The Lonely Impulse by Merryn Ferguson
How random are acts of kindness? What memory triggers that generous action on the particular day? Three men, comrades in arms at the end of WW1, return to the Lowlands of Scotland, a farm in Cornwall and the East End of London to lives unrecognisable from those they had left, harbouring a secret that it is imperative that they conceal and which is only discovered in a diary entry one hundred years later. They were not to meet again. Over the years and spanning five generations one member of each family is prompted to an impulsive charitable act at a critical moment in their lives and the three families are eventually drawn together by one final act of kindness.
About the author
Merryn Fergusson is a retired physiotherapist who has written Vertigo and the Vagus Nerve, a study of dizziness and What’s Wrong with ME, a diary of their son’s illness and recovery when he was a teenager with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. She has lived and worked in Cornwall and Scotland and on the death of her husband Alex, moved to South East London.
Reviews
In this fascinating novel, once again, we meet characters we care about, following their relationships in a social history that we both recognise and gain insight into. This si a page turner, guaranteed star rating if translated as a t.v. series. (Lois Aitkenhead,Psychotherapist)
This extraordinary novel traces the fortunes of three very different families from the end of the 1st World War to the present day. Merryn Fergusson writes with great feeling to reveal how simple and inconsequential random acts of kindness have the power to reverberate through the years, changing lives.
Set against the turmoil of the 20th century this surprising and moving novel delivers a message of hope.
Even the smallest act can have a profound effect. (Ted Haynes, Writer)
Merryn Fergusson writes with a rare combination of sensitivity, intelligence and honesty, bringing a quiet intensity to the complexities of being human. Her writing has a remarkable ability to capture inner worlds we rarely articulate, the subtle dynamics of our relationships with others in the things left unsaid, and the ways in which we connect, misunderstand and shape one another.
Beautifully observed, the writing finds poetry in the ordinary and tenderness in places we often struggle to put into words.
Her books stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. ( Eleanor Roberts, Occupational therapist)
The direct narrative style makes this an easy book to read with a convincing style following families across the generations linked y acts of kindness. The different scenes and timescales along with a large caste of characters makes for absorbing reading. (Maggie Martin, Artist)