Catrin Collier

Book Title: Coronation Street the Novel
Book Author: Katherine Hardy

Introduction: A lovely friend of mine lent me his copy of Coronation Street the Novel - ironically I had the same book on my shelf (his cover was purple and my cover was red). He asked me to read it first and give him a small recap, and I hardly think I'll need to! Why? Read the rest of my review! ;)

Review:

This book is a great starter for anyone wanting to get some back story on Coronation Street (especially if you don't want to go through a million pages of Coronation Street wiki...Those websites are insane!). It starts off at the early years of CS and continues up to about the 2010s. For those who want a back story (if they are new) or want a recap (those who've watched the series for years) this is a great start!

There are parts of this novel that are not perfectly aligned with the show - characters missing, characters doing something another character did or entire plot lines gone - but how can you fit over 50 years of television into a 1000 page book? it's quite difficult, and Katherine Hardy has done an excellent job.

As an avid Corrie fan (I've been watching for about 10 years), I can say this was a great book to give me some back story on the famous families and characters I already knew. To me, it was a lot nicer to read from the beginning and understand the movements of the plot then just hop onto the Wiki page and try to figure it out as I click different characters and read their entire life story.

The book starts out with Elsie and Ena, moves into Ken Barlow (who's still on the show! He's incredible), and continues forward with Valerie, Deidre, the twins Peter and Susan, and Tracy Barlow as well! It showcases Gail and Brian, as well as Nick, Sarah and David with a splash of Audrey as well! Sally and Kevin make an appearance, Molly, Jack, Fiz, Steve! So many great characters from across the ages make an appearance and tie this series together.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It rolls along like the television show. For a different manner of showing off Coronation Street, I think this is great for readers. It shows how crazy and dramatic Coronation Street came be as a soap opera but in book form.

Four out of five stars!… (meer)

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