As kingfishers catch fire

  I finished reading Rosie Alison's debut The Very Thought of You a few days ago and although I've since read some non-fiction and am near the end of another, shorter novel, it is still very much with me. It's a book which will, I think, depend upon the mood of the reader for its impact - for some, it won't work, but for others its pace, its tone, its particular emotional frequency will ensure it is enjoyed and remembered.
   It begins with the young Anna Sands being evacuated from London at the start of the war to the safety of a grand Yorkshire house which has become a boarding school for the duration. The house is home to Thomas Ashton, a former diplomat. Married to Elizabeth, he's now crippled after polio but has nevertheless achieved "a hard-won balance" and sees purpose in the use to which his ancestral home has been put and his own role within it. Elizabeth's equilibrium is not as sure and she seeks fulfilment, and as we see the couple through Anna's eyes as well as our own direct sight, we begin to understand how and why fissures develop.
   The book is a love story, however, (see the epigraph Late Fragment by Raymond Carver) and one described on different levels and with different facets. Crucial here is an unacknowledged intimacy, an "unspoken connection"; indeed, more than one, and this is very powerful. There are Jane Eyre-like strands, and an overall restraint which is carefully handled, and though often plangent, this is a good-hearted book whose mood has lustrous moments.
   I have two points of criticism, though neither detracted from what was a satisfying and very absorbing book. Within the story are a couple of real-life characters, and though their presence adds another dimension - and an interesting one at that - there is sometimes a slightly abrupt and obvious change of level from the fictional plot to accommodate them. Beyond that, I found some passages over-written, but far from being a gratuitous indulgence in prose on the part of the writer, I felt they were indicative of her deep and genuine involvement with her characters. As such - and I must stress this - none of it took away from the book's pull, and reading it was a real pleasure. I look forward to more from Rosie Alison.