A Terrible Kindness: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick

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I remember the Aberfan Disaster as my first introduction into the bleak awfulness of fate and happenstance.

This, combined with a fractious relationship with his mother, impacts greatly on William’s personal life and holds him back in relationships. Just hours after the multiple waves of black sludge engulf Aberfan’s primary school, 19-year-old William Lavery is enjoying his first proper grown-up night out.Lots of things do funny things to me, including choral music and in particular, you won’t be surprised to hear, the “Miserere”.

So, from the very beginning, we are aware that William has an unusual job but also that he does it well and that he is a kind, thoughtful young man, who wishes to give the victims, and their families, respect and to do his tasks with care. Robert Lavery was her husband’s twin brother, a living breathing reminder of what she has lost, and Howard, also in the business is Robert’s other half. I guessed I’d have liked more Aberfan, and less of William (who, btw, for anyone who’s read the book, treats Gloria terribly. Though neither I nor my parents were around for it, the Aberfan disaster has gone down in British history as an horrific tragedy quite unlike any other. But as the guests sip their drinks and smoke their post-dinner cigarettes a telegram delivers news of a tragedy.Instead of moving on from these lapses he severely punished himself (with flow on effects for others). Rescuers had to pull out the destroyed blackened bodies of children, many of whom had to be identified by scraps of clothing or a hairband. As he sits next to the window on the tired upholstery, with a spring nudging him in the backside, William is unexpectedly overwhelmed with a sense of his mother. Through Cambridge, where William is a choristor, we meet his friend Martin, and we also learn of his love for Gloria, his relationships with his mother, his uncle and his uncle's partner, and of his decision to join the family firm. Has the passage of time made it acceptable to use the dead of Aberfan as a literary device that prompts a character to re-engage with the troubles of their childhood?