The Women Who Wouldn't Leave

LoveReading Says

What a tonic! In The Women Who Wouldn't Leave Victoria Scott has crafted a heart-warming story of community unity. A book that shows how bonds of sisterhood can be formed between the unlikeliest of individuals, in this case octogenarian Matilda and a young woman who’s fleeing from past traumas. Though gorgeously cosy, it also addresses issues facing many rural communities, such as corrupt development decisions, and how wealthy second homeowners out-price locals.

The novel sees Connie return from London to live with her mother in her small rural hometown, where she feels estranged from everyone, and shuts herself away. Similarly, old Matilda, who lives next door with her huge menagerie of animals, has shut herself off from the world — her “daily routine was a brilliant brick wall that she’d constructed to keep her memories at bay.” 

When an accident sees Matilda hospitalised, Connie inadvertently finds herself caring for Matilda’s animals. To her surprise, she discovers she enjoys being outdoors — it provides exactly the therapy she’s in need of. 

In the wake of the community finding out about the council’s plans to sell off and “develop” their estate, a beautiful sisterhood blooms between Connie and Matilda. A bond that moves from ignorant assumptions to empathy and true tenderness. As a child, Connie had been among the kids who’d cried, “Watch out, it’s the witch!” at Matilda. Now, as an adult, she’s able to see Matilda for what she really is — a fellow “other”, “the sort of woman society believed should have no right to exist.”

Funny, rousing and moving, with a sense of mystery around Matilda’s family history and Connie’s reasons for returning, you’ll be rooting for the villagers through every stage of their fight, waving metaphoric placards, defending their right to stay put. Like Connie, readers will feel “the appeal of living in a community like this. It must be wonderful, she thought, to feel like your neighbours had your back, to feel that they really knew you, and you them.”

Joanne Owen

Find This Book In