Readers' Comments

If you would like to share a comment or observation with the author or with other readers, e-mail to reception@salleyvickers.com

Please state if your communication is private or if it may be displayed here.

Dear Ms Vickers,
This is the first time I've ever written to the author of a book I've read. I felt I must write to express my appreciation of your book "Miss Garnet's Angel" which I read last month. I found it utterly fascinating: because of the setting in Venice, a magical place I visited for just one day in the 80s while backpacking around Europe with my sister; partly because I am quiet and retiring like Miss Garnet, and can empathise with her hidden passionate self; partly because I believe in the philosophy of "tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner"; partly because I am a Parsi Zoroastrian in Bombay, and found myself very interested in the parallels you draw between the Archangel Raphael and Sraosha.
I work at the British Council in Bombay as a librarian, and my job is to select and order all the books (and since I am a confirmed bookworm, there's almost nothing I like doing more). That's how I first came across your book, which I got to read just last month, while on holiday in Rajasthan, visiting a tiger sanctuary. The theme was so unexpected, and so beautifully interwoven with the Biblical story of Tobias and the Angel. The Zoroastrian aspect was of particular interest to me, because I belong to that endangered species myself. My grandfather, Dr. I. J. S. Taraporewala, was a renowned scholar of our religion, and translated the Gathas (Songs) of Zarathushtra into English. I would love to send you a copy of his book, whenever I can find a friend who will be visiting the UK, if I can know where to send it.
I'm now longing to read your second book, which I've reserved in the library, and have just placed an order for the third novel. Although I am still at work, I have recently opted for voluntary early retirement, and hope to work towards making better children's books available here in Bombay (where Enid Blyton still reigns supreme), and also towards a project on tiger conservation, a cause very dear to my heart.

Many thanks for your book, and warm regards
(Ms) Soonoo Taraporewala

Dear Ms Vickers,
This is just to thank you for "Miss Garnet's Angel", which I have read recently. I find it difficult to find the right words to express how much I enjoyed both its subject matter and the language, so let me just say that reading it was one of the most beautiful, moving and life-enhancing experiences I have ever had.
Joanna Kopel

I have greatly enjoyed your novel Miss Garnets Angel,and am now reading instances of the number 3. Your book was the first book I have read in many years,and it struck a chord with someone who has been a teacher for a long time and read nothing but Educational texts, always putting the job and other people first. Good luck with your next endeavour.... may your angel always be with you.
Angela Newman

Dear Ms. Vickers,
Last April I purchased a copy of Miss Garnet's Angel because it looked like the kind of book I'd enjoy plus I would be travelling to Italy in July, ending my trip with 3 days in Venice. The book sat quietly waiting for me while I finished The Agony & the Ecstasy (again) and I finally got to it this week. I can honestly say it was one of the best books I've ever read!! Not only did I get to revisit the city I had fallen in love with, but the book combined so many of my favorite themes and devises: intertwining stories, syncronicities, angels, ancient religions, art, and of course, Venice. I know I will reread the book, savouring it all the more the second time around, just as I plan to revisit Venice very soon, with many new places to find and explore, thanks to your superb writing. P.S. Your web-site is fabulous as well!
Karen Tallman

Dear Miss Vickers,
Thank you for Miss Garnet's Angel. It was just what I needed at a period of transition in my own life and I look forward to reading your other novel. It's amazing. I've never written a fan letter before, but this is all so easy. I guess there are compensations in the modern age.
Tom Jones

Dear Salley,
My friends and I loved hearing you speak in Washington and now we have bought both your books and read them. They are mind blowing - life altering. You have a very special touch with humour, light, love and laughter. Please go on writing - we need writers like you who make life seem worthwhile.
Joanne Michaels

From a Boston fan - loved it Salley! Loved The Number 3 and reading Miss Garnet. All power to you!
Will

Dear Salley Vickers,
I just finished Miss Garnet's Angel, a wonderful book!
I am about Miss Garnet's age, have never been to Europe but now I want to go to Venice. Does the Campo Angelo Raffaele really exist? The church? I have never been so charmed by a novel.
Paul Nagy

I loved this book and have recommended it to many of my readaholic friends. Particularly, I enjoyed the side by side themes of the angelic realm interacting with daily human lives - I'm sure this is true but we are often too busy to notice our 'travelling companions!' Thankyou Salley, I am keeping Instances of the Number 3 to read on a long plane journey - from Australia to England. My overhead light will be the last one to go out, I am sure.
Mavis Urwin Australia

All our family have read and loved Miss Garnet. We have given copies to family and friends. It really is a particularly good book on so many levels.

It was the review in The Spectator which caught my eye and I ordered a copy through my local Barrabas. It looked like a mixture of a detective story and travel book and so it is too. But we all wound up checking the Apocrypha and looking at bridges more carefully. The erudition was not intrusive but was there and what we all felt was that it had heart. And the story line kept us turning the pages (sometimes backwards too). I know it was the most enjoyable book I have read in thirty years, since The Violins of St. Jacques!
It is very pleasing to see you are coming to Melbourne later this month. Although all the family are readers we do not normally attend literary talk fests but we are coming to hear you. We very much like the voice we hear behind the books and want to hear you in person.
We hope you enjoy your visit and manage to get out of the city. You might find a book in New Norcia!
Bill Weston

Dear Salley,
I finally got my hands on a copy of Instances of the Number 3 (a friend of mine has just returned from London and picked up a paperback copy at Heathrow). I read it in 2 sittings over 2 nights and once again enjoyed your writing immensely. Like Miss Garnet's Angel I particularly relish and enjoy the overlap between the inner and outer world, the spiritual and material plane, the quick and the dead! I gather that you are working on your third novel - all power to your pen in that case. You are building a fierce and loyal fan club here in Western Australia let me tell you: I have passed Miss Garnet on to several avid readers and they have introduced it to their book clubs and circles of friends.
'we're all linked somehow - even the dead' This line in Number 3 summed up the essence of the whole novel for me and summed up something that my own experience has gleaned through a 53 year journey. Thank you yet again for bringing joy and insight, wonder and compassion, renewed energy and great encouragement through your distinctive and luminous writing.
With the assurance of my gratitude, warm wishes and prayers,
Tony James - Abbot's secretary

It isn't often that I read a book which I feel is life changing, but In of the No 3 seemed such a one to me. I read it when I was wrestling with a disintegrating friendship and suddenly there was your wonderfully conceived, witty, profound, humane novel about forgiveness. It is particularly impressive because it shows the muddle of it all - beautifully illustrated by the character of Zahin - who seems pivotal to the novel.
Can you explain why Peter only appeared to Bridget, is it because she is the person he wronged ?
Our reading group read Miss G's Angel and now I hope we will all read this one.
Alexina Gannon

Dear Salley,
I'm now a fully paid up member of your fan club! I loved "Instances of the Number 3" too. I read it in very unpropitious circumstances, with a lot of disturbing repairs going on at home, and will need to read it again to derive every nuance from it. In the meantime, even before I read it, I placed an order for it (along with a copy of Miss Garnet) at a bookshop nearby, knowing that I would be sure to like it. Hamlet is my favourite among Shakespeare's tragedies, and I thought I knew it fairly well, but you brought out so many more insights into the meaning of the play, e.g. the ghost's need to forgive in order to redeem itself (himself?) from Purgatory. I've been telling a lot of my friends bout your books, and one of them has just finished "Miss Garnet's Angel" and loved it too - I've now given her "Instances" to read. She in her turn has told other friends that they must read Miss Garnet.
Did you know that the idea of the dog accompanying a dead person occurs also in the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata? In it, the dog is the God of Death, Yama, in disguise, and he accompanies Yudhishthira, the eldest of the Pandava brothers, on his journey up to heaven via the Himalayas.
Many thanks for your books
With warm regards
Soonoo