A Sister’s Bond
This book starts off with a bang and launches the reader into its world as violent father, Tommy Bone, attempts to catch his youngest child, Alfie, to punish him for a misdemeanour. The main characters are quickly introduced and the scene is set as Olivia Bone, eldest daughter, arrives home and deflects Tommy’s anger from the young boy. The family lives in poor conditions in North London just prior to World War One in November 1913. Olivia is seventeen and pretty, and attracts two very different suitors. Her main task in life is to placate her angry and often drunk father, to prevent him from turning his temper on his family, especially Alfie. Olivia’s mother died whilst giving birth to Alfie, for which Tommy hates him. Tommy has worked at Barrett’s sweet factory for many years, and Olivia soon gets a job there too.
The story was inspired by the author’s own ancestors, who lived and worked in these places. The details of daily life are crisp and vividly rendered, as are the descriptions of the streets of Wood Green and working life in the sweet factory. The ending is not entirely predictable and, as this is a first novel in a series, I shall look forward to the next.
