For Better, For Worse
This novel, by an author new to me, set in fictitious Yorkshire towns in World War Two and beyond is a nostalgic breath of fresh air.
After a family tragedy, tension tightens further as three girls witness the break-up of their parents’ marriage. Margaret Bacon details well their inner thoughts as they come to terms with what life’s all about.
I nevertheless felt the writing was somewhat pedestrian and, unfortunately, there were quite a few historical inaccuracies. Could a teenager really earn five pounds a week in the late 1940s? George VI could not convert to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed as he was the Defender of the Protestant Faith. Sometimes the teenage girls speak like old women. But, all the same, I enjoyed it, especially a romantic episode under a tarpaulin in the punt and there’s a lovely description of the long, hard winter of 1947.
