Must-read of the week: Carry on singing: Quarantine Choir

Carry On Singing by multi award-winning author Julie Hodgson is a lockdown-inspired novel with a difference. Beautiful and uplifting, it celebrates camaraderie and the healing power of music in pitch-perfect form. 

By Gwyneth Rees

When  the Covid pandemic emerged early last year it caught the world by surprise. Suddenly, all the freedoms we had taken for granted were being revoked as we came to learn a new word that would come to dominate conversations going forward: ‘lockdown’.

Multi award-winning author Julie Hodgson was, like most people, left in the position of being essentially house-bound with little to occupy her time.

To distract her mind from the doom and gloom being reported in the news, and to keep her sanity, she found a new social outlet online: virtual choirs. Her new novel, Carry On Singing: Quarantine Choir, is inspired by those experiences.

And what a heart-warming, funny and touching novel it is. The pandemic will have certainly left imprint in the future creative outpourings of authors, but I reckon you would be hard-pressed to find a lockdown-inspired story as positive and life-affirming as this.

The story follows Rosie, a Scottish woman in her forties who is facing something of a mid-life crisis. 

Her musician husband, Sal—the love of her life—has become bored of Rosie, and by what they have become. So, to give them both some space in the hope of reconciliation, she decided to temporarily relocate to Ponte de Sor in Portugal.

She joins a local choir only for Covid to strike. Rather than enjoying the fresh air and sunshine of this continental getaway, she finds herself stuck in her apartment, being forced to turn what was only meant to be a temporary existence into something more permanent. 

It is at this point that the reader begins to understand just how Rosie’s life has unravelled. 

She once had dreams, to be a travel writer and explore exotic places. Now, she writes commercial copy about textiles and lives vicariously through her 18-year-old daughter, Frida, who is enjoying love, sun and adventure while locked down in Australia. 

Rosie, however, finds that lockdown heightens her loneliness. She eats too much cake, avoids her neighbours, and likes staring out of her bedroom window making up stories about strangers.

Her world becomes limited to Zoom and attempts to dye her hair, buy underwear, and go on a virtual date only bring fleeting comfort. 

Desperate for company, she eventually commits to online rehearsals with the choir and this is where the story really begins, as the choir settles into a new weekly routine. 

Of course Rosie enjoys the music and the break from the mundanity of lockdown life, but she quickly discovers that the choir brings something else with it: solid female friendships that she never experienced, or thought she needed, during her marriage.

The choristers include a gang of memorable and colourful personalities, including Gita—a “buttoned-up character with a straight spine and small mouth”, sex-mad Sofia, Carolina and her many phobias, and Leonor, who like Rosie is also suffering from heartbreak.  

Personally, it is the interactions between these women that I found to be among the most enjoyable aspects of the book.

This scene, in particular, seems to encapsulate the very essence of the story, where Gita jumps on Rosie, sensing all is not well:

“What Sofia means is,” Gita cut in again, “is that we’re here for you. Whatever’s going on for you, you can talk to us. I know we haven’t known each other long, but you can lean on us. We always stand by each other in this choir, and you are one of us now.” 

That is what Carry On Singing is fundamentally about: finding support through friends, and standing by each other. 

Another lovely scene is when Rosie finally admits, to Leonor, that something is wrong:

“I’m sorry, Leonor. I haven’t been sleeping too well. I must look a wreck. I’m fine, really. Everything’s just a bit strange at the moment.” 

Leonor smiled. “Wow, you almost actually admitted you were struggling then, Rosie.”

It is shrewd-eyed Leonor, too, who notices how Rosie seems so “full of joy” when she sings—more so than anyone else in the choir. 

And not to give too much away, it is this untampered enthusiasm which leads Rosie to being picked to perform a solo in an upcoming performance. 

It’s a big task and comes with a bundle of nerves for Rosie to unpack. Can she do it? What will it mean for her “boring” life if she does? 

Whatever the outcome of the performance, it’s clear that the transformative power of music and friendship will have a profound and lasting effect on Rosie, forcing her to reassess her relationship with Sal and, indeed, her life. 

Carry On Singing is one of those reads that is difficult to put down or not inhale in one satisfying, easy go. It has an uplifting and compelling narrative supported by characters that you soon come to love. 

This is, no doubt, thanks in part to the author’s own insider knowledge of gospel choirs and renewed appreciation of the personal wellbeing that such social activities—be they in person or virtual—deliver. 

It’s also partly because Julie is a seasoned writer, who marks her 25th published book with this novel. 

And, finally, it’s because Julie, herself, lives in Portugal, in Aviz, within the region of Portalegre to the east of the country. 

The particulars of Rosie’s story are all fiction but that exuberance for choirs, for singing, and the laid-back lifestyle that only the Mediterranean can provide are all straight from the author’s heart. 

Indeed, the story is so warming that it’s as Julie’s been able to trap some of the glorious Portuguese sunshine within its pages. 

The novel, with proceeds from sales benefitting Portuguese community charity Acas,  is ostensibly aimed at the young adult market but, truth be told, it will be enjoyed by all ages. 

Fittingly, she has dedicated Carry On Singing to her own choir, Coro Gospel Ponte De Sor, and “all the choir members and musicians out there in the world”.

It’s a worthy tribute. Carry On Singing has a delicious melodic flavour that will soon have your soul singing in delight. 

Carry on Singing: Quarantine Choir by Julie Hodgson is out now, published through Chave AB and available in paperback and eBook formats, priced £12.82 and £2.99 respectively. It is available on Amazon  and via Books2read.com Visit www.juliehodgson.com

MEET THE AUTHOR: JULIE HODGSON

Julie Hodgson, 59, is both a prolific, award-winning author, having published more than 25 books for young adults and adults, and traveller, having lived around the world. Here we learn more about her writing journey to date and the influences that have shaped her work, which touches on many emotions but always with the added fizz of warmth and humour. 

In many ways, the life of author Julie Hodgson mirrors that of her recent fictional protagonist Rosie, who appears in new novel Carry On Singing: Quarantine Choir.

As the feel-good story unfolds, Rosie discovers the key to a happy life is travel, camaraderie, family and singing. And so it seems to be the case for Julie herself. 

Born in Burton Upon Trent in 1962, she was a premature baby. She would spend the first six months of her life in hospital and was named ‘Julie’ by her midwife, who described her as like a “tiny jewel”. 

Aged 10, and already a keen writer of poetry and short stories, she moved with her family to Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. There, her parents worked at a local holiday park, packed with entertainment and stars of the day. 

It was seeing these performers on stage, and taking part in the frequent talent competitions, that first drew Julie towards the world of singing.