Beth Morrey on Brexit, a dog called Bob and beating the blues in Saving Missy

A dog called Bob and a cautious act of kindness pull a woman out of spiralling loneliness in new hit Saving Missy — addressing a little-discussed epidemic taking an increasing toll on society.

OLD age comes to us all, if we are lucky.

But Millicent Carmichael — Missy — is lonely.

Thoughts of her husband Leo haunt her quiet house and pervade her thoughts; their children grown up and out of home, embarking on their lives with their own families. The effort of cooking is too much and she’s cleared out the home they shared.

What is clear in debut author Beth Morrey’s novel,Saving Missy (published outside Australia as The Love Story of Missy Carmichael) is not only the importance of love and friendship, but an acknowledgment of the loneliness epidemic.

This public health crisis is not being taken lightly; in 2018 the United Kingdom appointed a Minister for Loneliness in response to damning new figures. Loneliness is said to be worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, more dangerous than obesity and the lonely are more likely to suffer from dementia, heart disease and depression.

A park, a dog and a random act of kindness … plus Brexit. All part of the Saving Missy recipe.

But it was another sobering fact that urged Morrey to write Saving Missy … Britain’s split from the European Union. She knew she had to write something effervescent.

“I wrote the novel in 2016 while on maternity leave, having a lovely summer with my baby,

feeling calm and happy,” Morrey told The Sunday Book Club.

“Meanwhile, the rest of the country was in a state of upheaval after the referendum result, which was a bit of a shock and led to so much divisiveness and uncertainty, which I still feel very depressed about. But I retain a shred of hope that one day things will be better, and tried to infuse Saving Missy with a sense of warmth and inclusiveness, reflected in the quote that opens Part 4: ‘When darkness fades, light remains’.”

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Tackling an epidemic of loneliness … Beth Morrey. Picture: Gerrard Gethings

A Londoner, Morrey during that time witnessed an electrofishing at her local park and was struck by how many people turned out to watch as hundreds of fish were stunned and moved from their home pond at Stoke Newington, in the city’s northwest, to a nearby pond.

That’s where Missy emerged: “walking to a lake in a park to watch some fish being stunned … my protagonist would be shocked out of her self-pity for an instant, and that would be the beginning of her renaissance.”

After taking a nasty turn at the lake, Missy is rescued by a woman with two dogs. She is soon (cautiously) befriended and subsequently introduced to a young woman and her child, filling the void left by her own children. Somehow, Missy too ends up with a dog called Bob who brings her back into the land of the living.

Morrey said her dog Polly (“a very spoiled, bossy, aloof labradoodle — very much adored”) served as “inspiration for the book” as a daily demonstration of the inexplicable bond between dog and human, which quickly leads to human interaction.

“Walking her in the park, we got to know so many people in our community. It struck me that a dog pulls you into the path of strangers, and sometimes they become friends.”

The need for human connection is painfully and beautifully apparent in Saving Missy. Missy’s heartbreaking losses — distance, time, death — are felt very keenly. Lifelong love of all kinds is mourned and celebrated.

Morrey has deftly painted a portrait of people who have known each other a lifetime, and of what it means to grow old.

“There was a BBC drama years ago called First and Last, about a retired man who decided to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats (the length of Britain). There’s one incredibly moving scene where he falls in the road with his wife secretly watching him, and it made me think about the poignancy and stoicism of old age, and long-term marriage.

Saving money, Missy … take advantage of our Book of the Month discount (details below).

“I don’t know a Missy, but I think there are elements of her in me, and perhaps all of us — a fear of looking back on our lives and feeling we didn’t quite live them enough, a fear of ending up alone, or that we might feel too proud or shy to ask for help.”

But for Missy, the love of a mutt and new friendships are the antidote to her pain and bring the 79-year-old back to life.

“When I decided Missy was a classicist, I became interested in the Greek definitions of love — eros, storage, agape, etc, and was trying to reflect them in the various relationships Missy has,” Morrey said.

“I’m not sure the Greeks had an exclusive term for female friendship — the nearest is probably ‘philia’. Aged 79, she’s new to its qualities and benefits, perhaps relishing them all the more as a result — the bolstering, nourishing joy of having women friends; how having them helps you with the other forms of love in your life.”

We were sufficiently moved by Saving Missy to make it our Book of the Month, and you know what that means — 30 per cent off at Booktopia with the code MISSY.

Tell us what you think of the choice and chat books in general at the Sunday Book Club Facebook group.

A labradoodle eating dog-friendly gelato because … just because. Share your favourite doggo stories at the Sunday Book Club Facebook page (link above).