THE BLURB:
August 1939: Thirteen-year-old Poppy Brown is evacuated to a village in Dorset. Tired and frightened, she arrives with nothing but a gas mask and a change of clothes to her name. Billeted at a grand country house, Poppy is received with cold indifference above stairs and gets little better treatment from the servants. Lonely and missing the family she left behind in London, Poppy is devastated when she hears that they have been killed in the Blitz.
Circumstances soon force Poppy to move to the suburbs and into the company of strangers once more. Earning a meagre income as a hospital cleaner, as the war continues to rage, Poppy longs to do her duty. And as soon as she is able to, she starts her training as a nurse. While the man she loves is fighting in the skies above Europe, Poppy battles to survive the day-to-day hardships and dangers of wartime, wondering if she'll ever see him again.
THE REALITY:
A slow-burner, that was easy for me to pick up and start again after a break. This book was chiefly about our heroine, and it was good seeing, and sensing, her develop from an East End “brat” to a blossoming, intelligent and capable young lady. There were discrepancies in this book- at one point we see Guy asking Poppy to write to him, then further down he's listed as being no correspondent, so that seemed odd. There is also a fair bit of telling in this book, which I quite like. I do not believe in the mantra “show not tell” and believe a writer has to show AND tell (the best advice I ever read). Telling is actually a very good way of speeding things along, without wasting words and, as long as the story's not all telling, a bit of telling is fine by me!
The story did seem to jump a bit, and it seemed like Poppy was having birthdays back to back! But I think this helped, rather than hindered the flow. I enjoyed learning about the characters in both London and at Squire's Knapp- both above stairs and below- and we had a good balance of good and bad personalities in both locations. London and Dorset were brought to life- although not excessively so- and I did get a real feel for wartime. I have to say, my one criticism is that deep emotions didn't appear to be on display anywhere. Even though Poppy's family were killed, and she thought (spoiler alert!) she had lost Guy, nothing of real depth was put on the page so that you could empathise with the character(s). I suppose my favourite character was Dennis, as he always gave you a laugh, and I did love that Poppy grew up to be a beautiful young woman wearing (shock, horror!) a red dress (red was considered tarty in those days, and I despise those judgemental kind of morals), who resembled Vivien Leigh. I also liked kind, upper-class Amy.
All in all, a light, bright and trite read- nothing to scare the horses and quite enjoyable.
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