The Stepney Doorstep Society by Kate Thompson

Jul23

Fascinating Strong Matriarchs

The Stepney Doorstep Society by Kate Thompson is a powerful account of the lives of the matriarchs living in the East End of London. It is mainly set during World War II, with a dip into both the thirties and the post war years.

It was the women of the East End that ran the show. They were not necessarily large in stature but they were strong personalities. They had to be. They lived through the Depression of the 1920’s and 1930’s and also World War II. “I just had to get on with things. I wasn’t brave… I just had no choice.” They put on their big-girl pants and tackled life head on.

The women looked out for each other and for each- others’ children. It was proper community living as they were in and out of each-others houses too. They were “rich in love, poor in the purse.”

With World War II came opportunities for women. They got out of the home and into the factories, only to be relegated to the home again when the men returned from war. “The war brought out the strength in women.”

We see that “individually these women were tough. Together, they were terrifying.” When there was a wrong, these women stood up for what was right. They marched against Oswald Moseley’s Blackshirts in the 1930’s.

We learn that “infant mortality rates were… high and there was a heartbreaking saying offered up to a mother when a new baby arrived: ‘Has it come to stay?’” Within the community women acted as midwives, helping others birth babies.

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The Freshman Parents by Ko Porteous

Jul18

Coming Home

The Freshman Parents by Ko Porteous is an entertaining contemporary novel that gripped me from the start. It is the first book in the Empty Nesters series.

The main topic is that of being an empty nester. “What’s her point if not to parent?” Having had four children, I found the characters easy to empathise with. The feelings of emptiness and loss are very raw.

We see that attitudes need to change. “This is not the end of an era; it is the beginning of a new phase.” We need to move from a position of loss, to one of opportunity.

An online group for freshman parents is a life-saver as new bonds are formed. There are different styles of parenting. Nothing is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, just ‘different.’

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Summer In Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen

Jul15

Coming Home

Summer In Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen is a most delightful contemporary novel that I adored. It is the first book in the fantastic Bellbird Bay series.

Maggie Christensen writes with warmth and an understanding of her characters lives. Her leading characters are in their fifties. They prove that even though they are older, their personalities remain the same as thirty years ago. We age on the outside but not on the inside. They are wiser and have their priorities in place – but their insecurities and fears remain the same.

Both leading characters have had the foundations of their lives shaken. They need to learn to live and to trust again.

Bellbird Bay is a very charming coastal town in Australia. It is a place where hearts come home and lives heal. “Bellbird Bay… was a place a person could come to heal, to discover there was more to life than fame and fortune.”

Life is about love – who we love, and who loves us. Love is what is most precious. It is the greatest treasure.

A character returns to Bellbird Bay when life has hit hard. He believes “home is the place you return to when you have nowhere else to go” – but home is not always a place. Sometimes it is a person.

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My Dear I Wanted I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young

Jul12

Horrifyingly Powerful – The Futility Of War

My Dear I Wanted To Tell You by Louisa Young is a horrifyingly powerful historical novel that consumed me from the start.

It is set during World War I and perfectly illustrates the futility of war. It is mainly written from a masculine point of view of a soldier, but we also hear of the viewpoints of women too, particularly two nurses and a wife.

World War I was the first ‘modern’ war with tanks, planes and so many horrors on the battlefields. It is the reason why medicine rapidly advanced, especially in the field of plastic surgery and facial reconstruction.

Of the war, a character says: “It can’t go on much longer. Governments will just have to take a look at the hospitals… and they’ll stop.” But governments did not look at the hospitals. Governments didn’t care, and the war went on for another four long years.

Louisa Young has produced a novel that absolutely captures the horrors of war. We see what war does to minds, and to bodies. She does not shy away from descriptions of horrific injuries. Never before have I read such a powerful, graphic description of World War I in a novel. War is not glorious. War is horrific. War is not sanitised as in Hollywood movies, war is dirty. “Flanders had become mud beneath their feet” – and not just mud, but blood and guts too.

We learn that boys went to war and one commented; “I’m so… scared out there every day, every night – and now they’ve made me a… officer.” Boys went to war. They had to walk across No Mans Land or they would be shot by one of their own. 

Boys and men tried various ways to block out the horrors – alcohol, women, or focusing on home – but nothing worked. They numbed their minds in any way they could. “We have horrors, and the worst horror is that before I came away on leave, I no longer saw them. I stopped looking… because I didn’t like what I was seeing.” For some, they found humour in the macabre. “So remaineth these three faith, hope and charity and the greatest of these is a sense of humour.”

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