A Type of Beauty

I've known about Kate Newton for the last few years, when Patricia O'Reilly started working on this, her latest project. So I felt I knew her already when the book came out earlier this summer. Reading her story was like meeting a pen friend, someone you've known all your life but have never met face to face. And it was wonderful to finally meet her - this strong person who had such a short and hard life but who also had the luck of finding a great love.

A Type of Beauty was a page turner - I had it finished in a couple of days. I spent a lot of the time talking to Kate in my head (I do that a lot!), warning her of the dangers ahead, telling her not to do things that were going to work against her, screaming at her not to walk into the arms of danger. And I spent a lot of time being mad at people who should have looked after her better. And I had a tear in my eye at the end of course. So, yes, I was completely taken by it. If you like a good romantic story, this has got all the ingredients and it delivers from start to finish. I can see a movie already, with beautiful location shots from India to Paris and London.

And each time I look at a painting by James Tissot, I see the Kathleen I've got to know through the book. The picture here, called The Hammock, is one I've just come across, browsing through websites about James Tissot, who was such a prolific artist. I think his love for her shows through each and every one of his paintings, don't you?