Finding Henry Applebee
As seen:
By Celia Reynolds
avg rating
2 reviews
‘An absolute delight. It’s beautiful and elegiac and written with such a good heart’ BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and producer Russell T. Davies OBE
‘A simply heart-string tugging book that offers a ready escape route from these testing time’ Jon Gower, Nation Cymru Here Henry was, once again in a bustling train station, ready to resume where he had left off all those years ago… Finding Henry Applebee is a charming, tender and uplifting story about unlikely friendships, the power of love – and how it’s never too late to change your life. Perfect for fans of The Single Ladies of the Jacaranda Retirement Village and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Eighty-five-year-old Henry Arthur Applebee has had a pretty good life. But one regret has haunted him for the last sixty-five years. And so, on an ordinary December morning, he boards a train from London to Edinburgh. His goal is simple: to find the woman who disappeared from his life decades earlier. But Henry isn’t the only person on a mission. Also bound for Edinburgh is troubled teen, Ariel. And when the two strangers collide, what began as one humble journey will catapult them both into a whole new world… What readers are saying: ‘A great book … I highly recommend it to those interested in a narrative that touches one’s heart and soul’ Peter Thabit Jones ‘Beautifully written, wonderfully warm’ bestselling author Zara Stoneley ‘An uplifting read … tender, beautiful writing and wonderful observations’ bestselling author Tracy Rees ‘An intricate, absorbing, sliding puzzle of a story about friendship, family and love’ bestselling author Iona Grey ‘Just wonderful’ Goodreads reviewer ‘This book will warm the cockles of your heart’ Goodreads reviewer ‘A moving portrait of the power of human kindness’ Goodreads reviewer TweetReviews
St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 1st December 2025.
Finding Henry Applebee. Celia Reynolds.
Most of the group enjoyed this book – easy to read, liked the writing style, nice atmosphere depicting a ‘kinder world’, characters were well fleshed out and balanced, a good basis for a story, and the train scenes were a good way of allowing the characters to develop without interruption from the outside world. Those who read it liked the opening, and were eager to find out what happened next.
However, almost everyone commented that the numerous coincidences on which the plot relies made the whole thing appear completely improbable, and this appeared as a major flaw in the book (one reader said she felt ‘cheated’, and ‘they were not plot twists, they were betrayals’). For quite a few people this diminished their enjoyment of the book.
Other problems were that the ending was too ‘schmaltzy’, the plot was ‘predictable’, and there were too many characters involved, which confused readers.
Lots of good points to this book then, but one very noticeable bad one!
Light and easy read
Liked that it was by a Welsh author and some of it set in Swansea
Loved Henry’s character
Felt that the links between so many of the characters made it overly contrived
