Tag: grief

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons – A moving novel of lives, books and reading in a challenging time

May 27, 2024

The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons

It is not often that I found myself so deeply moved by a novel, but this well written book evoked that sort of response. It takes as its theme that reading and books, if possible in the company of others, can improve and even change lives, and in the context of this book it is vital. The book opens in 1938 and proceeds through a war that separates families and friends and causes danger and death. The air raids of the title are the London Blitz which means for the first-time fighting is brought home to people on the Home Front. The main character, Gertie Bingham, is still trying to come to terms with the death of her beloved husband Harry some two years before, but as much as Lyons describes her devastation, the book is not a wallow in her sadness. Her ownership of a bookshop and the support of a very special teenager and friends means that Binghams’ bookshop will play a part in a very tough time and be the focus for many people. While this is the aspect of the book that first attracted me, I found the descriptions of Gertie and her progress the most effective. This is a book about the power of books to draw people together when they become the focus of joint reading and discussion, a way of escaping difficult circumstances. It is also an honest account of the difficulties of a refugee girl and how she longs for her family, as well as an encouraging story of how almost a new family gathers around her in the most extreme of circumstances.

At the start of the novel in London, 1938, Gertie is still felling the sadness of losing Harry, and is struggling to maintain interest in her successful bookshop. She is assisted by the invaluable young Betty, but other people who help with the shop and the attached Book Club are proving more difficult. She is also still missing her parents and beloved brother Jack, who was killed in the First World War. She still has her redoubtable Uncle Thomas, a renowned and kindly, if slightly eccentric bookseller, who supports her. Her friend Charlie, a loyal friend of Harry, still appears in her life, and it is through his charitable work that she is persuaded to accept a Jewish child who is already at risk in Germany from the growing Nazi persecution. As she is sad that she was not able to have a child herself during her marriage, she is torn, especially when she discovers that Hedy is fifteen and deeply troubled, and it is not easy to establish a relationship despite her best efforts. As War comes closer, Gertie, Hedy, Betty and others discover that this is going to be a very different conflict from the all too recent previous War, and that while men will still be called away, there will be danger in London itself.

An element of this book that I particularly enjoyed is the book titles that are being sought out and relished in such difficult circumstances. While “Gone with the Wind” is perhaps better known as a film today, the book then was a particular favourite. P.G Wodehouse’s humour and subtle political parodies are popular, as well as Du Maurier’s “Rebecca” as distractions from the challenges of daily life.

Lyons has brought to life people in fascinating time in the twentieth century, and laced the effective story with honesty and real feeling. I found this book an excellent read and recommend it to book lovers as well as those who enjoy a well written wartime story.

The Visitors by Caroline Scott – Esme lost her husband to war; can she rebuild her life even in a beautiful place?

December 9, 2021

The Visitors by Caroline Scott

A novel of beautiful, sometimes painful, descriptions of postwar emotions in Cornwall, this vividly written book features a woman torn by war, and immobilised by grief. Esme Nicholls has been suffering after she was told of her husband Alec’s death at the Front in the First World War, desperately trying to recapture the days of their brief courtship and short marriage. This novel expertly explores how she travels to Cornwall from Huddersfield to visit the places where her husband grew up, the sights he may have seen, the atmosphere of an existence before they met. Her work of writing nature notes for a local northern newspaper cleverly accounts for her close attention to the details of the natural setting of where she stays, and this is a book which luxuriates in the world of the flowers, creatures and beauty of Cornwall in summer. The people she meets by a strange quirk of fate are those who also served in the army of the trenches and forlorn hopes, one of whom has actually written an account of his experiences which is woven into the accounts of Esme’s progress in 1923. Here the writing is visceral, including painful accounts of the dangers and appalling conditions in the trenches.This book represents a masterclass in drawing a contrast between the beauties of the natural world and the hideous nature of countryside ravaged by war. It also explores the grief common to so many in the early postwar years, the unresolved plight of the women without a body to bury, even confirmation of death. I was so pleased to have the opportunity to read and review this brilliantly written book.  

As the book opens, Esme is travelling to Cornwall, realising “It was strange to know that she was finally in his county”. Having met Alec in the Huddersfield museum she was working in, she only knew him in a place he had travelled to; now she is seizing the opportunity to visit the place of his origin, desperate to catch some sense of the place he grew up, the sights he saw, the atmosphere that made him. She has studied his photograph carefully, kept so many memories, and dreamt of him. When she arrives at the large house owned by her employer’s brother Gilbert, she is taken aback at the casual welcome by these men marked by war, including the abrasively rude Sebastian and the silent Hal, who seems to have a certain insight. Rory is the practical one, the friendly man who seems to genuinely want to know her, offer his insights where wanted, and provide comfort in a sensitive way. It helps that he is attuned to the natural environment, understanding Esme’s interest in the birds and other creatures, supportive of her quietly written articles for a newspaper observing the flora and fauna. When her employer Mrs Pickering arrives she proves to be a demanding yet sympathetic character, and Esme can pursue her dreams of a vividly remembered husband. It is the arrival of a mysterious visitor that upsets Esme’s world, and leaves her wondering about her life. 

With exceptional characters well described and a vivid appreciation of the countryside of post war Cornwall, this is a memorable book in so many ways. The wartime accounts are confidently written, revealing a high level of research which nevertheless does not interrupt the narrative. This is the third book that I have read by this author, and as always I am overwhelmed by her depth of writing about those who fought and those who were left behind in the “Great War”. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in that difficult time period and the way it shaped so many lives.