Helen and the Grandbees Alex Morrall Blog Tour


  

Helen and the Grandbees By Alex Morrall 

Paperback published 28th October 2020 by Legend Press

Forgetting your past is one thing, but living with your present is entirely different.

Twenty years ago, Helen is forced to give up her newborn baby, Lily. Now living alone in her small flat, there is a knock at the door and her bee, her Lily, is standing in front of her.

Reuniting means the world to them both, but Lily has questions. Lots of them. Questions that Helen is unwilling to answer. In turn Helen watches helplessly as her headstrong daughter launches from relationship to relationship, from kind Andrew, the father of her daughter, to violent Kingsley who fathers her son.

When it’s clear her grandbees are in danger, tangled up in her daughter’s damaging relationship, Helen must find the courage to step in, confronting the fears that haunt her the most.

Told in Helen’s quirky voice Helen and the Grandbees addresses matters of identity, race and mental illness.

My review 

Helen and the Grandbees deals with issues of identity, race, poverty, adoption and mental illnesses. A very touching story, Helen is reunited with grown-up Lily, who was taken away from Helen shortly after Lily was born. Lily has a good job as a PA, while her birth mother, Helen is a cleaner. Lily shares her experience her birth mother that she hadn’t ever seen,  by explaining that she was adopted by a Caribbean family, as its a thing the social services do, they want black kids to be brought up in a black family.  And her name is not Lily. The story is deeply moving with Helen and Lily both have their own question getting to know each other again. And there are words that Helen wants to say to Lily, but thinks better not to. What I liked about this adoption story is the author Alex Morrall was passionate about the storyline and the characters.

Part of a chapter by Helen 

How did you learn to cook like this? I ask as dinner is scooped onto primrose coloured plates. Lily calls it jambalaya, which sounds like a tune, and the smell swells and swirls towards me and through my nose and throat. It’s full of prawns and spices, and chilli. From my parents. They wanted me to learn to cook food from around the world.

Parents again I try not to say anything. I keep trying not to say anything, but that must show on my face because I see Andrew and Lily glance at one another as Lily passes around the plates.

I was adopted by a Caribbean family. It’s a thing the social services do. They want black kids to be brought up in a black family and so on. You can see she does not really want to explain all this. She is not looking at me but carefully folding the green checked tea towel down on the pot, even though the tea towel does not need to be folded.

But you’re only half black, Lily.

She gives me a sharp look.

I mean Ingrid. You are half me, half white. And all my eyes. But I don’t say the last bit.

Apparently, it doesn’t work like this. I identify more with being black, she tells me as she passes me some cutlery.

Only because your adoptive parents were black, I seethe inside, but I bite my tongue. It sounds like a phrase she has used before. I’ve noticed that’s its best not to talk about Lily’s other parents. Or are the adoptive parents the real parents?

About author Alex Morrall 

I would like to thank Legend Press @Legend_Times_ for sending me the paperback to read and review and for very kindly inviting me to be part of the blog tour today.