Dreams that Veil
The novel opens in December 1911. Twelve-year-old Eliza Brennan is living a cosy, if boring, life with her widowed mother and her cousin Dorothea in the heart of Northamptonshire. She is looking forward to the highlight of the Christmas season – the return of her brother, Roderick, from University. Sheltered from life by her strict, overbearing mother and a small army of servants, Eliza is unaware that both Roderick and Dorothea are maturing into adulthood. Struggling with the changes to her own body as she faces the challenges of puberty, she is blissfully unaware of life changing around her as the years move forward, inexorably, to 1914.
This is a charming story of an England basking in an idyllic world of peace and bucolic innocence before the storm of the First World War, and of a young girl’s struggle with her transition to maturity. The novel ends on the day that War is declared, leaving the way open for a sequel. In this exquisitely written novel, the author evokes the personality, feelings of bewilderment and confusion of a young girl who realises that her world is changing, but is ill- equipped to deal with the changes.
