I don't think I can an add much to the excellent reviews of this book that are already posted here, except to make a few comments inspired by a couple of them. First, I agree that the book is done a disservice by it's rather fluffy, chick-lit style cover design. This is not to denigrate in any way the skill or talent of the designer, simply to suggest that the style creates the wrong impression about the contents. This is not a heavy novel, but nor is it a frivolous one. I do not normally feel embarrassed to be seen on the train reading books that are regarded as primarily being for women readers, but this one did give me a few minor qualms. I probably would never have picked it up had I not already enjoyed Thornton's more recent novel 'Crossed Wires', which I think I came across on someone's blog. This is a pity because I think H&M would have a wider appeal that the cover suggests, particularly amongst those who like university novels or stories about the inner workings of small communities.

I agree that anyone who appreciated C.P. Snow's 'The Master' would probably like this one. I think I would go so far as to say that 'Hearts and Minds' actually has the edge over Snow, it has a little more sparkle than its predecessor. Snow's novel reads like the work of an academic who doesn't want to let his hair down too much, whereas Thornton seems to have no fear that writing in a lively modern style might in any way detract from her reputation as a scholar. ( )

The British campus novel is generally a cosy thing (unless there’s a murder involved). Often they can be rather claustrophobic too, peopled with backbiting dons, scheming students, and inscrutable college servants, which give opportunities for creating high comedy – naturally I’m thinking David Lodge here, and the funniest of all, Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe.
This makes Rosy Thornton’s second novel ‘Hearts and Minds’ a rarity. Despite the cover, this is not chick-lit, it is much more of a drama in the Joanna Trollope mould. While it has cosy elements, it is also a mature novel primarily about juggling relationships – between academic and administrative staff, between the dons themselves and their families, between students, and students and staff, and, importantly to the plot, old friends who might become benefactors ... You can find them all here under the umbrella of St Radegund’s – a women only Cambridge college in need of some money, and which has just appointed an ex-BBC reporter as their first ‘Master’.
First we meet Dr Martha Pearce – the Senior Tutor, totally loyal to the college and its students. Martha works long and hard, to the detriment of her relationship with her family – her workshy poet husband and clinically depressed drop-out daughter, but there is no-one who better understands the student mind when a rent strike is threatened. Martha is world-weary and worried about her future – her research has stalled and her tutor’s appointment is due to end. Martha represents all that is good about St Rad’s, unlike her backstabbing colleague Ros, and the blinkered Bursar Kate.
When James Rycarte arrives – he’s an outsider in every sense. He’s from the media world, not the halls of academe, and he’s the first male to manage the college. He gets a frosty reception from many but not from Martha. Soon it appears that he might be the college’s saviour – an old friend from Italy pledges enough money to repair the library and endow several bursaries. Then Luigi drops his bombshell that the money is dependent on his daughter Paola coming to study at St Rad’s, and a political bag of worms big enough to fill in the subsiding library foundations is released, setting up many conflicts that will take the rest of the novel’s 425+ pages to resolve.
You don’t need to have gone to Oxbridge to enjoy this college life. The fictional confines of St Rad’s mean that the city itself doesn’t have a large part to play, but it is easy to sympathise with Martha and James who are fully rounded characters with difficult decisions to make.
I should declare that I was sent this copy by the author, who I’ve not met, but she sounds thoroughly nice and is a Cambridge don so knows what she’s writing about! This was a very enjoyable novel, and I have no trouble in recommending it. ( )

This is a behind the scenes tale of life and politics at St Radegund's College at Cambridge University. For 60 years it’s for been women only but this tale starts with a man getting appointed as Head of House. Judging by the cover and the blurb I thought I was in for a light read with a sprinkling of romance but was pleased to discover it was far more than that. There are several underlying plots that could have stood alone as stories themselves. For instance, we meet Martha, who’s married to an unemployed poet, and her depressed 17-year-old daughter. Their family life fascinated me and I would have loved to hear more about them. Then there’s the ethical question that gets raised about admissions to the college. This starts when a rich father offers the college a million pounds in return for his daughter getting offered a place there. I found it fascinating to read about how the dilemma got solved. My only criticism is not a fault of the author’s but the cover art really is all wrong. It makes the book look like chick lit which may just put some readers off from even taking it off the shelves, which would be a real shame as they would be missing out on a great read. ( )

http://booksplease.blogspot.com/2008/...

I really like books that grab my attention from the start, have believable characters, a good story and are thought provoking. Hearts and Minds meets all these criteria. From the first page I became involved in the world of St Radegund’s College, Cambridge as Dr Martha Pearce, the Senior Tutor working against deadlines, wrestles with writing an article, has difficulty refocusing her eyes from the computer screen to look at her watch and is not relishing the prospect of confronting a delegation of students angry at the proposed rent increases. As I read further it was obvious that this is a book to be read slowly and relished.

For one thing it is full of details about how the university college functions, how the staff and students inter-relate, and the idiosyncrasies and bureaucracy of academia. For another I didn’t want it to end, so I didn’t read through at breakneck speed in my usual way, but rationed myself and took it slowly. It may look from the book jacket that it is a light and fluffy love story (well there is a love story in there), but it is much more than that, posing moral dilemmas that are not limited to the academic world. I’m not sure I would have picked up this book just from its cover, so I’m really pleased that Rosy Thornton, who is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, sent me a copy to read.

St Radegund's College, an all-female college has just broken with 160 years of tradition by appointing former BBC executive James Rycarte as its new Head of House as successor to the former Mistress, the much-loved Dame Emily. The problems facing James seem to mount as, in addition to the rent strike by the students, he has to contend with opposition from some of the Fellows to his headship. There is the thorny question of his title – should he be called ‘Master’ which has “unfortunate resonances” in a women’s’ college or some other title such as ‘President’ or ‘Provost’ or ‘Warden’; for a while he goes by the title ‘Mistress’ before settling for ‘Master’. The library is sinking into the Cambridge fen mud and there isn’t enough money in the building contingency fund to pay for the remedial work; and Martha’s post of Senior Tutor is coming to the end of its period of office, the only suitable candidate being Dr Ros Clarke, who is leading the opposition to James as Head of House.

The perfect solution appears when Luigi Alvau, an old friend offers James a large donation. This would cover the costs of repairing the library and enable the college to set up scholarships for students who would otherwise not be able to afford a place. The sting in the tail is that Alvau’s daughter is applying for a place at the college. James with Martha’s support gradually wins over some of the Fellows. Martha meanwhile has her own problems. Not only is she faced with the problem of continuing her career, she has a depressed teenage daughter who refuses to go to school and spends her days in bed and a husband who seemingly exists on writing one or two poems in Italian every now and then, spending much of his time “thinking”. The only comfort she gets at home is from her ginger tomcat Maynard. Through Martha’s situation we are presented with the classic situation of how to balance work and home, with the added complications of difficult mother/daughter relationships between Martha and her daughter and Martha and her own mother.

Relationships are a key theme in the book, as James works to establish his relationships with the staff, the difficulties of maintaining a long-distance relationship with his son and his increasing reliance on Martha. Then there are the students and their relationships with each other and the Dean. How James survives in a “woman’s world” provides much scope for gently poking fun - for example I loved the tale of the SCR curtains, agreed upon by the Pictures, Plate and Furniture Sub-Committee and James's amazement that this is discussed by the entire academic staff at the annual meeting of the Governing Body. Opinion is divided between a traditional William Morris print and a more geometric Mondrian-style pattern.

More seriously the book raises questions, such as should the college compromise its integrity and take a donation when it cannot be sure of its origins? When its origins could be ill-gotton gains from bribery and corruption? Should the library be left to sink? And what about the question of donations from parents – are they evidence of bribery for a place or a genuine means of raising funds? Should students be penalised if they can’t afford their education? Or indeed should students be denied a place if their parents make donations? I was intrigued to read on and see how or if these questions were resolved?

There are echoes of C P Snow's novels, that I read and enjoyed many years ago, particularly The Masters in the Strangers and Brothers series and I noticed in the acknowledgements that the book developed from a joke about Snow. This is an intelligent and witty novel which kept me greatly entertained and gave me food for thought. I do hope there will be more books from Dr Thornton. ( )

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Sometimes, you came across a book that is so accurately observed it makes you wince, at least it does if you know the world that is being described as well as I know the Academia that forms the setting for Rosy Thornton’s new novel, Hearts and Minds. Her story is centred round St Radegund’s College, Cambridge, an institution that accepts only women students but which has just appointed its first ever male Head of College. Furthermore, the man in question, James Rycarte, is not an academic. He has come from the world of broadcasting and spent time not only in the boardrooms of the BBC but also out in the field as a foreign correspondent. And while I definitely don’t want to sound facetious, there is a great temptation to draw a parallel between the literal minefields he has encountered in his previous job and the, one hopes, more figurative minefield we now watch him trying to negotiate.
Because, as I’m sure you’ll realise, even if you haven’t ‘been there, seen that and got the t-shirt’, his appointment does not sit easily with the majority of staff nor indeed with many of the students. His one ally, if ally she can be called, is Martha Pearce, the Senior Tutor. Martha had, heself, opposed Rycarte’s appointment but she is not only a fair-minded individual, she is also deeply committed to the College and the Collegiate principle. The vote has been taken, it has not gone her way, but as far as Martha is concerned that is immaterial, you abide by the decision that has been arrived at. Besides, as a person, Rycarte is easy to like and his time as Master might well have got off to a reasonably peaceful start if it wasn’t for the solution that he suddenly finds himself in a position to offer to the College’s financial problems Like most educational institutions St Radegund’s needs money, the library is sinking into the ground, and Rycarte finds himself able to do something about this as a result of a donation offered by an old Italian media colleague, Sr Alvau; offered on the implicit understanding that in turn Sr Alvau’s daughter be offered a place as a student at St Rad’s. Now, if you don’t inhabit the world of Academia you may not see anything wrong with this proposal, especially not when it’s going to ensure the survival of something as essential to academic life as a library. Rycarte certainly doesn’t. If, on the other hand, you do spend your life in University lecture and committee rooms, your hands will already have been raised in horror. This simply does not happen.
Well, I will leave you to discover for yourself whether it does or doesn’t happen in this case. However, this dilemma is indicative of what I think is central to Thornton’s novel, namely the way in which those of us in Academia (and I’m sure in many other walks of life too, but this is the one for which I can speak) so frequently find ourselves backed into a corner, very often of our own making and very often without realising where we are until we turn round and see that there is no escape. It may be a corner created by years and years of tradition as is the case I’ve outlined here: a corner that has come about as a result of changes in the world outside the University as much as a lack of change within. Or it may be, as is the case where Martha is concerned, a corner that has gradually crept up on her in respect of the balance between her working life and the life she shares (?) with her family. College business means that Martha sees far too little of her husband and seventeen year old daughter, both of whom are undergoing crises of their own. It has also meant that she has been unable to pursue her research career in the manner now essential if you want to get a job in the University Sector. Coming to the end of her time as Senior Tutor, Martha finds herself in a position where her family life is collapsing around her and she has little possibility of being appointed to an academic post either in Cambridge or anywhere else. I wept, quite literally, as I read about this aspect of Martha’s situation, but as much as I was weeping for her, I was weeping also for myself and for others I know, who have found ourselves in precisely this position over the last ten years or so. Taking on administrative roles as well as our teaching loads at a time when it was still just possible to do this and get some research done, we have seen the sector change to such an extent that our research and even our teaching have fallen casualty to the demands of red tape and paper generation. I promise you, there are dozens, nay hundreds of Marthas out there and the solution that comes her way is possible for only a very very few.
In Hearts and Minds Thornton has written an extremely readable novel. If you’re not so personally involved that you have to put it to one-side because you can’t cope with the idea of MASNs on a Sunday afternoon, then you’ll probably read it in a sitting. But, she has also written a novel that pinpoints a very real problem in the current academic world. There will be a lot of people for whom it will strike an extremely personal and painful chord.