The Forget-Me-Not Summer
This tale runs along the lines of a Second World War-time Cinderella who is reluctantly taken in by her aunt and first cousin when young Miranda is left without any other relatives to care for her. The saving grace for young Miranda comes in the shape of a neighbour’s son, Steve, with whom she strikes up a close friendship, giving her the opportunity and confidence to escape the subservience of her position in her adopted home. Between them, these children grow into adulthood through many shared adventures and challenges, crossing the divide into a class system they would not otherwise have been welcomed into. This gives Miranda patronage, too, to better herself through work, which leads to her ability to live independently from her difficult relatives. The rigors of living in a war-torn city, target of the Luftwaffe air raids, brings much sadness and hardship to further the obstacles these young people endure.
The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Miranda’s mother pervades this storyline, but it doesn’t seem terribly plausible throughout the years that follow. Allied to the fact that the title given refers to one summer rather than the many years covered to the book’s ending, the reader is left feeling somewhat misled.
