Marianne (Australia) (2011/04/02): The Beach Hut is Veronica Henry’s 5th stand-alone novel. It consists of 14 inter-related vignettes, each one named for a beach hut on the Everdene Sands beach front. In this excellent novel, Henry examines the unique culture that is characteristic of society in these holiday dwellings. At the same time, she touches on subjects as diverse as alcoholism, adultry, self-made women, unrequited love, financial advisers, mental cruelty, jealousy, loss of a life partner, ticking biological clocks, first love, job redundancy, loss of innocence, heartbreak, revenge, overprotective mothers and building sand castles. Family tradition and the dynamics of extended families also form an important part of the stories. It may seem a big ask to draw all these disparate elements together, but Henry is more than up to the task: she does so admirably. This novel with make you laugh and cry, and leave you feeling good.
