Having loved Liardet’s first novel, We Must Be Brave, I was of course eagerly anticipating this, her second. And once again, right from the start, I found myself in the hands of a skilled storyteller.
This novel was set in the same period as the first: the 2nd world war. It tells the love story of Egyptian Yvette Haddar and British fighter pilot, James Acton, but moves between two time periods, that in which they met, and 30 years on, after Yvette has passed away. James Acton is a vicar, and deciding he needs a new start, applies for and gets the post for the parish of Upton and Barrow End. His son, Tom, a 2nd year student at Cambridge, helps him move into his new home. Liardet writes with such a deft touch when depicting relationships, whether it is between siblings, parents, or lovers. It is ever a joy to watch her unfolding the interactions for us the readers, the sense it is so natural and as if she is recounting something which actually happened, is testimony to her outstanding authorial skills.
Her descriptions are also lovely and evocative ones, tender but thankfully never sentimental. Just as a sample of her writing, when describing Yvette’s beautiful sister, Celia, on her wedding day, Liardet tells us that Celia’s wedding dress
was a column of starch-white silk with a furled neckline. She might have been riding head and shoulders out of an arum lily
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Celia is depicted as both an astounding beauty and yet so lovable and unassuming. She seems beautiful in all states; even after crying, Celia
was so creamy and dewy, her eyes and nose turned the pink of crushed rose petals. By contrast, my complexion was olive, my skin tough
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Yvette compares herself unfavourably with her sister, in terms of appearances, but that does not detract at all from her own confidence, or from the closeness of the two sisters. James of course, finds Yvette attractive in her own way. At Celia’s wedding, James remembers Yvette,
Beside the stately beauty of Celia, on whom all eyes rested except mine, she was as slight and dainty as a deer
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The novel takes a little getting into because it switches times, places, narrators, with every chapter, although it becomes mostly easy to follow once one has accustomed oneself to the characters. It is not a perfect novel – there are loose ends such as the slight air of mystery about the children who were taken in and housed during war time in Upton, but which is not really developed. The main ‘mystery’ however regards a period of James and Yvette’s life when tragedy struck and they needed to each take a personal detour before being able to resume their life together and their great love too. The pieces are put together by James decades after by getting to know some of the residents in Upton, which is very close to his first parish, Alver Short.
This second novel by Liardet, the characters are even more endearing and intimately depicted, but there is the same rendering of a charming British reserve and decorous gentlemanly behaviour which marks the period (around WWII). It is a tale of a lovely cross-cultural set of relations (though the Egyptians in this case are extremely westernised and affluent ones), and a creation of some very lovable, lively characters indeed. It is a relatively simple tale in all, but so beautifully told that one wishes one could stay on with the characters long after the book has ended.
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