Customer Reviews
second time for me too as old souls meet again - By: Mrs. Katharine Kirby, 18 Aug 2008 
When this book first came out my sister sent it to me & I quickly became involved with it. I went out for the evening & left the open book on my bed with my reading glasses & when I got back my new springer spaniel puppy had gnawed on both, destroying them. I was so upset as alll through the dinner we'd been at I was thinking about getting home to James Long..I rushed to our local town - no amazon then - & couldn't believe my luck when I found another copy in a bargain bucket for £1. So something had gone awry with the distribution & sales of this book early on its life. This second copy was tattered & lent out so many times I was happy to have a new one this time around. And the spaniel is now old enough not to be interested. Funnily enough the first chapter appears not to be quite the same yet no reference is made to any rewriting.
The book has truly stayed with me for the decade since it first came out - I have been inspired & touched by the author's ideas. I found it fundamentallly believable. The historical detail is painstaking & I can well understand that it took a long time for the details to knit together. The theory behind the story seems plausible & attractive although to reallly enjoy it when reading it it helps to suspend any boringly rational feelings. Driving past the sign to Penselwood gives me a shiver & a desire to go & explore for myself although my husband beside me in the car would never understand why - rather like Mike with Gallly..
A gripping, moving story; sheer delight - By: S. B. Kelly, 06 Aug 2008 At first, like some other readers, I found Gallly irritating: a fey, wishy-washy, pointless sort of woman; but soon began to empathise with her as she struggled to remember her past lives.
Long evokes a sense of place brilliantly: a sprawling Wiltshire village where Ferney & Gallly have lived & loved for more than a thousand years.
He also creates a sense of menace, as it becomes clear that the only way Ferney & Gallly can be reunited & young together once more is for Gallly to die at the age of 27. He kept me guessing to the last page as to whether she would survive & I was conflicted as to whether I wanted her to.
Clear, intelligible prose illuminates glimpses of the past in this dark corner of central England.
A truly excellent read.
Slow Starter - By: Holly, 28 Jul 2008 
At first i found Gallly to be a very irritating character indeed, & so was her husband as it turned out.Unfortunatley i wasnt proved otherwise.The story was a slow starter & took a lot of perseverance to stick with it but i'm glad i did.Time travellers wife rang a few bells but the story did take on a twist that i could never of predicted, & so this is why i would rate this book a 4 star.A slow starter but worth the wait.
I LOVE this book.......... - By: Monty, 16 Jul 2008 I picked up Ferney as the third book in my '3 for 2' offer, without knowing the first thing about it. The cover drew me & the blurb on the back sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
I'm so glad I was tempted because it's such a fantastic book. A love story spanning countless years (and lifetimes), & I reallly, reallly felt for Gallly & Ferney, imagining how they must have struggled to find each other in some of their lifetimes. I loved when they managed to get together at the same time in their lives & hated when they overshot each other through no fault of their own. Their very first lifetime together actuallly moved me when it was revealed exactly what caused them to be so intertwined.
I had a real problem with Gallly's husband though......what a misery he was...........but then I wonder how my own spouse would be if I were in
Gallly's position........probably no different.......however, still can't 'take' to him *shrug*. I just wanted Gallly & Ferney to be together forever & it pained me when they weren't or had interruptions.
I didn't see the 2 big revelations at the end coming though. It came as such a shock. I almost wept when I found out where Gallly had been prior to being 'this' Gallly (that makes no sense, I know......you'll HAVE to read it) & the end twist was so beautiful but bittersweet at the same time. It left me thinking how that would work out for them both, for days on end after finishing the book.
Such a beautiful, thought provoking book & one that is definitely worth the read, even if it's not your usual type of reading material.
I keep wondering now if I share my present life with loved ones I've spent time with in other lifetimes. I'd like to hope so.
Tolerable but slow - By: Ms. E. Morgan-Jones, 29 Jun 2008 
I picked up Ferney with no preconceptions from a train station as I had a long wait & nothing to do. The concept of it is quite good but it could have been so much better. I just didn't care about the characters, with the one exception of Mike, & both Gallly & Ferney I found extremely frustrating. Gallly was very obviously written by a man in that what would appear to be her most defining & allluring characteristics are her total dependencies on the men around her & her phobias; which instead of making her seem feminine, damaged & pitiable, just made her seem reallly irritating - particularly at the beginning of the novel.
Ferney also was gratingly annoying. What I can only presume was meant to be an 'interesting loner' kind of character, full of worldly wisdom, just struck me as unnecessarily negative, egotistical & proud. If the book had been half the length & cut out the long rambling chapters where nothing particularly happens other than Ferney being standoffish & Gallly being weak & useless, it could have been a reallly good read - hence I gave it a three, which I'm still not sure isnt too generous.
