Motherland

   

    2012. Alice Dickinson - whom readers first encountered in The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life - goes to France to meet the grandmother who has only just learned of Alice's existence. "You come from a long line of mistakes," Pamela Avenell tells her, "and one true love story".

    It's that love story which is at the heart of William Nicholson's superb new novel Motherland, a book whose characters link it to the loose Sussex trilogy - The Secret Intensity ..., All the Hopeful Lovers and The Golden Hour - but which also stands alone. It's a masterly piece of work from a writer whose gifts include an unsurpassed ear for dialogue, a fluency in the telling of a story which keeps the reader turning the page while yet wanting to linger in and savour the moment, and an empathic insight into the hearts and minds of each of his characters. You can tell that I loved every word of it.

    In 1942, Kitty, an army driver stationed in Sussex, meets Ed, a Royal Marine Commando, and his best friend Larry, a liaison officer attached to Canadian Army Combined Operations. Kitty falls in love with Ed, but both Ed and Larry fall in love with her - sanguine, accepting Larry wishes his rival well, and then the two men take part in Operation Jubilee, the catastrophic Dieppe Raid - in which the casualty rate was almost 70% - and Fate plays her hand.

    Setting the book in England during the Second World War and in India shortly after it, William Nicholson uses real events to test his characters and real people to play opposite them. It's a winning combination, never stilted or contrived, but plausible and convincing, and in his Author's Note he quotes his sources and acknowledges his debt to the work of his wife, the social historian Virginia Nicholson, and in particular to her book Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War.

    If you're not already acquainted with William Nicholson's work, don't lose a moment, and read him at the earliest opportunity - he is that good.

Comments

[adele geras]

What can one say but HEAR HEAR!!

[Cornflower]

I'd still be raving about him, even if he hadn't put in cornflowers twice!!

[Mary]

The book is listed in my local library (across the Pond), but not yet circulating. I was able to put it on hold. Your reviews are growing my reading pile!

[Cornflower]

I hope you don't have a long wait, Mary (on WN's website US publication is listed as being in May), but above all that you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

[Robin Dawson]

I'd like to subscribe to your blog but having no luck so will try via 'comments'. The subscribe link on your website gives me a page of serious code, and the email link doesn't direct me to an email address. Can you assist or advise?
Thanks

[Cornflower]

So sorry you've been having trouble, Robin.
The 'subscribe' link should take you to a page at the top of which there are options in a drop-down menu such as 'subscribe via Feedly', etc. You can click on one of those, or copy the url for that page ( http://www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk/atom.xml ) and paste it into a feed reader. The usual address: www.cornflowerbooks.co.uk would do also.
If you put your mouse over the 'email me' link, you should see the address, prefixed by "mailto:' appear in the bottom corner of the screen. Copy that without the prefix and all should be well. When I actually click on the email link, a new message form, pre-addressed, opens automatically, but that may not be the case for all computers/browsers.
I hope the above is of some help; if all else fails, you could try bookmarking the url.
Thank you for your interest!

[Sam Still Reading]

I was first attracted by the cover, but after reading your review I definitely want to give this a go!

[Kerry]

I adored this novel when it came out and have remained baffled by the lack of attention it received in the US, so it's a joy to be reminded of it and to come upon others who feel the same. Many thanks.

[Cornflower]

Good! Hope you'll enjoy it, Sam.

[Cornflower]

So glad you loved it too, Kerry, and here's to William Nicholson's next novel which is coming soon.

[mara kurtz]

Huge disappointment.
I love stories set in this era but hated the writing in this one. Too many words, unnecessary descriptions. No flow, no memorable images, unnecessarily details. I never cared for a moment. It felt like reading a poor airport romance. I read one chapter and sent it back. Wordy, dull.
(I recently tried reading one other Nicholson book, "The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life" and disliked it even more. This author simply uses too many words to say very little of interest.
If you enjoy novels set in this era, read H.E. "Bates's Fair Stood the Wind From France" and see how delicious a WW2 novel can be.