Joanna Rossiter

Two stories that are set a generation apart, they are linked by the relationship between the mother and daughter

The first story is set in the village of Imber in Wiltshire during the second world war. It is a rural village and they are hardly affected by the war, just the odd plane going overhead. There are two sister, Violet and Freda, daughters of the local parson. A lad called Peter comes to work in the village who befriends them. he is a bit of a whimsical character, he has travelled a lot, but is a solid hard worker. As the war continues more military personnel arrive and start the build up for the D day landings. They are asked to leave the village, along with all the other residents as the MoD want to use it for training. The are rehoused in a miserable house nearby. Violet starts to fall for Peter, and after getting a lift to a dance sees Peter dancing with her sister.

The second story woven in this one is about Alice. She is in Sri Lanka and has been married one day when the tsunami hits. her new husband has jet left to get them breakfast and she is swept inland and out to sea. She manages to find something to float on, and after a few hours she, and the other guy she is with are picked up by a boat. They are returned to the shore she starts a desperate and frantic search through the devastation to see if she can find James anywhere.

Violet returns to Imber to answer the questions about her past and the love that she lost. Alice in her grief starts to come to terms with the strained relationship that she had with her mother, and receives a letter that goes some way to explaining it.

Didn't think that i would like this that much, but it is a well written tale of the complexity of families and the tragedies that sometimes beset them. It deals with the roots that people push down in the places that they know and love, and how they cope with leaving them with no choice.… (more)

I was captivated by a recent documentary about Imber, the small hamlet on Salisbury Plain which was claimed back by the Army during the Second World War and is now a ghost town, so of course I needed to read more about the place and downloaded two novels on the spot. Joanna Rossiter's book might be partially set in Imber, but didn't really add information or imagination to the already spooky reality.

With a timeline divided between the evacuation of Imber in 1943 and a tsunami in India in 1971, this should be a far more dramatic story, but the plodding narrative - told in that flowery first person voice that nobody in reality would actually speak ('The events merged like two converging roads, equally potholed and perilous') - slows the pace down to a crawl. A dreadfully middle-class family called the Fieldings live in Imber, 'Father' being vicar at St Giles, until the war turns their lives upside down. Thirty years later, Alice survives the tsunami in Kanyakumari, where she has been living the middle-class hippy life with new husband James until a letter from home - you guessed it - turns her life upside down. The twist in the tale is equally drawn out by boring characters, so that I didn't actually care how upset by every goddamned thing Violet, Freda, 'Mama' and Alice were.

I'm hoping that the other book about Imber I have queued to read restores my interest in the village that time forgot (and the army destroyed).… (more)

This is not a book I would normally have read, but it was selected for our small book group, so I had little choice. Beside, my wife had read it first and really enjoyed it.
Lots of the descriptive writing is excellent, particularly the evocation of the tsunami and its impact and the wander through the "ghost" village of Imber. It is an enjoyable enough read, but I was much more caught up in 40s Wiltshire than I was in 70s (I assume) India. Essentially there are only two real characters in the book, a mother and her daughter, the supporting cast are only lightly drawn. The character of Alice the daughter is less than fully developed and her story disappointed me.
For a first novel this is a good effort, but not one that will have me waiting anxiously for her follow-up, but then I'm not part of her target audience.… (more)

The Sea Change, a remarkable debut novel by Joanna Rossiter, tells the intertwined stories of a mother and a daughter and their experiences in two very different yet similar events based on historical incidents.

Violet grew up in the village of Imber, a bucolic place populated with memorable characters. A strong-willed pastor’s daughter, she experiences an idyllic English childhood until the military requisitions the village during World War Two. Violet loses her home, her family, her friends…and she has never been able to forget.

Alice, Violet’s daughter, is traveling across Asia with the man she has just married when they are separated by a devastating tsunami. As she frantically searches for him, she reflects on her life, her love for her new husband, and her tumultuous relationship with her mother.

Recurring themes and imagery connect the two disparate stories, one set in England in the prewar years and the other set in 1971 in India. With an elegiac tone and hauntingly lovely prose, The Sea Change explores the impact of loss and misunderstanding and the importance of love and relationships.

I found the book deeply moving and wonderfully written. As evidenced by this strong first novel Joanna Rossiter is a talented author and one to watch.… (more)