Leah Fleming

Penelope is going on a special visit to Crete after not visiting for 60 years.
In WWII she found herself a nurse looking after disparate groups of people.

This book goes between the two time periods telling the reader about her war experience and her journey back.

I didn't know anything about the war in Crete and found the book really told the story well and felt like an account of island life. In particular how the Jewish community was treated.

The story flowed well between the two times and it showed the good and bad on both sides of the conflict.
Worth a read… (more)

The Girl From World’s End by Leah Fleming is a story of family, hardships, tragedy and romance. Set mostly on a farm in the Yorkshire Dales, we see the strength of character needed to build a life in this scenic yet harsh environment. Although quite predictable, I enjoyed the story of a young girl whose life seems to be defined by the tragedies she suffers. It covers the time period of the 1920s through to post WWII.

Mirren lost her father at a young age and is taken from the city to be raised by her estranged grandparents in the Yorkshire Dales. She comes to love the country and the farm, but never quite finds the happiness that she deserves. The war years are at the core of the book and it was interesting to read how it affected this remote farming community. The book also deals with the effects of alcoholism and the turmoil it can create.

I found The Girl From World’s End to be the simple, heartfelt story that I expected. This is another book that has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and although not a keeper, was a pleasant read.… (more)

It's the story of a garden through time and the women who gardened there, starting about 1000 years ago with pre-conquest settlers who first start farming and growing on this small patch of land and then following their descendants' fortunes in the same area as it becomes a convent, then a house, through the Reformation, various wars and up to the mid-1950s when the last surviving Bagshott is considering selling the land for development. This doesn't give a huge amount of scope for plot development, but I enjoyed seeing the garden and its situation develop through time, along with the glimpses into each time. And it did make me think of my former garden and what will hopefully be our next one, both of which are on sites that date back a similar length of time!… (more)