I rarely read autobiography or memoir, but when the lovely folk at ed. Public Relations sent me a surprise copy of Lesley Pearse’s autobiography The Long and Winding Road it went straight to the top of my TBR. It’s my pleasure to share my review of The Long and Winding Road today.

I’ve been a fan of Lesley Pearse for a very long time – way before I started blogging – and have even had the privilege of asking questions of her in an online interview a few years ago. Lesley has featured on Linda’s Book Bag several times in posts you will find here.

Published in hardback by Penguin Michael Joseph yesterday, 29th February 2024, The Long and Winding Road is available for purchase through the links here.

The Long and Winding Road

One of the world’s bestselling storytellers, Lesley Pearse writes brilliantly about survivors. Why? Because she is one herself . . .

Born during the Second World War, Lesley’s innocence came to an abrupt end when a neighbour found her, aged 3, coatless in the snow. The mother she’d been unable to wake had been dead for days. Sent to an orphanage, Lesley soon learned adults couldn’t always be trusted.

As a teenager in the swinging sixties, she took herself to London. Here, the second great tragedy of her life occurred. Falling pregnant, she was sent to a mother and baby home, and watched helplessly as her newborn was taken from her.

But like so many of her generation, Lesley had to carry on. She was, after all, a true survivor. Marriage and children followed – and all the while she nurtured a dream: to be a writer. Yet it wasn’t until at the age of 48 that her stories – of women struggling in a difficult world – found a publisher, and the bestseller lists beckoned.

As heartbreaking as it is heartwarming, Lesley’s story really is A Long and Winding Road with surprises and uplifting hope around every corner . . .

My Review of The Long and Winding Road

Truth is stranger than fiction.

For someone who isn’t really interested in autobiography, I found The Long and Winding Road an absolute belter of a read! Lesley Pearse might be known for writing riveting domestic dramas, but her own life outstrips them all.

What works so well here is the conversational style Lesley Pearse uses. It is as if she is speaking directly and confidentially to the reader alone, making them feel special in the process. Her style is so engaging and The Long and Winding Road opens every bit as dramatically as any of the author’s fiction. It’s one of those books the reader consumes with wide eyes and jaw dropped because the events that befell Lesley were incredible. It seems fitting that her father was once in the navy as the structure of this memoir is very much like being on a stormy sea with great peaks and troughs to the waves of writing and experience.

In amongst the most revealing, honest and heartfelt prose are some fabulous throw away lines that simply stop the reader in their tracks and bring not only Lesley’s existence, but the eras she’s writing about, into sharp focus. Societal attitudes have played a huge part in Lesley Pearse’s life and reading The Long and Winding Road left me with huge admiration for her as a person as well as an author. Indeed, the passages relating to her pregnancy when she was nineteen and what has happened since reduced me to tears.

I loved the references to her fiction titles and how she has drawn on some of her own experiences to create character and plot. I’d like to say more about this aspect, but The Long and Winding Road is every bit as twisty, exciting and imbued with humanity and themes of feminism, poverty, self-resilience and grit as any of Lesley Pearse’s books and I really don’t want to spoil the read for others. What we have here is a person who presents herself with all her flaws and strengths and who makes her reader fall in love with her.

Reading The Long and Winding Road only served to confirm what I already knew – Lesley Pearse is a consummate story teller. However, it also proved that she is the most amazing woman too. As someone not a huge fan of autobiography I’d have to say that this is one simply not to be missed. It’s fabulous – even if it might put you off trifle!

About Lesley Pearse

International bestselling author Lesley Pearse has lived a life as rich with incidents, setbacks and joys as any found in her novels.

Resourceful, determined and willing to have a go at almost anything, Lesley left home at sixteen. By the mid sixties she was living in London, sharing flats, partying hard and married to a trumpet player in a jazz-rock band. She has also worked as a nanny and a Playboy bunny, and designed and made clothes to sell to boutiques.

It was only after having three daughters that Lesley began to write. The hardships, traumas, close friends and lovers from those early years were inspiration for her beloved novels. She published her first book at forty-nine and has not looked back since.

Lesley is still a party girl.

You can follow Lesley on Twitter/X @LesleyPearse, and find her on Facebook.