OIde Worlde Charm
The Innkeeper Of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen is the most charming Christian historical novel and I adored it. Set in Wiltshire in 1820 the reader is indeed transported to another era with Julie Klassen’s delightful descriptions. As an English woman, it was wonderful to read a novel set in England. I found it easy to picture the Bell Inn, farm and village – a little like a Constable painting in my head.
The village community was perfectly captured. I ‘walked’ through the novel, alongside the characters. It was a quintessential English village, with all the various characters one finds in there.
The inn is at the heart of the village. If that dies, the infrastructure around will crumble and the community perish. Old enmity must be put aside as people work together to revive the flagging inn.