Soldier Girl
Molly Fox has grown up in the backstreets of Birmingham at the mercy of a cruel grandfather and her drunken mother. To escape from terrible family secrets she decides to join the army as an ATS girl when war starts. It is not an easy existence, but she is a gutsy heroine, and the army gives her the encouragement to carry on, becoming the family she did not have as a child. However, the past has a way of catching up with you.
A story of tragedy and triumph, this is the sequel to The Hopscotch Summer, but I didn’t realise this when I read it, and it makes an enjoyable enough story without reading its predecessor.
I found it interesting enough to want to explore Murray’s other novels, as I liked her style of writing and enjoyed reading the snippets of social history that form the backdrop of her stories. It must have been a difficult period to live through, and while at times what we learn is harrowing, it helps us to understand what people must have endured. Well told.
