The Children Left Behind (Liverpool Orphans Trilogy)
In the second part of the Liverpool Orphans series set in 1950, Eliza Morton provides a gritty, true-to-life picture of post-war Liverpool where houses are dilapidated, people are still awaiting government assistance, and roads and infrastructure damaged during the war are gradually crumbling. Alice, the oldest child in the Lacey family, is working hard to pull herself out of the gutter and make something of her life, but as fast as she moves forward, her mother slips backward. When her three younger siblings are put into care, Alice vows she will bring them home again, but she risks losing three-year-old Gabriel. Along with detail about the tragedy of working-class cities such as Liverpool, Morton plays with a number of tropes including a slow burn romance arising from Alice’s childhood, and that of the two boys with whom she would venture out to watch the bombs in 1940. At the time the children found the explosions exciting, but now, in their late teens and early 20s they are living with the fall-out. Morton writes with acute sensitivity about these war children and the impacts their experiences had upon their lives.
Although the planned trilogy are all standalones, a child from The Orphans from Liverpool Lane reappears towards the conclusion of this story. This may impact how Morton plans to take her narrative forward. The focal point here, aside from Alice’s family and their precarious circumstances, is once again the St Mary’s orphanage, where the priest and some of the nuns seem more interested in donations from prospective parents than the welfare of the children in their care, including the unwed mothers-to-be. This is a well-written account filled with hard facts of life, and some very dark times, but ends on a hopeful note.
