Author Meriel Brooke
cleverly uses her own family history as the basis of this beautifully written
family saga spanning two world wars.
Sam, the main character,
comes from a country life in England through World War I to Malaya and
Singapore during World War II then home to England again. Through the book weaves
a story of romance; family life and its inevitable ups and downs; and a successful
career as a rubber plantation manager alongside the different horrors of each
of the wars.
It is beautifully written
and even has a touching underlying story of a man’s relationship with his horse.
The characters are
very real even if not always likeable. I must admit I do get very annoyed by
reviewers who criticise characters because they don’t behave the way we expect
them to today. Brooke’s characters are real because of the accuracy of their
behaviour and attitudes of the time.
Sam and other characters in the
story suffer two world wars as many men did. In World War I he is a pilot of
the Royal Flying Corps (later RAF) shot down and badly wounded. In World War II
he is imprisoned in the dreaded Changi prison. This aspect of WWII is often not
well known in many parts of the world.
The book is historically accurate and conveys a sense of
time and place well. It is wonderfully descriptive and consistently good from
beginning to end; moving along nicely with never a boring patch and ending on a
twist I didn’t imagine. Brooke also uses some great analogies “Like a gaggle of
geese without a gander”
Romance, intrigue, war and a history lesson too; can’t
complain about that mix.
This book was
provided to me for free for an honest and unbiased review.
My rating 4*
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