A charming correspondence begins between two strangers.

Tina is living in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and feels old and full of regret for plans unfulfilled. She writes to a history scholar she has never met, eager to make a connection, though realising she may be many years too late.

Anders is a lonely museum curator living in Denmark, and he has to answer Tina's letter with news that her history scholar has long since passed away.

Politely, apologetically and tentatively, Tina and Anders undertake an exchange of letters which becomes increasingly revealing and confiding.

Anders has lost his wife, along with his hopes and dreams for the future. His daughter is making very modern decisions that he struggles to understand. Tina is trapped in a marriage where she is living and working with a man with whom she has no common interest.

Tina and Anders share their observations on life, their personal stories of joy and sorrow, and their sense of consolation - at last they have both found someone who will listen and understand.

The book is moving, amusing and thought-provoking. It is beautifully written - first you lose yourself in their lives, then you leave the book pondering your own.

Read my profile of Anne Youngson in 'Suffolk' magazine here: https://www.catherinelarner.com/published-article/918

This started out quite promisingly and I warmed to the themes of a life half lived and the connections we make with strangers, but it became just too much of a character study with very little going on.

I ended up skimming the second half as some of the letters were too long and filled with too much minutiae.

A touching read which reminds us of the power of communication and the need we all have for someone to understand us. The main characters were relatable and their relationship was well portrayed in the epistolary format.

I seem to be liking books with a certain type of ending lately. One that is honest rather than romantic. I don't think that's spoiling anything. There's a good chance only a few people will read this review anyway.

That said, #MeetMeAtTheMuseum by #AnneYoungson is hard to adequately describe. Instead, here are a few quotes I highlighted. Allow them to entice you to read the whole book.

"Please be aware, I am writing to you to make sense of myself. You do not need to concern yourself with any of this. I do not expect you to reply."

"I will accept insignificance in exchange for a peaceful life."

"Now I only hope for a return to hope, or at least to the feeling I once had that there is satisfaction in the little things of life."

"For me, the house and all its contents are like the mud collecting on my boots as I walk the dog round the fields in a rainy season. Holding me back, weighting me down, limiting how far I can travel."

Thank you to @randomhouse for the free e-ARC in return for an honest review.

I absolutely loved the amount of joy and tears this book evoked in such a short space of time. I love how letters, a romantic pastime, connects our two characters. I love how the characters have lived a lifetime, and yet can find new mysteries and new beauty and new lifetimes to live. I love the potential, the grounding of the story in reality, and the hope. The hope is what I take from this book.

This was a pleasant enough book to read. Rather slow with a gentle pace. The budding relationship between the two characters was nicely done but ultimately it's not a book I would rave about.

In my role as English Teacher, I love being able to spend time reviewing books for our school library which I use to help the students make great picks when they visit us as well as running a library junior and senior book group where we meet every week and share the books we love and talk about what makes a great read. This is certainly a book that I'd be happy to display at the front as one of my monthly 'top picks' which often transform into 'most borrowed' between students and staff. It's a great read and ties in with my ethos of wishing to assemble a diverse, modern and thought-provoking range of books that will inspire and deepen a love of reading in our students of all ages. This book answers this brief in spade! It has s fresh and original voice and asks the readers to think whilst hooking them with a compelling storyline and strong characters It is certainly a book that I've thought about a lot after finishing it and I've also considered how we could use some of its paragraphs in supporting and inspiring creative writing in the school through the writers' circle that we run. This is a book that I shall certainly recommend we purchase and look forward to hearing how much the staff and students enjoy this memorable and thought-provoking read.

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson is written as an exchange of letters. It’s a sweet, intelligent book, with a warm heart - a lovely depiction of late love.

This year’s Midwinter Break. A charming, bittersweet novel composed entirely of the letters that pass between Tina Hopgood, a 60-year-old farmer’s wife in East Anglia, and Anders Larsen, a curator at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark. Tina initially wrote to P.V. Glob, the Danish archaeologist and author of The Bog People, which explored the mystery of the Tollund Man, to thank him for dedicating his book to her and her schoolgirl friends. Larsen informed her that Professor Glob was dead, but also kindly replied to the subtext of Tina’s letter. She is desperate to find meaning in her older age, and mourning the death from breast cancer of her best friend Bella, who always swore that they would go see the Tollund Man in person at the Silkeborg Museum.

Gradually Tina and Anders’ letters become less formal and more intimate (watch for the changes in how they start and sign off) as they describe their daily lives and their regrets. They are outwardly very different – Tina works mostly outdoors and lives in a cluttered, chintzy farmhouse; Anders works indoors, usually at a computer, and has a typically Scandinavian minimalist home – but both have grown discontented with the smallness of their lives and come to rely on each other’s emotional support when they face family crises.

There’s a lovely repeated metaphor of the raspberries you’ve left behind on a bush – things you never learned to appreciate, such as music or poetry – and can only find when going back down the row the other way. It’s a novel about such second chances in the second half of life, and it has an open but hopeful ending. I found the book very touching and wish it hadn’t been given the women’s fiction treatment in its packaging (and title, even).

This was a slow burner, the pace of which meant it took me a while to fully engage with the stories and characters. However, the voices of Anders and Tina are so finely wrought and well written that they feel like real people, and this is incredibly engaging. There was a lot of fantastic description and, even though this isn't my normal type of novel, it's clear that Anne Youngson is a spectacular writer.

Tina lives in Norfolk on the family farm and life is routine for her. However when her friend dies of cancer she is reminded of a time when their school class were featured in an article with a famous professor about the Tollund Man. She decides to write to the Professor. He is long-dead but her letter is answered by Anders, a curator at the museum, and they begin a correspondence. Anders is a widower and he worries about his daughter Karin, pregnant after a fling with a man who lives halfway round the world. Tina's daughter has married and moves away. both bare their souls to the other but when Tina's letters cease for a while a shift occurs in their relationship.

This is a very quiet book. It doesn't shout loudly and nothing really seems to happen but it is all the better for that. Two lonely people find each other through random coincidence and the reader sees the layers peeled back as they tell each other everything. Whilst there is not conclusion the reader is desperate to see Anders and Tina meet. The writing is gentle and the profound events are handled so delicately that they almost seem to slip into the narrative. A moving tale.

I was drawn to this book simply because I work in a museum.
I was not, on the other hand, particularly drawn to books that tell a story in the form of letters. Pure prejudice on my part.
It begins in a deceptively simple way when a farmer’s wife from England and a Danish curator begin to correspond about the Tollund Man, and then begin to share details of their lives - acceptance, regret, loss, connection.
What happens when the narrative of our lives starts to unravel. I think sometimes a book comes along at the right time - for me, at 60, this book meant a lot.
I found I could see and hear Anders and Tina when I read their letters, and wanted to reply and interfere!
I lived the book and was so sad when it ended.

I had seen this book being advertised on social media, but it didn't grab me straight away. I am not a huge fan of historical fiction, but the more I heard of the book the more intrigued I became.

This is the Story of Tina Hopgood and Anders Larsen, the curator of a museum in Denmark, which houses the body of the Tolland Man. What started as a simple letter, which was actually to someone else, blossoms into a lovely friendship.

I did enjoy the story, and loved how the whole book was all just letters between Anders and Tina, from Silkeborg to Bury St Edmunds, and a few places inbetween. But I really liked the ending, and when you read it you will know what I mean, it ended the way it should have.

This is an unusual novel about correspondence between Tina, an English farmer's wife, and Anders, an archaeology curator in Denmark, concerning the Tollund Man. This is a preserved human head, found in a peat bog.
This correspondence becomes increasingly important between the two, as they both face lifes'' many challenges and sorrows about their individual circumstances.
The story builds up a picture of two different lives, and the families surrounding them. The characters are well-drawn and the plot is plausible and believable.
Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read this book.

Meet Me at the Museum is made up entirely of letters between Tina Hopgood in East Anglia and Anders Larson in Denmark. Tina, in a moment of sadness, writes to Professor Glob at the Silkeborg Museum but the reply that comes back is from Anders - Professor Glob had passed away some years earlier. This is the start of a touching correspondence between the pair, starting with polite conversation and ending in sharing their inner thoughts and feelings.

I was so eager to read this book. It seems to be one of the big books of the summer and I loved the idea of the epistolary nature of it. Unfortunately, I was left a bit disappointed. I think the style just didn't work for me and the letters felt a bit stilted, even when what the pair were sharing became deeper. I think I would have preferred a mixture of letters and story. However, I'm quite happy to note that I am in the minority with my views and that the vast majority of readers are loving it.

It's a quiet book, a beautifully written book and ultimately quite uplifting. It would be fair to say I enjoyed parts of it, for instance, I liked some of the examination of feelings that came out of the outpouring of emotions and yet, it's really not a book that I found particularly moving and I feel like I should have done.

Overall, I'm sorry to say it's not a book for me, but if you enjoy an understated read which will move you in places and interest you in others, and you enjoy the epistolary style, then it's probably one for you.

I enjoyed this novel and am very pleased to recommend it. Reasons: First, a novel told in letters. Second, the characters are old. Yup, past middle age. Third, one of the characters lives an intensely rural life, as housewife on a farm, in constant motion. Fourth, Archeology. Fifth, emotionally connected, warm novel, not quite "uplit" but certainly unlike the thrillers of late. There are some plausibility stretching bits, and a very dramatic character (dead), but overall the characters are undramatic and sympathetic whilst the plot is involving and insightful. Hurrah for Anne Youngson.

The striking cover of this book caught my eye but I wasn't sure if it was going to be my 'thing', because I am not keen on stories told in the format of letters. But my friends were raving about it so I thought I'd take a chance, and I'm so pleased I did.

On impulse Tina Hopgood writes to Professor Glob, who dedicated his book on the Tollund Man to her and her classmates over fifty years ago, asking whether she should visit his museum in Denmark. Unfortunately, the professor died some time ago and instead she receives a reply from Anders Larsen, the current curator. Tina and Anders begin a correspondence, tentative at first, then confiding personal aspects of their lives until they are more than just penpals.

Meet Me at the Museum is a sweet story that reminded me a bit of The Shop Around The Corner, although the two main characters don't secretly know each other or work in a shop! It is a leisurely, subtle read that some might find a bit slow, but once I got into it I did enjoy learning about the very different lives of these two characters, their hopes and dreams, and the tragedies that have made them the people they are. I particularly enjoyed reading about Anders' life in Denmark as I know little about that country, and it was also refreshing to read about characters who are in their (I think) sixties. I loved the snippets of historical detail about the Tollund Man and the way the story ended (no spoilers!). So I have no hesitation in recommending this one - and that cover is gorgeous!


Thank you to Anne Youngson, Transworld/Random House, and NetGalley for my copy of this book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

When farmer’s wife and grandmother, Tina, loses her best friend, in her despair she writes a letter to a man she has never met - a Danish professor specialising in the Tollund Man - looking for answers. The professor is long dead but widowed Anders, a museum curator, replies. Before long their correspondence is indispensable to each other. They are both trying to make sense of their lives – Anders is lonely and grieving, Tina is stuck in a marriage she only entered when she got pregnant very young. The development of the style of writing, the intimacy of the letters is lovely to behold. At first the letters are quite stilted but the more Tina and Anders get to know one other the more they blossom. The sense of second chances, of hope being revived makes it a heart-warming tale. The question becomes can their relationship survive when their real lives interfere? A thoroughly spellbinding story.

This short book is wonderful. Some of the descriptions written in Tina's and Anders' letters made me pause and think. Some I shared with my husband. I won't share any here but if you read this book then 'raspberries' was one such. Another was a couple of sentences using a mechanical simile. The letters flowed back and forth nicely as the relationship, and some tension develops. The use of paper and stamps instead of the usual emails was refreshing too. And no Skype! The ending almost leaves an opening for a follow-up, but I hope that doesn't happen. Sometimes we need to let our imaginations work and Anne Youngson's book has done just that for me. A solid five stars.

A beautifully written short story written as letters between Tina and Anders. Their developing friendship is documented along with the events in their lives both past and present. I thought the ending was perfect. At times this book is slow but definitely worth sticking with. The fact that it is not a fast paced story adds to its beauty and simplicity.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.