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I do like a good historical saga, especially one that’s well penned and tightly plotted. Donna Douglas’s A Mother’s Journey, set in wartime England, is all that and more.

It opens in 1940, with young Edie Copeland, fresh from York, taking up residence in Jubilee Row in Hull. She’s alone and knows no one. The book focuses on Edie’s experiences settling into the street and its environs, in a place where, seemingly, there are no secrets and everyone knows everyone else’s business.

War has broken down the accepted code of behaviour, many living in the moment, well aware that life is a precious commodity that can be ripped away at any time. And Evie is one such character, a loner, hated by her stepmother and rejected by a weak father, who courageously takes herself out of a difficult situation to set up life among strangers.

The people she meets and the relationships she develops, the comradie between the women in particular, open up new possibilities, not just for her but for her new friends, too. And it’s the cast of characters which Douglas creates so authentically that make this book so appealing.

A Mother’s Journey is a very readable book, one that’s hard to put down, so much so I read it in one sitting, within a few hours. It reminded me very much of the old school slightly yellowing historical sagas I used to pick off my parents’ shelves, penned so well by writers like Catherine Cookson and Barbara Taylor Bradford. That’s about the highest praise I can give it.

Read it, do.

 

Donna Douglas | A mother’s journey | Trapeze | paperback | £7.99 | 20 February 2020

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Acknowledgements: This review is published as part of the virtual book tour. Many thanks to Alainna Hadjigeorgiou, publicity manager at Orion, for kindly sending us a review copy and to  Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for organising the tour. Image from the author’s website and is used for promotional purposes only. All opinions are our own. All rights reserved. Please check out the other reviews on this tour.

See also: ‘Christy Lefteri on the refugee experience’;Killing Beauties: there ain’t nothin’ like a she-spy’;  ‘Doug Johnstone’s A Dark Matter’;Nora Roberts’ Sanctuary: an Old Familiar’; Carver’s Nothing Important Happened Today’; By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept’; ‘Yvonne Battle-Fenton’s Rememembered‘; ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised‘; ‘We should all be feminists‘; The not-so-invisible woman: 150 greats in their own words’; ‘How Penguin learned to fly – Allen Lane and the Original “Penguin Ten”‘; Dorothy L. Sayer’s Busman’s Holiday – Romek Marber for Penguin Crime (book covers we love).

 

 

 

 

 

 

This review is © 2020 by The Literary Shed. All rights reserved. All opinions are our own. We welcome your feedback and comments. If you wish to reproduce this piece, please do contact us to request permission. Any images are used for promotional purposes only. If we have unintentionally breached your copyright, please contact us and we will take the image down immediately. Thank you so much.

 

 

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