Keep The Home Fires Burning

Digging For Victory At Rookery House by Rosie Hendry is a marvellous historical novel. It is part of the Rookery House series but can be read as a stand-alone. I recommend reading the previous books for maximum enjoyment.

The action opens in December 1940 at the height of the Blitz in Manchester. We see the devastation caused and the luck needed to survive. Plus the guilt of being a lone survivor. Bitterness, guilt and fear make terrible masters. We see a character hiding her feelings as a way of coping. Bitterness creeps in until – one day she faces her fears and realizes the enemy are just young men with families who love them. They are just following orders.

Much of the action is in a Norfolk village. There is a great house and a sense of community as we see women making do and mending; running canteens; arranging fetes; working the land etc. The women are definitely keeping the home fires burning while the men are away.

Houses are thrown open to evacuees and land girls. We see the trauma involved as a family home of forty seven years is demolished in order to make way for a new runway.