Description: What is the mystery of the dying flowers in a dark doorway with an ever-open door? And why does it matter so much? Two very different women are brought together by love, loss and their struggles with very modern moral choices - whether to act against injustice, and just how far to go.

Verdict: Telling it like it is from the off, and given that both myself and my partner have now read the book in under a week, I can honestly say that And this shall be my dancing day is a most enjoyable read, engrossing and thought-provoking read from start to finish.

From the onset you are pulled into the intrigue of what is to unfold for our characters yet met - She would never have seen it if there hadn’t been a bus strike, and all of a sudden you need to know who Emma is, what she had seen, and how it relates to the mystery to soon unfold.

Not to give anything away, but the character of Emma is an intriguing one off the bat, well drawn, well versed, and someone you feel you can get one side with - even though you have no idea how deeply involved in the mystery she may, or may not be.

She exudes a good, if not complex relationship with her family, along with having a different outreach of sorts with her neighbor Bob, but as the story unfolds, we soon see that not everything is as was first thought.

Indeed, set against a background of Brexit, migration politics and the abhorrent stream of darkness that lives within human trafficking, the strength to change, the courage to act, the need to forge ahead into the light, is one that is inherent within us all at some level.

About the Author - Jennifer Kavanagh worked in publishing for nearly thirty years, the last fourteen as an independent literary agent. In the past twenty years she has run a community centre in London’s East End, worked with street homeless people and refugees, and set up microcredit programmes in London, and in Africa.

She has also worked as a research associate for the Prison Reform Trust and facilitated workshops for conflict resolution both in prison and in the community.

Jennifer contributes regularly to the Quaker press, and is an associate tutor at Woodbrooke Quaker study centre. She is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of a community of fools.

She has written twelve books of non-fiction on the Spirit-led life, most recently Let Me Take You by the Hand, in 2021, and three novels, most recently (due to be published in July 2023) And this shall be my dancing day.

Balancing an active life with a pull towards contemplation is a continuing and fruitful challenge. As she writes, “Life in the world is about a series of balances: of the life within and the outside world; inner experience and outward witness, plenitude and the void”.

Jennifer is one of the most interesting writers of our generation on spirituality - Derek A. Collins, London Centre for Spirituality.

Official Book Purchase Link

www.jenniferkavanagh.co.uk