A Wartime in the Dales
The story opens in Liverpool in September 1939, when two families make the decision to allow their daughters, Maggie and Lizzie, to be evacuated. They end up in the Yorkshire Dales, where Maggie is sent to live with an apparently wealthy family at Hawith Hall; there with her is another evacuee, a fellow Liverpudlian named Archie. While Archie lands on his feet after making friends with the man who farms the estate, Maggie is neglected by Lord and Lady Bradley and their servants, who are distracted not just by the outbreak of war but by the family’s financial worries and various scandals involving infidelity and a possible murder. Lizzie is even worse off, having been sent to live with the cruel vicar and his wife. When Maggie and Lizzie meet a couple who live on a canal barge, they find they have a much-needed link to Liverpool and home.
Fans of Diane Allen will probably love this novel, but other readers may struggle to get along with it at first. The narrative jumps back and forth between the thoughts of the entire cast of characters – even those who make only the briefest of appearances. Many of them are extremely verbose, with a tendency to ask a question but then carry on talking without waiting for an answer. Those familiar with the conventions of how to address or refer to members of the nobility may also be put off by the incorrect usage here and there. If you can get past all that, this is otherwise a fairly undemanding and entertaining read.
