Fiona Valpy

I am so glad that I joined an online book club that featured Fiona Valpy's The Skylark's Secret for the first meet-up I attended, remotely. Honestly, it's not a book I'd have purchased were it not for the book group. It has a flowery cover, very pretty, but looking like a typical saccharine romance. It was not! It was excellent historical fiction, and to add to that, it took place in northern Scotland, which is my favourite part of the world.

The story tells of the village near Loch Ewe, show more which in WWII is transformed into a thriving sea base for the British Navy and the ships of its allies. The transport ships based there were taking supplies through the Barents Sea, in the Arctic, to Archangelsk, to help them through the Nazi siege of the Russian seaport. The voyage was incredibly dangerous, and the Arctic Fleet had to dodge u-boats, battleships, and the German airforce.

The Arctic Fleet is something I knew very little about. It is obvious that although I've been to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands north of the Scottish mainland, that I wasn't listening to the guide telling us about its significance and about the attack mounted on it. This book served as an excellent introduction to the brave men who guarded northern Scotland and assisted the Russians trying to last out a terrible siege.

Of course, there was romance in the book. What would historical fiction be without romance?! It was written really well, without graphic sex scenes, and by using tenderness in place of mushiness.

This is definitely a great book to read for anyone who enjoys the opportunity to learn about history while enjoying well-written fiction. show less

Wow! So glad I read this book and am sorry it took so long. This ARC has been on my digital TBR shelf since September 2021, and I had every intention of reading it sooner. But what finally propelled me to open the book and begin reading was when Val chose it for our Buddy Read in April 2023.

And we were both surprised at how much we liked this dual timeline novel that takes place in Casablanca. It’s the story of two women who both come from afar to the strange new city of Casablanca and show more must adjust to a different climate, culture, and people. Fourteen-year-old Josie, spunky and clever, chronicles her experiences in a journal during 1941-42. Thirty-something Zoe discovers the journal hidden in a house she and her husband rent in Casablanca in 2010. Josie’s story is influenced by the Second World War. Refugees from France, the family is expecting that this will be a brief stay before moving to the safety of America. Seventy years later Zoe arrives with her husband, who has taken a new job and works long hours. She explores the city on her own, cautiously making friends and embarking on a quilting project.

As Zoe reads Josie’s journal and becomes engaged in her story, so did I. Will their papers be approved so that they can travel to America? Is Josie’s father a spy? Is the family in danger? While Zoe’s story is not dangerous, it is moving and personal. I found myself caught up in both narratives and kept telling myself I would read “just one more chapter.”

Author Fiona Valpy describes how the novel “explores the legacy of loss and grief and how the power of love can help the most impossible wounds to heal.” I appreciated how Valpy weaves historic events and actual people into an unforgettable tale of hope, friendship, and second chances. I highly recommend this moving and memorable story show less

Aultbea, a small fishing village on the shores of Loch Ewe on the west coast of Scotland, was transformed during World War Two into a Royal Navy base for the Arctic convoys. Into this true history Fiona Valpy weaves the fictional story of Flora Gordon in ‘The Skylark’s Secret’.
In 1977, Lexie Gordon returns to Loch Ewe from London after the death of her mother Flora. Lexie arrives home a single mother to baby Daisy, her West End singing career broken because of her damaged vocal chords. show more She feels a failure, gossiped about by the locals, seen as an outsider. Living in her mother’s cottage, she becomes curious about the father she never met and who her mother never spoke freely about.
In this dual timeline story, the narrative alternates clearly between Lexie in the Eighties and Flora in 1940-1944. Flora lives with her widowed father, Iain, gamekeeper for local estate Ardtuath House, in a quiet village where the toughest enemy is the weather. Then one day a fleet of warships arrive, the first of many. Loch Ewe is to become the temporary base for the Home Fleet. As thousands of navy ratings and officers arrive, Iain and Flora hope her brother Ruaridh will be aboard one of the destroyers. The convoys are to change life by the loch forever. Flora and her two friends Bridie and Mairi enlist in the Wrens as drivers. Laird’s son Alec also returns home with an English girlfriend. When Alec admits his lifelong love for Flora, the two young people must face the disapproval of the intimidating laird. With both Alec and Ruaridh on separate ships accompanying the Arctic convoy of merchant ships sailing for Russia, Flora fears for their lives. Meanwhile, a group of evacuees arrive from Glasgow, including two ragamuffins who lodge with bossy but kind-hearted Moira Carmichael.
Valpy unravels the story of Flora’s war years, the hardships, the danger, the exhilarating moments of freedom when the two young men arrive home safe. But always on the horizon is the next convoy which must face the twin dangers of Arctic ice and marauding U-boats. In 1978, Lexie must make a place for herself and Daisy in the community which includes her mother’s old friend Bridie, Lexie’s schoolfriend Elspeth, and fisherman Davy. She feels a stranger and takes to walking the hills, remembering times with her mother, trying to find her place in the world.
This is a story of wartime courage, romantic entanglements, fear, grief and gratitude for sacrifices made. A well-researched book that shows that research with a light hand on the page, allowing the fictional story room to breathe. Excellent.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ show less

A wonderful dual timeline story set in Paris during WWII and the present day. In 2017, after discovering a photograph of her grandmother as a young woman, Harriet travels to Paris to explore her family’s history. In the 1940s three seamstresses become members of the French Resistance and find themselves in grave danger.

The Dressmaker’s Gift is a moving tale of friendship, courage, resilience, love, loss and hope. I found it gripping, suspenseful and somewhat harrowing. It kept my show more attention throughout - I was eagerly turning the pages to find out what happened next. I thought the two interlinked stories were sewn together quite seamlessly, a little like the lovely blue dress which one of the characters wore, and I very much enjoyed both timelines. I liked the way it was told and thought it had a lovely, easy style. Having read The Beekeeper’s Promise by the same author, it was great to recognise the name of Mereille, one of the seamstresses, and read her personal story.

Well researched, beautifully written and nicely plotted with some captivating characters, it gives a fantastic insight into the life of the resistance fighter and how the French coped with life during German occupation in such perilous and disturbing times. Well worth the read. I loved it! show less