My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You

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Louisa Young was also careful to show the reader how the war continued to affect her characters after their traumatic experiences and this aspect of the story, I believe, is continued in the author's sequel to this novel: The Heroes' Welcome which is due to be released very soon. Ces derniers mois j'ai lu plusieurs romans sur la Première Guerre Mondiale et avec le centenaire du début de ce terrible conflit j'ai l'intention d'en lire d'autres. Riley is taken back to the Waveney home and is soon taken under their wing, making friends with the children, Noel and Nadine, and working as an artist's model and assistant for a family friend, painter Sir Alfred Pleasant. This is the finest Great War novel since Susan Hill’s Strange Meeting… (it) encompasses themes of shifting perceptions of class; of the enduring, insistent consolation of art; of incorrigible wiliness; of unflinching duty and endurance; of the need to maintain a sense of identity when everything militates against its, and of selfless generosity, optimism and intense passion.

I was left wondering throughout how all the characters were going to piece their stunted lives back together, whether they even could or wanted to. Peter Locke meanwhile, verging on a nervous breakdown, arrives home in Sidcup to beautiful, but shallow and seemingly self-absorbed wife, Julia, whose only aim in life appears to be to keep herself lovely for her husband, and who is bitterly disappointed when Peter cannot bring himself to put the war behind him and enjoy his leave with her. Peter is nice enough but less than interesting and his wife Julia is a vapid and tedious character on whom far too much time is wasted. I found the chapters depiciting Riley's time on the battlefield to be particularly difficult to get through. A small hesitation - an indecision between worrying a lover with the knowledge of a serious wound, or protecting her by leaving the word 'slight wound ' on the card, leads to a tangle of misunderstanding, betrayal and mistrust.My other grandfather joined the war at 17 and must have had a similar experience to Riley in the book.

It touches on women's impact during wartime, romance, tragedy, the class system, families, art and early reconstructive surgery methods. Clearly that couple were included to show a broader canvas of reactions to the war, but they didn't develop in any significant way or add much to the book. The second true historical story that is central to this novel is the work of Harold Gillies – a doctor who was also an Army Major.She becomes pregnant, bears him a son, and, flounders, unable to mother the boy—her own mother takes him away—or to do anything useful to help Locke who spirals down, becoming an alcoholic. The novel’s main characters are Riley Purefoy, Nadine Waveney, Peter and Julia Locke as well as Rose Locke, but those who most stand out are Riley and Julia.