The G.I. Bride
London, 1941. Trainee nurse April Harvey is devastated by the death of her widower father in an air raid, and uncertain about the intentions of her former childhood sweetheart, Theo. To escape the city, she applies for a transfer to the Royal Cornwall Infirmary in Truro, close to where her mother grew up.
April slowly recovers from her grief, thanks in a large part to the care of her generous-hearted landlady, Mrs Teague, and makes new friends—and enemies. American troops are stationed nearby, and April finds herself falling in love with Major Crawford Dunbar, on whom one of her fellow nurses would seem to have staked a prior claim. Other love stories are woven in, involving two of April’s friends and a pair of African-American G.I.s, which creates tension in families and the community.
The title leaves us in little doubt that there will be a happy ending for April, and Eileen Ramsay has just the right mix of wartime sentiment and heartache: the tragedies of conflict that could so easily shatter a family, tempered with the spirit to win through and the simple pleasures of a dance, some off-ration treats and friendship.
However, one reason I chose to review this book was that much of the story was set in Truro, a city I know fairly well. The author gives us a detailed description of the August 1942 air raid on the city, but otherwise, apart from passing references to the hospital and the cathedral, and a few street names, there is no sense of Truro as a place.
I would also say that Truro is surrounded by gentle hills, farmland and wooded river valleys rather than the moorland that is referred to on several occasions.
