Ruth Jones is excellent on human nature and why we make the mistakes we do. I felt for every character. Unputdownable.' Jojo Moyes And they are faced with a choice: to walk away from each other . . . or to risk finding out what might have been. Gosh this is going to be a difficult book to review. I’m going to start by saying that I did enjoy Never Greener, the debut novel by actress Ruth Jones but I didn’t love it and I am unsure whether it was the fact I was reading it as an audiobook (is that right? Am I reading it if I am listening to it?!) but I struggled with it a little in places. For starters –it’s not just Callum and Kate we’re following in this tale. No, there’s Kate’s husband Matt and his best friend Hetty and Callum’s wife Belinda too … And we get *everyone’s* perspective with the omniscient third-person narration. We can even start a chapter following one person’s interiority, but when they make a phone-call to someone else, we’ll then get that person’s side of things too. It’s baffling that these basic fiction foibles weren’t edited and corrected, because they are confusing and quite clearly a TV-writing holdover (especially from Jones’ ensemble-cast writing) that she needed to be rid of.

The book leaps between 2002 and 1985 – describing Kate and Callum’s intense love affair when it first began (then ended in heartbreak) and again when it’s rekindled in 2002 after a chance encounter, when Callum is now in his 60s (still happily married to his wife) and Kate is a famous British actress with a husband and five-year-old daughter. Non ammetto il tradimento in nessuna occasione, specialmente quando a subirne le conseguenze sono persone innocenti, come Belinda, la moglie di Callum, che ammetto di aver amato come personaggio e ho compreso a malincuore molte sue scelte. When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she'd never get over it. Callum is married to Belinda and they have two children with another on the way. Everything seems to be going well now after surviving an affair twenty years ago when he cheated on Belinda with aspiring actress Kate, just hours after meeting her. It's an affair that threatened to end their marriage and hurt so many people. So when seventeen years later Callum and Kate meet by chance, marriages and lives are threatened again. On reuniting they both find it impossible to stay away from each other and the troubles begin.This one blew so hot and cold for me. One minute you love the flawed messed up characters the next you hate them. What they are doing to each other what they are doing to themselves. They are all in the end of believable and unbelievable at the same time. London and Edinburgh the two main settings one way to win you over. There was too much cheating which nearly made me round down. However something stopped me how human they all are. You do not have to like all details about a person and vice vesra it is written well. It’s written like a TV show/film, you can picture everything in detail but you still get the joy of being in the characters’ heads. I am honestly struggling to remember if I've ever read another book in which I disliked the main character so much.

And the really frustrating thing is that while we follow everyone in narration, that doesn’t actually lead to us learning more about any them. Kate and Callum between them make some pretty radically awful decisions in the spur-of-the-moment, but we only read the action, not the internal reasoning. So one moment Callum is refusing an attempted kiss from Kate, then while she’s on the phone to someone, Callum suddenly has a hand on her leg that’s creeping up her skirt… it’s completely baffling that these moments are communicated in such sparse sentences (actually very similar to the directions of a script?) but never interrogated by the characters themselves, in the moment. It reads very much ‘Slot A into Slot B’. Seventeen years later, life has moved on – Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all. This is a story of second chances in life. Ruth Jones expertly details just how unexpected a second chance can be as Kate and Callum meet again; seventeen years after the end of a relationship that almost tore both of them apart.How long does it take to become a national treasure? It’s not a label bestowed lightly, but Ruth Jones is well on her way to earning it, thanks to her much-loved TV projects, Gavin & Stacey and Stella, which mixed drama and comedy to heartwarming effect. Her screen work has that elusive quality of the top-notch writer, a “voice” that wins you over instantly. L'autrice è stata brava a far vivere le emozioni dei protagonisti e a creare un epilogo non scontato.. Saying that though, Ruth Jones really can write people and she writes them incredibly well. Kate is brittle, fake, toxic and a huge contrast to her kind, loving, compassionate husband Matt (who I really liked). Callum and his wife Belinda are both brilliantly written and the insights into relationships of both couples are drawn with an expert eye and deft touch. It is also laugh out loud funny in places with clever observations of emotions and the complications of life. Jones is a Welsh television actress and writer known for her work on shows such as Gavin & Stacey and Stella.

I'm so conflicted with this, on one hand I sped through it wanting to find out more but on the other hand I really didn't like Kate or Callum and am struggling to understand their reasons for acting so badly. On the face of it, this sounds like a novel to slog through of hard-to-like characters making harmful and hurtful decisions. But I was okay with that, going in. After all, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s brilliant ‘Fleabag’ TV series showed us the bitingly funny and complex humanity behind “toxic” people and their self-destruction. Something of ‘Never Greener’ also reminded me of British drama shows that had explored infidelity thoughtfully, and from many angles. ‘The 7.39’, starring David Morrissey for instance, and a David Tennant episode of ‘True Love’ that’s about a happily married-man bumping into ‘the one that got away’ and getting a brief, second chance with her. Both of these were examples of solid storytelling that didn’t reduce people down to ‘good’ and ‘bad’, but looked at the myriad ways we choose love, and exist within the ramifications of our choices. In her unmissable debut, actress and screenwriter Ruth Jones shows us the dangers of trying to recapture that which was once lost and failing to realise the beauty of what we already have. Jones dips in and out of these many lives and these many timelines and between London and Edinburgh, but never once loses you, and never once stops you from wondering when redemption will come for Kate and Callum, or will it ever come? Kate gets the hardest time. Her issues with food and alcohol surface again and again. Her mental health struggles are framed through Matt’s concerned eyes. Her obsession with her appearance and her desirability build and build, while her fragility only occasionally pokes through. In contrast, those weaker souls: the acquiescing Matt, the unsuspecting Belinda, the bumbling Hetty, they begin to shine. They give you something to root for. Seventeen years later, life has moved on - Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.I love books about gnarly, messy relationships and this one kept me gripped from the beginning. A great read.' Jane Fallon It felt like we only got glimpses of insight, Kate is definitely carrying a great deal of darkness but why? The most interesting character is Belinda and I almost feel that this story would have been better told from her personal perspective, but that has been done before. I have to admit that Kate's husband Matt and his old friend Hetty were by far my favourite characters and I hurt when Matt hurt and I wanted to cry when he cried. I loved Hetty for her absolute loyalty to him and was desperately sad when even their relationship when awry for a while. Many will have come to love Ruth Jones for her role as Nessa Jenkins in the hit TV comedy Gavin and Stacey and also her other roles she has become so well known for as well as a script writer, but now we can add author the list. Released on 5th April is Ruth Jones’s debut novel Never Greener (Bantam Press). Now, I wondered if I was just being really harsh on this book – because my hopes were up? But then I read this Guardian books review, and I was relieved to find someone else who had the same frustrations; “Jones may have a good novel in her, but even her spark can’t set this soggy material alight.” Ouch. But – accurate.

Heart-rending, provocative and astutely written, Never Greener is a love story about getting what you want and losing everything you need. Ruth's characters will stay with me for a long time.' Cathy Bramley Fast forward seventeen years and life is about to get very complicated. Kate is now doing very well for herself, a successful actress in her own right. Well known wherever she goes. Callum is still married and has a family and happy in Edinburgh. Secrets buried in the past never to be spoken of. There's been a trend popping up recently, at least in my life, of unlikeable characters. No, this isn't a thinly veiled attempt to shame my colleagues and peers or my nearest and dearest in the national press, but rather a nod to the books and TV programmes I've been consuming. Louise O'Neill's recently released Almost Love struggles to present you with even one character you feel deserves your pity or empathy or forgiveness. Kate you really should not like her at times I really hated her. However she defines a human being who has made some big mistakes but she pays for them big style. She is seriously messed up and times. The most fantastic of actress who can hide it to most. I love how her and Matt become better as friends with now their twenty one year old daughter. Her ending though makes way for so much more with a grown up son to get to know. It’s a tough slog to read this unfolding “romance”, and certainly not a story about the nuance of affection and affairs (Ruth Jones is no Liane Moriarty, or Mhairi McFarlane – for instance – both of whom regularly unearth the murkiness of lust and love). In fact, the entirely of Callum and Kate’s intense sexual chemistry (we’re told) seems to be down to the fact that Kate is really really ridiculously good looking. Just really stunningly gorgeous. And Callum is a fit ex-Rugby man. Again – because we really don’t read them relating to one another as people, just the (summarised) very brilliant sex they’re having, it’s a real stretch to believe their fiery passion …Never Greener provides no laughs, so again if it's Nessa from Gavin and Stacey you're after, you'll be disappointed. These are sad and messy lives and what redemption there is hard earned both by the reader and the characters. But those characters are well rounded and believable, their yearning and heartache is palpable, and their flaws are stark. And just like with Apatow's Love, or O'Neill's Almost Love, you're uncertain for much of the book who you should be rooting for, if anyone. But you'll get there, don't worry. Emer McLysaght Kate è diventata un'attrice famosa, ha un marito e una figlia, ma il suo animo è tormentato, non riesce a godersi le gioie della vita. Quando rivede Callum dopo diciassette anni, la stessa passione tra i due scoppia ancora. Fino a quando non vengono ancora una volta scoperti. Le loro vite cambiano e questo non per forza positivamente. Kate is an actress at the top of her game; she's married to the wonderful Matt and mother to five-year-old Tallulah. Callum is an older guy, a schoolteacher with three grown children, and obviously in love with his wife Belinda. Kate and Callum's lives couldn't be more different, yet when they meet again, all these years later, that spark is still there and despite any attempts to resist, it seems inevitable that the spark will create flames that could destroy so many lives. This isn’t a book that romanticizes infidelity by any means – it really is warts and all, and examines the effect of an affair not only on those involved but on those on the periphery. It is difficult and upsetting for all concerned and wasn’t an easy read/listen at times especially as Ruth Jones highlights the selfish nature of affairs and the almost disdainful way in which those having the affair treat the people they have hurt. My heart broke for both Matt and Belinda – their sadness is palpable. Callum ha una relazione extraconiugale con Kate, interrotta solo quando viene scoperto da sua moglie Belinda. Ma, dopo 17 anni, imperterriti, i due si ritrovano e ridiventano amanti. Il tempo intercorso tra le due relazioni, viene svelato capitolo dopo capitolo, in modo da meglio capire le dinamiche, gli avvenimenti, le scelte fatte dai protagonisti che, nonostante tutto, non si sono mai dimenticati. Kate è la rovina famiglia, l' amante, talmente egoista da mettere in secondo piano il benessere di sua figlia pur di riavere il suo vecchio amore. Matt è il marito, un uomo buono, padre affettuoso e amorevole. Belinda è la moglie tradita, che ha molto sofferto per il rifiuto del marito, ma l'ho apprezzata per le sue ferme decisioni e la forza mostrata. Callum l'ho odiato. Ha distrutto la sua famiglia, suo moglie e i suoi figli, portandoli alla condizione di non volerlo più rivedere. Particolarmente struggente sono stati l incontro, dopo che è andato via di casa, con suo figlio, e il dolore della piccola Tallulah quando Matt ha scoperto il tradimento e, distrutto, è ripartito da solo