early at over 40 years of age and the only money worries mentioned saw her have to downsize her staff while still being able to afford sending her son to boarding school. Quite a different reality compared to the vast majority of ordinary people, so I'd say a life that was far easier than most. Cooper experiences the world in a very different way to most of us. I found it telling that those who couldn't afford to run the heating were considered "poor" by her. As I say, not the most flattering insight into her personality but interesting all the same.

I also found the reasons she wanted to leave Putney somewhat absurd. Perhaps she should've tried living in Battersea in the early 70's, as I had, to see what a really bad area was.

Nevertheless, a fascinating insight in life in Putney from 1972 to 1982.

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The common years

Loved the book. Would have liked to read a book that talks about her life since moving.

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Favourite book

This is a favourite book and love reading/hearing it on a regular basis. I was though very disappointed with the narration- just didn’t work for me at all.

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2 people found this helpful