The Blitz Sisters
A very enjoyable story featuring three sisters during World War Two and its immediate aftermath. Each of the chronological sections focuses on one of them, at the same time giving insights into the lives of the other two and their close circle of relatives and friends. In some ways they resemble Noel Streatfeild’s Fossil sisters in Ballet Shoes, each with their own interests and talents, and there are frequent references to the children’s books with which they are familiar. Lydia develops her culinary skills which will serve her well professionally in later life. Impetuous Peggy has inherited her parents’ artistic talents. Teddy (Theodora) has a magpie mind and is a constant collector of facts.
The girls are alert to their widowed mother’s struggles, and a significant strand in the novel is her own gradual realisation of how she can balance her relationships, including being a mother, and being an artist. With the absence of the men in their lives, whether permanently or temporarily, the ways in which women and girls adapt, whether by necessity or choice, are central and interesting historical details relating to everyday life are woven in seamlessly.
The various settings in which the characters find themselves during and beyond the war years are vividly portrayed, ranging from the country cottage to where the girls are evacuated to stay with their Aunt Phoebe to the streets of Paris and different areas of London. I found the middle section of the novel particularly evocative, as the family are situated in the area of London closest to my own heart, so it was with personal pleasure that I followed Peggy as she traverses Peckham Rye Common and many familiar streets in Peckham and Walworth as well as finding encouragement at Camberwell School of Art.
