Scarlet Feather

Maeve Binchy has written another sure favorite. Tom Feather and Cathy Scarlet, recent cooking school graduates, have just found the perfect premises in Dublin to start their new catering company, called Scarlet Feather. Without dramatics, Caroline Winterson's understated presentation draws the reader into this relational drama. Her gentle accent and brisk reading style present the characters with precision. We meet their family and friends, and learn of the pain and joys, disappointments and successes in both their personal and professional lives. Some of the richness of character development is lost in the abridgment, but it has obviously been done with care. F.L.F. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine


Maeve Binchy delivers a delightful social comedy of the sort no one does better, about a pair of Dublin colleagues who struggle to launch a catering company. Cathy Scarlet is married to the son of the family for whom her mother once scrubbed floors, and her fancy in-laws are not at all pleased. Her partner, Tom Feather, is in love with a spectacularly beautiful girl with an unrealistic idea of where beauty can take her, and a year in the life of their catering company brings ups and downs you haven't dreamed of. Barbara Caruso's warm, lilting reading is as winning as the book itself. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 1, 2001
Bestselling author Binchy (Tara Road, etc.) again explores the depths of family relationships in an 11th warm, involving drama. Set in contemporary Ireland over a period of one year, the smartly paced tale focuses on Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, cooking school chums who achieve their dream of opening a posh catering business, Scarlet Feather, in Dublin. Professionally, they're off to a good start; personally, their lives are falling apart. Cathy, whose out-of-work father plays the races while her mother toils as a housemaid, faces the consequences of having married Neil Mitchell, prized son of an upper-class family who employed Cathy's mother for years. Neil, a lawyer who champions worthy causes, is unconcerned about the tension between his wife and his snooty mother, and Cathy and Neil find themselves leading busy, separate lives. Tom has a live-in girlfriend whom he would love to marry, but Marcella, a manicurist in a classy store, yearns to succeed as a model before making any commitments. A charming cast of secondary characters includes Neil's cousins, Simon and Maud, two abandoned, nine-year-old twins who, in a surprising turn of events, come to live with Cathy's parents. The children's deadpan, exceedingly serious outlook on life is both heartbreaking and hilarious. One of Binchy's strengths is her subtle depiction of gradual changes in Irish society. By making her principal characters entrepreneurs, she reflects the ways Ireland's growing economic prosperity has altered social mores. Whether her readers are aware of such details, they help this wonderfully engaging book ring true. (Mar. 5). Forecast: Binchy's gift for creating a wide range of characters whose foibles and challenges make them lovable and real, coupled with her theme that genuine love can transform lives, add up to another crowd-pleaser. With major ad/promo, plus an author tour, this one is a lock for the charts.