Weekly Reader: Cogrill's Mill by Jack Lindsey; Cute Charming Romance Has A Lot of Laughs and Weirdness
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Jack Lindsey's novel, Cogrill's Mill is sort of what would happen if you transported P.G. Wodehouse's characters to modern day and had someone like Richard Curtis write about their current love lives.
It is a cute and charming story about a spoiled rich man with very little common sense who goes into a business partnership with a Bohemian photographer and he opens his business to her artist friends. You just know this is one of those types of books where people will fall in love and hilarity will ensue. Luckily, it is a genuinely funny sweet book that even though the journey is familiar, it is also a lot of fun.
On his 30th birthday, George Cogrill is given the riot act by his Aunt Jane. He is not married, has not held down a job, and has done nothing with the money he inherited from his father. There is a codicil in the will that states that if he hasn't done anything with his fortune by the time he is 30, then he forfeits his inheritance.
Aunt Jane has a suggestion to start. Years ago, George's father cheated his former business partner, Victor Gloam, and built his financial empire off of that. Jane commands that George give half of his inheritance to Gloam. Unfortunately, Gloam died leaving his daughter, Vicky.
When George is ordered to give that half to Vicky, Vicky has some ideas to create business. One of them is to market and sell the delicious apple cider that George produces from his mill. The cider is highly recommended but only available at the local pub. Vicky also wants to expand the mill to open a fashion photography studio and maybe an artist's colony inside the small English village inhabited by George and Aunt Jane.
Cogrill's Mill is hilarious, partly because it deviates from expectations.
While Aunt Jane seems to be borrowed from Wodehouse's elderly pesky dictatorial aunts, she is not from the Edwardian Age so much as she is a retiree from the Age of Aquarius. Instead of the stereotypical “old lady” hobbies like gardening or crocheting, Aunt Jane likes to ride motorcycles. She has plenty of them but only British variety: Triumph Bonnevilles, Norton, and BSA. “These Japanese and continental machines are much too inferior,” she insists. Later, when someone mentions Harley-Davidson, she asks who that is. Though nationalistic in her choice of vehicles, Aunt Jane welcomes Vicky and her new friends. She finds new people to befriend and be nosy towards while biking across country roads.
Lindsey also does a great job of writing George, Vicky, the villagers, and the visiting artists making them a delightful community of likable characters.
Jack, a local pub tender, is the first to cheer lead for George's cider and ends up being at the forefront of selling the stuff. The cider makes a killing of Jack's pub business, much to his chagrin, when tourists keep arriving at his pub for the cider.
There is Justin, an artist that George believes is involved with Vicky until he is informed that Justin is involved with Jonathan, a model. Justin and Jonathan are frequently together so it is no surprise to the Reader as it is to George, thereby showing that George really needs to get a clue.
There is Tom Firkin, a gamekeeper who hides artistic talent and develops a romance with Vicky’s model friend, Miranda, despite his bucolic shy exterior. His dialect reveals that he is far from the dumb rural stereotype. Instead he is a sweet man who just needs encouragement from the right woman.
Miranda inadvertently causes a running gag by revealing her real name, Mabel, to George. George covers up for Miranda's embarrassment by telling Vicky that Mabel is the name of Jane's cat which she doesn't have. Vicky then spends some of the book looking for Aunt Jane's nonexistent cat.
Of course George and Vicky have some cute moments where the ambitious Vicky bickers with the complacent, George. There are also plenty of misunderstandings such as George proposing a business idea to Vicky and both she and Aunt Jane think it's a marriage proposal.
These humorous moments are driven by the characters’ personalities and behaviors giving a sweetness and gentleness to the events.
There are some weird moments towards the end. A smooth relative of Vicky's turns out to be a crook who takes some unnecessarily violent repercussions on the other characters. One wealthy character dies and leaves their fortune to their dog and another character gets amnesia and spends some time with a British Country-Western band.
The last third of the book becomes silly and farcical instead of the gentle character-driven comedy but most of the book produces some sweet moments that make you root for the characters and want to see them succeed.
Underneath the sweet characters and humorous plot points, there is an underlying theme of moving out of one's comfort zone and taking chances. Once George and Vicky share the fortune, they discover hidden talents in other people like Tom, Jack, Justin, Miranda and other characters. They also discover talents within each other.
George is revealed to make a great cider that he has never wanted to market until Vicky convinces him to. He also has a good eye for photography so he starts taking his own pictures becoming an honorary member of the artists’ colony.
Vicky also has some talents that encourages her to step onto the other side of the camera. She is very photogenic and becomes a model. She also acquires an acting talent and accepts the lead in a romantic comedy (inside the romantic comedy that is the book, Cogrill's Mill). The two achieve success once they display those talents to the world.
With success comes problems like the rush of tourists, sycophants who suck up to the newly famous, and in one chapter, George having to speak at conferences while hung over. But those problems help turn the lives of George, Vicky, Aunt Jane, and their friends around into something different.
The characters in Cogrill's Mill move on from their lives into new experiences that change them, sometimes better and more fulfilling and sometimes worse and with more headaches. But, the new experiences move them beyond their exteriors to become characters that are sweeter, funnier, more authentic, and more real.
Aunt Jane has a suggestion to start. Years ago, George's father cheated his former business partner, Victor Gloam, and built his financial empire off of that. Jane commands that George give half of his inheritance to Gloam. Unfortunately, Gloam died leaving his daughter, Vicky.
When George is ordered to give that half to Vicky, Vicky has some ideas to create business. One of them is to market and sell the delicious apple cider that George produces from his mill. The cider is highly recommended but only available at the local pub. Vicky also wants to expand the mill to open a fashion photography studio and maybe an artist's colony inside the small English village inhabited by George and Aunt Jane.
Cogrill's Mill is hilarious, partly because it deviates from expectations.
While Aunt Jane seems to be borrowed from Wodehouse's elderly pesky dictatorial aunts, she is not from the Edwardian Age so much as she is a retiree from the Age of Aquarius. Instead of the stereotypical “old lady” hobbies like gardening or crocheting, Aunt Jane likes to ride motorcycles. She has plenty of them but only British variety: Triumph Bonnevilles, Norton, and BSA. “These Japanese and continental machines are much too inferior,” she insists. Later, when someone mentions Harley-Davidson, she asks who that is. Though nationalistic in her choice of vehicles, Aunt Jane welcomes Vicky and her new friends. She finds new people to befriend and be nosy towards while biking across country roads.
Lindsey also does a great job of writing George, Vicky, the villagers, and the visiting artists making them a delightful community of likable characters.
Jack, a local pub tender, is the first to cheer lead for George's cider and ends up being at the forefront of selling the stuff. The cider makes a killing of Jack's pub business, much to his chagrin, when tourists keep arriving at his pub for the cider.
There is Justin, an artist that George believes is involved with Vicky until he is informed that Justin is involved with Jonathan, a model. Justin and Jonathan are frequently together so it is no surprise to the Reader as it is to George, thereby showing that George really needs to get a clue.
There is Tom Firkin, a gamekeeper who hides artistic talent and develops a romance with Vicky’s model friend, Miranda, despite his bucolic shy exterior. His dialect reveals that he is far from the dumb rural stereotype. Instead he is a sweet man who just needs encouragement from the right woman.
Miranda inadvertently causes a running gag by revealing her real name, Mabel, to George. George covers up for Miranda's embarrassment by telling Vicky that Mabel is the name of Jane's cat which she doesn't have. Vicky then spends some of the book looking for Aunt Jane's nonexistent cat.
Of course George and Vicky have some cute moments where the ambitious Vicky bickers with the complacent, George. There are also plenty of misunderstandings such as George proposing a business idea to Vicky and both she and Aunt Jane think it's a marriage proposal.
These humorous moments are driven by the characters’ personalities and behaviors giving a sweetness and gentleness to the events.
There are some weird moments towards the end. A smooth relative of Vicky's turns out to be a crook who takes some unnecessarily violent repercussions on the other characters. One wealthy character dies and leaves their fortune to their dog and another character gets amnesia and spends some time with a British Country-Western band.
The last third of the book becomes silly and farcical instead of the gentle character-driven comedy but most of the book produces some sweet moments that make you root for the characters and want to see them succeed.
Underneath the sweet characters and humorous plot points, there is an underlying theme of moving out of one's comfort zone and taking chances. Once George and Vicky share the fortune, they discover hidden talents in other people like Tom, Jack, Justin, Miranda and other characters. They also discover talents within each other.
George is revealed to make a great cider that he has never wanted to market until Vicky convinces him to. He also has a good eye for photography so he starts taking his own pictures becoming an honorary member of the artists’ colony.
Vicky also has some talents that encourages her to step onto the other side of the camera. She is very photogenic and becomes a model. She also acquires an acting talent and accepts the lead in a romantic comedy (inside the romantic comedy that is the book, Cogrill's Mill). The two achieve success once they display those talents to the world.
With success comes problems like the rush of tourists, sycophants who suck up to the newly famous, and in one chapter, George having to speak at conferences while hung over. But those problems help turn the lives of George, Vicky, Aunt Jane, and their friends around into something different.
The characters in Cogrill's Mill move on from their lives into new experiences that change them, sometimes better and more fulfilling and sometimes worse and with more headaches. But, the new experiences move them beyond their exteriors to become characters that are sweeter, funnier, more authentic, and more real.
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