The Last Pier
Cecily Maudsley is a young teenager living in her family’s farmhouse in southeastern England in the summer of 1939. The youngest of the family, she wants to be a writer and is determined to observe everything, although she does not understand most of it. She follows and spies on her beautiful older sister, Rose, aware of her trysts with several of the local men. However, she is not aware of the complex relationships between her father, her mother and her aunt, and how these involve her. Nor is she aware of her mother’s relationship with Lucio, Italian part-owner of an ice cream shop in the nearby village of Bly. Cecily herself loves Carlo, Lucio’s nephew, but while Carlo speaks kindly to her, he is dazzled by the allure of Rose.
Throughout that beautiful summer, with its rumours of spies and counter spies and the threat of war, Cecily’s family plan a grand outdoor party at the farm. The Italian family start to worry about what might happen to them if Italy joins the Germans in the war. Their daughter and the Maudsleys’ son are in love. All this is remembered by Cecily as she returns to the farm almost 30 years later, a psychological wreck after being blamed for Rose’s death. Much has changed in the village, but older people remember.
Tearne writes evocatively of the English countryside that glorious but foreboding summer. Her descriptions of fields, hedgerows, garden flowers are full of nostalgia and beauty.
The relationships as observed by young Cecily and their implications are not always clear to the reader. Cecily’s voice conveys the complicating innocence of childhood – part sure of itself, part unsure, and always vulnerable and prone to misinterpretation. As an adult, her understanding of the secrets and truths may still be incomplete.
