Meet Me at the Pier Head
Scarred by his traumatic past, hitherto half-American, half-Irish headmaster Theo Quinn has steered clear of love. But when exuberant teacher Tia Bellamy bursts into his life in the summer of 1958, that looks set to change. As the pair grows closer, Tia and her family are drawn into Theo’s plan to rescue five-year-old Rosie from her neglectful mother and abusive stepfather, with the aid of Rosie’s grandmother, Maggie.
Though this Liverpudlian saga purports to deal with some very dark themes, it does so lightly, barely skimming across the surface. Any traumatic scenes are firmly left offstage, as are both villains, who are dealt with so quickly that their menace never feels real. Instead we are left head-hopping between a cast of cheerfully nice characters, which considerably diminishes the potential dramatic tension of this novel.
This is made worse by the impression I had that Hamilton assumes her readers have a three-second attention span, since she feels obliged to remind them every two pages that Tia likes Theo; Theo likes Tia, but they can’t be together because (nope, not telling you for pages and pages yet)… Constant reminders about the characters’ plans for Rosie’s future made it feel like I was trying to watch a film with someone who had already seen it, who kept nudging me and saying, “There’s a good bit coming soon”.
What saves this book from being totally bland is the genuinely humorous dialogue (though I could have done without the obligatory soliloquy that followed each one – “Was she exasperating? Yes. Would he change her? Not for the world”). All in all, an undemanding read for those who prefer their sagas light with the happy ending never in doubt.
