Summer 2021

Where The Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens.

For years rumours of the “Marsh Girl”, have haunted a quiet town on the North Carolina coast.

So, late in 1969 when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect the so-called “Marsh Girl”.  But she is not what she seems.

This book centres around Katherine Danielle Clark known as Kya, a wild and unkempt girl known as the “Marsh Girl”.

The book follows her life by being abandoned by first her mother, then her siblings and finally her father, leaving her to survive on her own.

Before leaving, in one of his sober moments her father teaches her to fish and gives her his knapsack to hold her collection of shells and feathers.  Unable to read or write and being laughed at on the only day she attended school, Kya records her collection using her mother’s old set of watercolour paints.

Kya makes friends with Jumpin, a black man who runs a trading station and trades fish for food and supplies.  Jumpin and his wife source clothes and other items for her.

Her friendships include Tate Walker who leaves her to go to university but later returns, and the handsome Chase Andrews, the popular quarterback and womanizer, when he is found murdered Kya is accused and arrested.

This book has something for everyone, nature, art, relationships, survival, a courtroom drama and a murder mystery.

A cracking read! says Sandra Barker, of the Arts & Leisure Committee

As it is summer and the gardens are blooming here is a Flower quiz for you to try:

The answers are all flowers.

1. Hurry up, pussy’s in it
2. Smart fellow with a majestic animal
3. Father’s advice to daughter.
4. Lady on a bicycle made for two
5. Boy with an old fashioned pen
6. Great city’s self esteem
7. Necessary for a kiss
8. Lucky Scottish lady
9. Birds and a happy cat
10. Pleasant veg found in a whistle
11. Got up
12. A cold fall
13. Darling Bill
14. Two girls
15. Remember me
16. Adam’s bloomer
17. Best Policy
18. Source of light and bread
19. Drinking vessel for spreading on bread

ANSWERS