Catherine Hall (2) (1973–)

A simple premise, truthfully told of WWII London evacuees, reluctant children taken from grieving, yet unfaltering mothers and fathers to a safer haven in the English countryside. Thus, we meet Nora and her devoted mother as they part, forever lost in that innocent moment, never to physically reclaim that indestructible bond of mother and child.

Catherine Hall immaculately weaves the evocative narratives of Nora’s ostensibly carefree and guileless countryside life with beautiful, charming show more Grace and her presumably conventional parents, Vicar and Mrs. Rivers. As secrets unfold, Nora and Grace clandestinely embark upon a haunting and gripping sequence of events in London, which culminate, in a perilous journey from innocence to guilt that will tragically consume Nora until her final days.

Finely embellished with past and present narratives, Nora Lynch’s unexpected evolvement from lonely window peeper within her limited narrow world to an intrepid leap in her reluctant reaching out to another young woman in need, ultimately compels Nora not only to face, but to acknowledge and forgive her youthful transgressions and to find comforting release.

Discomforting at times, yet undeniably forceful, Grace and Nora suffer unexpected hardships too soon, as Shakespeare reminds us: “…My salad days, /When I was green in judgment, cold in blood…” Unquestionably, a most provocative read, not to be forgotten as I considered how many post-WWII young women faced overwhelming circumstances, and how each confronted resulting personal demons through vastly diverse paths. show less

I was really gripped by this story of Spencer Little, a Cambridge mathematician who spends a summer helping on a farm in the Lake District to try and escape from the social pressures of Cambridge life and give himself some space to make progress with his work. It's set during the 1976 heatwave in the UK; the farm and the countryside are suffering from the dry weather and the heat and despite himself Spencer finds he is getting caught up in the life of the farm and strikes up a friendship show more with the farmer's ten year old daughter, Alice. The plot is a slow burn but the conclusion, when it comes, is both tragic and chilling. show less

Nora is twelve years old when, because of World War II, she becomes one of the thousands of English children put on trains out of London into the safer English countryside. Her mother puts her on the evacuation train for her safety, but Nora feels it as an emotionally devastating rejection. When she reaches rural Kent and is taken in by the Rivers family, she bonds immediately with their daughter, Grace, is enchanted by Mrs. Rivers, and grateful for the new world Rev. Rivers opens up to her show more with education.

Nora and Grace grow as close as sisters, but as the girls reach adolescence, she discovers that even that is not quite close enough. She wants more, something that at that time and place she can't even ask for. And gradually she learns that this idyllic family is not quite so idyllic as it looked at first. There is a grief and a barrier between Rev. and Mrs. Rivers, and a fatal weakness in the Reverend.

The story alternates between Nora as a young girl and young woman during the war years, and Nora as an old woman, dying of cancer and taking in a young woman, Rose, a single mother disowned by her own family. Nora isn't always the most lovable character; she's hard on herself and others, unable to forgive herself for her mistakes. I found this nevertheless an absolutely engaging character study, as the young Nora struggles with feelings she can never talk about, and the old Nora struggles to do the right thing for herself and those around her, after a lifetime of mistakes.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from the library. show less

It's the hot summer of 1976 in Cumbria when Spencer Little arrives in a small farming community on his bicycle. He's running away from his research student existence at Cambridge for the summer, away from an unpleasant incident and frustrations of his pure maths research that isn't progressing as whe ell as he or his supervisors would like. Living in a shepherd's hut and working on the farm for his keep is certainly different. He strikes a friendship with Alice, the 10-year-old daugher of show more the farm, and gets unexpectedly close with one of the young men of the village and does his best to stay away from the vicar who is a former Cambridge man and the gossiping village women whose company he finds uncomfortable. It's a good summer but then it doesn't end well.

I enjoyed reading this book, getting into Spencer's life and trying to understand what had brought him to Cumbria. I liked the friendship with Alice, would have loved to have more Dorothy, and found the end pretty devastating although also disappointing in the sense that it seemed to reproduce that old cliché about non-straight characters only being acceptable when things end somehow nastily for them that felt like a let-down after everything. I'm not saying happy endings should be mandatory, how boring and trite would that be, but this one felt simply nasty rather than bleakly realistic. show less