My enormous thanks to Claudia Bullmore at Bedford Square for sending me a surprise copy of Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. It’s my pleasure to share my review today.
Out now in other formats, Sipsworth will be published in paperback by Bedford Square on 8th May 2025 and is available for purchase through the publisher links here.
Sipsworth
Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns from sixty years in Australia to the English village of her childhood. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss.
Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship, and a way back into life itself.
My Review of Sipsworth
Helen is elderly and lonely.
This slim novella is absolutely beautiful and I loved every word. Simon Van Booy writes with such precision and skill that every word contributes to a book that is profound, uplifting and emotional.
In reality, little happens in Sipsworth as an elderly woman, Helen Cartwright who is newly returned to the UK from Australia, encounters a mouse. But that simplistic view is to mis-understand completely the complexities of human emotion that are gradually uncovered in the story.
In her eighties, Helen is profoundly lonely, with almost no human contact, and spending her days in a routine of radio, television and baths. Her lifestyle is a sensitively depicted wake-up call for all humanity. Helen’s existence could be the fate that awaits any one of us. Equally, she could be the elderly person living next door to us or whom we ignore in the street or supermarket. Through the response to Helen from the few characters she meets, Simon Van Booy illustrates how an acknowledgement and a small act of kindness can ameliorate loneliness and, quite literally, be a lifeline for someone else. The more we discover about Helen’s life and her previous professional existence the more the message not to write off older members of the community is emphasised. There’s far more to Helen than meets the eye.
The relationship between Helen and the mouse is depicted simply wonderfully and it’s filled with both humour and poignancy. Through him, her life is dramatically altered. I adored their interactions. Simon Van Booy presents friendship so naturally and the reduced cast list provides an intimacy I found completely compelling.
The way Helen’s memories interweave into her dreams and her day is affecting and emotional. She is harder on herself than she deserves and because we are given such insight into her character she makes the reader want to meet her and become her friend. It’s hard to accept she’s merely character in a book.
A tale of grief, loneliness and the basic need for connection, told with humanity and humour, Sipsworth is eloquent, entertaining and emotional – a total joy to read and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I loved it.
About Simon Van Booy
Simon Van Booy is the award-winning, bestselling author of more than a dozen books for adults and children, including The Illusion of Separateness, The Presence of Absence, and Sipsworth. Simon is the anthologist of three volumes of philosophy and has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Washington Post, and the BBC. His books have been translated into many languages and optioned for film. Raised in rural North Wales, he currently lives in New York where he is also a book editor and a volunteer E.M.T. crew chief.
For further information, visit Simon’s website, follow him on Twitter/X @simonvanbooy or find Simon on Instagram.
English (US) · 