As I read Winspear's book, I kept thinking of the subject of generational trauma and my mind spiraled. Overall I enjoyed the memoir, but this being my first book by the author it did not inspire me to pick up any title from her backlist.

Five glowing star for This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing! Jacqueline Winspear uses words to create beauty. Sometimes I had to take long pauses during the reading of this book, contemplating the people and lives woven within. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad, always brilliant. I wish that I were eloquent enough to express how moving this memoir is. I highly recommend it to all. Also, the audiobook is read by Ms. Winspear herself, which is a treat!

Hello,

I am sorry for any inconvenience, but I did not get a chance to listen to this audiobook before it was archived. I didn't know audiobooks had archive dates. Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this one.

Winspear's memoir is so beautifully written. I am an avid fan of her Maisie Dobbs novels so was looking forward to hear what shaped her own life. The fact that the author read the book herself added to the rendering of it.
She is a wonderful writer and her description of her family life during the World Wars helped the reader to understand who she became. The story of her life included the good events with the bad ones. That truthfulness added to the sincerity of the book and made you respect the author even more.
I can't wait to read Maisie Dobbs's newest adventure but with more insight into the story.

This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing is a memoir about a family that grew up in post WWII England and what their life was like. Jacqueline Winspear's grandfather fought in The Great War and her father fought in WWII and that shapes how her parents raised her. This is a series of vignettes that weaves back and forth through time. It is a little confusing listening to it, but I really enjoyed that the author read it. The story is very interesting as Winspear's family is pretty quirky and poor. It was a cute pandemic read!

This is not the typical genre I read, however, as an avid Maisie Dobbs fan I couldn't wait to read Jaqueline Winspear's memoir. Just as in her fiction writing, Winspear weaves a beautiful story about family and growing up in post-war England. Highly recommend!

I have been a fan of Jacqueline Winspear's writing for a long time, and I was happy to listen to the audiobook of her memoir. I enjoyed hearing the author read the book. Since I am almost the same age as Winspear, I found it very interesting to learn how different life was for her growing up in England versus my life in the States. The repercussions of the world wars were much more a part of life there. I was surprised that so much of the book was about her young childhood rather than her adult life, but it gave me an appreciation of life during that unique time period. She endured a lot of hardships growing up, but clearly is a survivor. Fans of the Maisie Dobbs books will appreciate getting to know about the author's life.

I have to admit something: I’ve not yet read any of Jacqueline Winspear’s fiction—gasp!—but I do intend to at some point, as many of my library customers enjoy her historical mysteries and request read-alikes. I may nudge her fiction higher up my to-read list, actually, as I found myself rather enjoying her word choices here—descriptions such as “I was effervescent with excitement” stood out in particular.

Winspear spends an inordinate amount of this memoire sharing stories from the lives of her parents rather than just of her own life. This may seem odd—it is a memoire after all—but it’s apparent that her life is at least as influenced by her parents and their life stories as it is by her independent experiences.

Building her parents’ stories into her own is also an interesting way of providing the context for how they came to be who they were in relationship with the author. The parts of the text that explore more closely the difficult dynamics of Winspear's relationship with her mother, for example, are felt all the more viscerally once we’ve had a chance to build empathy for both parties through these stories.

I found her style of weaving forward and backward through time to be somewhat disorienting, however, and at times I lost track of whether she was describing her own or her mother’s experiences, and I occasionally also lost track of which war she was describing during a particular story. But I did love listening to the family stories, and I even appreciated the subtly amusing end-of-life stories with her parents.

I also must admit that I had not realized quite how ignorant I was of Britain’s wartime experience—such as how they evacuated thousands of children away to foster families in areas less likely to be bombed—until now. I also did not know the term “surplus women” existed to describe the population’s gender imbalance after the country lost hundreds of thousands of young men in WWI. I was not expecting to receive a history lesson, but a history lesson Winspear does deliver.

Thank you NetGalley, Soho Press, RB Media, Recorded Books and Jacqueline Winspear for the advance readers audiobook copy.

I have enjoyed Jacqueline Winspear’s books, so I was excited for the opportunity to listen to her reading her memoir. The story is charming. She brings the listener into her early years and is completely raw in detailing the highs and lows of her experiences. It is compassionate, heartbreaking and inspiring. I throughly enjoyed getting to know Jacqueline Winspear.

I had already fallen in love with Jacqueline Winspear’s “Maisy Dobbs” mysteries so when I saw she penned a memoir, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. Winspear traveled a windy road before becoming a writer. Her life as told in this autobiography was stunning in its marriage of simplicity and complication. Winspear’s writing is gorgeous and listening to her voice narrate her life story was an equally beautiful experience.

Whether you were already a fan of Winspear or have never heard of her, this memoir will draw you in from the start. Do not miss the epilogue, full of honest and emotional revelations.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. The opinions in this review are entirely my own.

Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir is more a series of vignettes from her life. This is a charming, feel-good book which is a nice salve for the pandemic. The author reads herself, adding authenticity to the telling.

“This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing” is a memoir by Jacqueline Winspear, the New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series. This is a collection of her childhood memories as early as 6 months old. I found these stories quite astonishing and overall the book was very touching. You could tell the author has struggled with many of this topics and it was finally time for her to let it all out. I loved the narrating by the author herself.

Hearing Winspear narrate her book made her memoir come alive. Even if you are not a fan of the Maisy Dobbs books, this book is worth listening to during the year of COVID. It makes me wonder if history will look kindly at those who refuse to wear a mask because of “personal freedom”. Her parents grew up during World War One, and Winspear was born in the mid-1950’s. Her life and that of her parents were continually beset by shortages and hardships. It’s a book that made me feel better about the year 2020.

“This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing” is a memoir by Jacqueline Winspear, the New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series. I may be the only person on the planet who’s not aware of this popular series. Nevertheless, I signed up to review this book because memoir is my favorite genre ... and I've been impressed by the book's publicity.

This is Jackie’s account of growing up on an acreage in the English countryside. She calls this book her “re-memories” (her memory of her memories). It’s about the aftereffects of the war and her family’s hardworking tendencies to make ends meet (everyone, including the children, helped out on the farm). Jackie had a love of travel and moves to Canada for university, which she enjoyed. She also enters the publishing industry and emigrated to California for love and work.

Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with this memoir. In parts, it read like a historical novel with narrative between the “characters.” I listened to the audiobook and it was lovely to hear Jackie’s English accent as she narrated her own story. She did a perfectly fine job. Perhaps I’m used to more shocking memoirs with more emotions and drama? One thing I did relate to is the grief she experienced by being separated from her aging parents, and the pain of going through their hospice experiences. There’s a special kind of angst between mothers and daughters and I could definitely relate to this dynamic with Jackie and her mum.

Special thanks to RB Media for the audiobook, via NetGalley, in exchange for my review.