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Somewhere in England
“At any rate,� ended Philippa-Dawn, staring up at the garland of silver monsters gently swaying above them in the evening sky, “at any rate, it’ll be a change of Balloons.�
Carola Oman’s irresistible sequel to Nothing to Report begins with young, perky Philippa-Dawn Johnson, preparing to launch her nursing career at Woodside, the country home now overseen as a hospital by none other than the redoubtable Mary Morrison. Pippa soon encounters other faces familiar to readers of the earlier novel, including Mrs. Bates, whose debilitating rheumatism has been suddenly cured by Hitler, the Dowager Lady Merle, who is “the living image of Elizabeth Tudor in later life�, and the redoubtable historical novelist (and alter-ego of Oman herself?) Rosanna Masquerier, doing war work and encountering bombs with her usual flair.
Set in the thick of World War II, Somewhere in England traces Oman’s charming and eccentric village characters through unforgettable new muddles, romances, and hilarities on the Home Front. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Nothing to Report.
“Delicious fun for the wise and gentle everywhere.� Observer
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1943
32 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
About the author
Carola Oman
39books10followersDaughter of Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman.
As a child Oman wrote several plays that were performed by friends. Another early interest was photography. She was sent in 1906 to Miss Batty's, later Wychwood School in Oxford.She would have liked to have gone to boarding school, but her parents would not agree, and she continued at Miss Batty's until the spring of 1914.
The family moved in 1908 into Frewin Hall, now part of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Carola Oman worked as a VAD in England and then in France in 1918-19: soon after her 1919 discharge she met Gerald Foy Ray Lenanton (1896�1952) a soldier returning from France who would join his family business as a timber broker: married to Lenanton 26 April 1922, Oman became Lady Lenanton when her husband was knighted in 1946 for his World War II service as director of home timber production. The couple - who would remain childless - would from 1928 reside at Bride Hall, a Jacobean mansion in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire. In 1965, Oman produced Ayot Rectory � A Family Memoir, about the Sneade family, who had lived in the village from 1780 to 1858.
The novelist Georgette Heyer was a lifelong friend, who even took the time to compile a 16-page index for Oman's Britain against Napoleon, published in 1942 by Faber and Faber. Another writer friend in Oxford was Joanna Cannan, who dedicated her 1931 novel High Table to Oman.
She died at Ayot St Lawrence on 11 June 1978.There is a memorial to her and her husband in the village church.
From Wikipedia.
As a child Oman wrote several plays that were performed by friends. Another early interest was photography. She was sent in 1906 to Miss Batty's, later Wychwood School in Oxford.She would have liked to have gone to boarding school, but her parents would not agree, and she continued at Miss Batty's until the spring of 1914.
The family moved in 1908 into Frewin Hall, now part of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Carola Oman worked as a VAD in England and then in France in 1918-19: soon after her 1919 discharge she met Gerald Foy Ray Lenanton (1896�1952) a soldier returning from France who would join his family business as a timber broker: married to Lenanton 26 April 1922, Oman became Lady Lenanton when her husband was knighted in 1946 for his World War II service as director of home timber production. The couple - who would remain childless - would from 1928 reside at Bride Hall, a Jacobean mansion in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire. In 1965, Oman produced Ayot Rectory � A Family Memoir, about the Sneade family, who had lived in the village from 1780 to 1858.
The novelist Georgette Heyer was a lifelong friend, who even took the time to compile a 16-page index for Oman's Britain against Napoleon, published in 1942 by Faber and Faber. Another writer friend in Oxford was Joanna Cannan, who dedicated her 1931 novel High Table to Oman.
She died at Ayot St Lawrence on 11 June 1978.There is a memorial to her and her husband in the village church.
From Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 20, 2019
Having just read Carola Oman's Nothing to Report and knowing, "Somewhere in England," is the sequel, I wanted to read it next. It is best to read the first book to understand the characters and not just see how the story progress in 1940 and beyond but notice changes which are different.
In "Nothing to Report", we are introduced to Mary, a middle age spinster and all her friends pre world war 2 and then war is declared. Many characters are back bring closure to many happenings in the community, like a factory for war materials and machines.
I found myself like Rosemary Wright in the first story but her character became quite unbearable and worse then her mother in this. In spoiler section, I will spill more. Mary has found romance and also her ancestors' mansion is turned into a hospital that she manages. The Rollos, Mary's friends fates are told. Elizabeth Rollos "coming out" was quite opposite of her present day.
The reader gets a sense of how the community lives during the wartime years. This being published when the war still raging. If you are looking for total excitement, you will not find it in these pages, there are some exciting happenings but interactions of people is what drives this novel.
This novel is centered on two main characters, Pippa Johnson, just turned 18 and she is a nurse at Mary's hospital and Mary, comes back again.
What I enjoyed most from this series is traveling back in time and seeing what the author wanted to convey. She wanted a patriotic but the future uncertain.
Enjoyed this immensely!💜
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢SPOILER ALERT💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢
Rosemary was very soft spoken and sweet in book 1; her lack of care for her young son is quite sad.
Elizabeth Rollo- She had become quite sarcastic and morose. It shows how the war changed many lives.
In "Nothing to Report", we are introduced to Mary, a middle age spinster and all her friends pre world war 2 and then war is declared. Many characters are back bring closure to many happenings in the community, like a factory for war materials and machines.
I found myself like Rosemary Wright in the first story but her character became quite unbearable and worse then her mother in this. In spoiler section, I will spill more. Mary has found romance and also her ancestors' mansion is turned into a hospital that she manages. The Rollos, Mary's friends fates are told. Elizabeth Rollos "coming out" was quite opposite of her present day.
The reader gets a sense of how the community lives during the wartime years. This being published when the war still raging. If you are looking for total excitement, you will not find it in these pages, there are some exciting happenings but interactions of people is what drives this novel.
This novel is centered on two main characters, Pippa Johnson, just turned 18 and she is a nurse at Mary's hospital and Mary, comes back again.
What I enjoyed most from this series is traveling back in time and seeing what the author wanted to convey. She wanted a patriotic but the future uncertain.
Enjoyed this immensely!💜
💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢SPOILER ALERT💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢💢
Rosemary was very soft spoken and sweet in book 1; her lack of care for her young son is quite sad.
Elizabeth Rollo- She had become quite sarcastic and morose. It shows how the war changed many lives.
September 13, 2019
A very enjoyable follow-up to Nothing to Report. It takes place during the middle of WW2, so it is slightly darker than the first novel.
August 6, 2020
A sequel to Nothing to Report reprising the lives and concerns of the people living in the villages and hamlets around the fictional county town of Went during WWII. It opens with a dreary wartime journey by an uninteresting minor character, which is a shame as it is an offputting beginning with too little of what Oman does best - social interaction between characters. When the more interesting characters take their place at the forefront, the novel comes alive and places all of them in their social milieu amid the wartime setting with a flair for how they all fit together to form one big community. There is no shying away from the harsh realities of war, but equally there is still time for joyful, homely celebrations on the village green, and this novel successfully blends the two.
A wonderfully entertaining WWII Home Front read with warm and lifelike characters and sparkling dialogue.
A wonderfully entertaining WWII Home Front read with warm and lifelike characters and sparkling dialogue.
May 11, 2020
Published in 1943, this enjoyable novel revisits the setting of its predecessor, "Nothing to Report." The narrative is charming and the characterizations are skillful, although--like the earlier book--there is still a bewilderingly large cast of characters, difficult to keep straight (it's a little easier than the first one, possibly because I read the two books in a row). It's an elegy for small-town English life, even as that life was rupturing in the days of WWII. The descriptions are beautifully and incredibly detailed, as if the author was frantically trying to trap in amber, to capture for eternity, all the small aspects of the culture (colorful characters, small kindnesses and slights, little shops, room decor, decaying architecture, village greens, intertwining relationships, and so many, many beautiful flowers) that she saw in danger of disappearing with the war. It's exhausting at times, but lovely.
Another nice reissue by Dean Street Press.
Another nice reissue by Dean Street Press.
June 9, 2020
This suffered somewhat from the same problem as Nothing to Report of which this is the sequel. There are too many characters! Having read that book recently, however, this was not so difficult to get into as there were many names that recurred. The earlier book was set in 1939 and 1940. Here we are in 1942.
Immediately we are introduced to a new protagonist, Philippa-Dawn Johnson; and as if Ms. Oman realized that she had a problem, "her best friend" not named nor introduced in any other capacity. At the end of the first subchapter she leaves on a "crowded equipage, which was rapidly carrying Pippa's best friend out of the Kidderpore Road and, as things fell out, out of her life."
Philippa-Dawn is in fact leaving the London suburb where she has been put up for an unknown number of years for a hospital in a country house, in fact: "...Woodside is definitely a Seat. The little modern Barsetshire Guide which I have managed to see, says so."
This is doubly interesting as Woodside is the home of Mary Morrison the protagonist of the Nothing to Report; and Barsetshire is the home of Anthony Trollope's Chronicles and also of Angela Thirkell's later series of novels, both of which I am very fond. In Ms Oman's first story there was no mention of Barsetshire, but I would guess that having read Ms Thirkell - and Trollope assuredly - she took advantage of the setting. Her Barsetshire - unlike Ms Thirkell's is not, as far as I have noticed, in any way related to Mr Trollope's; nor indeed to Ms Thirkell's. Ms Oman confines her setting to Westbury-on-the-Green, where Mary Morrison previously resided at the seventeenth century cottages Willows now home to her late brother's wife, Mrs Morrison and Mrs Morrison's adult daughter, Rosemary, also widowed. On the Green live also the misses Hill, two of whom are now married, so no longer, and Mrs Bates who was practically an invalid in Nothing to Report but has regained her health: "my rheumatism has practically vanished, thanks to Hitler or Lord Woolton." (Lord Woolton was appointed Minister of Food in April 1940 and established the rationing system.)
Also nearby is the cathedral town of Went. Considering what happens to it, and when, this may be a pseudonym for Exeter, though I suspect not. What happened to Exeter happened to other towns and also to the fictional town of Went.
The thing is that Philippa-Dawn Johnson has decided that along with the change in scenery she is going to reinvent herself and become Pippa. She is just eighteen and so eligible to work as a "nurse". Her duties are barely described but from the little we are told - handling a dustpan and broom - she is somewhat less than even an assistant nurse, but "doing her part".
Ms Oman is not as funny as Ms Thirkell but she does have her moments as when Pippa's "alarum-clock was obviously in the last stage of pulmonary tuberculosis, and of humble origin though undaunted spirit, Miss Johnson had reverently named it “Poor Keats.� Though astute and erudite � as is Ms Thirkell - I was pleased to note farther on that Ms Oman misquoted Keats! Or perhaps it is only Mary who does so.
In the previous story we had Elizabeth Rollo who was just coming out and her friend Lalage (which Wikipedia informs me is "pronounced ˈlælədʒiː"! Läludgy? Who would inflict such a name on a child?). Lalage Merle was also a débutante but more childish than Elizabeth and leaned on her for support in the adult world she did not comprehend; as for example, Ascot. In this book the roles are reversed. Both work as "nurses" at Mary's hospital but it is Lalage, now a widow, who is the more mature while Elizabeth, who has lost her fiancé in the same "action" as Lalage lost her husband is unhappy and has become proud and spiteful. The head nurse - always referred to by Pippa as "Awful Matron", and apparently by others as well is aided by Miss Masquerier, the historical novelist (a possible pseudonym for Ms Oman?) who is Quartermaster. There are other competent nurses and several "staff" who are minors, ranging from fourteen to seventeen years and who seem to work as maids.
Despite the fact that the Woodside "Seat", is an extensive country house with wings and large gardens, it is now being used as a hospital, in which patients fill the "White Ballroom, while the "pillared hall" and the "green drawing-room, with its cold marble faces..." have become a cafeteria; there is still considerable class distinction. "From the cool and distant staff quarters came the leisurely sound of elderly feet on stone flags." Not only minors are employed as servants but apparently the elderly as well.
"Miss Masquerier, who could be so sarcastic on paper about the Bourbons, went in fear of her once devoted and invaluable retainer. Florence, like many of her type, had not taken at all kindly to the idea of a Second German War..." One wonders what "her type" is? Old retainers? Servants? Old women? The elderly?
For the botanically interested here is much to enjoy. It is Spring and Summer after the terrible winter of 1941-42 "'Campion, speedwell and garlic,'� thought Mary. �'Hooray for the Red, White and Blue'!" At times there seems to be a catalogue of flowers, wild, as well as hot-house and cut.
"Everyone agreed that 1942 looked like being a bumper year, and that, except for the news on the wireless and in the papers, one had nothing of which to complain."
"...the weather had suddenly become mild and lovely, with pacific skies, streaked grey and silver, like the bosom of the deep..."
There are diversions, of course, Mary takes a trip to London:
[She] refolded her newspaper with a gentle sigh, and resigned herself to the most soothing occupation in this life—watching English countryside in high summer, fly past the windows of a railway carriage.
There is also tragedy, of course.
Pippa's reinvention of herself has not been all that she could have desired
"...I don’t know anything about little Johnson, though, except that her parents differed, and her mother remarried and went to Australia...
Little Johnson" is in fact Pippa. The above statement is not funny until some pages later on where the ancient Mrs Wilson exclaims: "...she has lost her mother—and in the saddest way..."
Later Mrs Wilson explains: "I happened to look out of the window, and there I saw our little guest, standing up to her waist amongst wet cabbages, staring upwards at the darkening sky... Some aircraft, from one of our local stations, I imagine, were drawing near overhead, moving in formation - a beautiful sight such an impression of power and efficiency!"
“Quite extraordinary," continues Mrs Wilson "it still seems to me, to be able to dine in Went and return for breakfast, having bombed Cologne!"
Mrs Wilson is also convinced that Pippa will soon be settled, marrying airman David Cox, the reader is not so sure. It is not David flying above the wet cabbages, nor is it David's picture on Pippa's night stand. Unfortunately Ms Oman did not pursue her saga. We will never know if Pippa got "settled" if Elizabeth made a horrible marriage, if Lalage found a new love, or who survived the war.
Ms Oman kills off quite a few people here, one of them is even upper class!
I admit that I am apprehensive about reading the next volume in Angela Thirkell's chronicle. I last left off at Cheerfulness Breaks in in 1939-1940...
Immediately we are introduced to a new protagonist, Philippa-Dawn Johnson; and as if Ms. Oman realized that she had a problem, "her best friend" not named nor introduced in any other capacity. At the end of the first subchapter she leaves on a "crowded equipage, which was rapidly carrying Pippa's best friend out of the Kidderpore Road and, as things fell out, out of her life."
Philippa-Dawn is in fact leaving the London suburb where she has been put up for an unknown number of years for a hospital in a country house, in fact: "...Woodside is definitely a Seat. The little modern Barsetshire Guide which I have managed to see, says so."
This is doubly interesting as Woodside is the home of Mary Morrison the protagonist of the Nothing to Report; and Barsetshire is the home of Anthony Trollope's Chronicles and also of Angela Thirkell's later series of novels, both of which I am very fond. In Ms Oman's first story there was no mention of Barsetshire, but I would guess that having read Ms Thirkell - and Trollope assuredly - she took advantage of the setting. Her Barsetshire - unlike Ms Thirkell's is not, as far as I have noticed, in any way related to Mr Trollope's; nor indeed to Ms Thirkell's. Ms Oman confines her setting to Westbury-on-the-Green, where Mary Morrison previously resided at the seventeenth century cottages Willows now home to her late brother's wife, Mrs Morrison and Mrs Morrison's adult daughter, Rosemary, also widowed. On the Green live also the misses Hill, two of whom are now married, so no longer, and Mrs Bates who was practically an invalid in Nothing to Report but has regained her health: "my rheumatism has practically vanished, thanks to Hitler or Lord Woolton." (Lord Woolton was appointed Minister of Food in April 1940 and established the rationing system.)
Also nearby is the cathedral town of Went. Considering what happens to it, and when, this may be a pseudonym for Exeter, though I suspect not. What happened to Exeter happened to other towns and also to the fictional town of Went.
The thing is that Philippa-Dawn Johnson has decided that along with the change in scenery she is going to reinvent herself and become Pippa. She is just eighteen and so eligible to work as a "nurse". Her duties are barely described but from the little we are told - handling a dustpan and broom - she is somewhat less than even an assistant nurse, but "doing her part".
Ms Oman is not as funny as Ms Thirkell but she does have her moments as when Pippa's "alarum-clock was obviously in the last stage of pulmonary tuberculosis, and of humble origin though undaunted spirit, Miss Johnson had reverently named it “Poor Keats.� Though astute and erudite � as is Ms Thirkell - I was pleased to note farther on that Ms Oman misquoted Keats! Or perhaps it is only Mary who does so.
In the previous story we had Elizabeth Rollo who was just coming out and her friend Lalage (which Wikipedia informs me is "pronounced ˈlælədʒiː"! Läludgy? Who would inflict such a name on a child?). Lalage Merle was also a débutante but more childish than Elizabeth and leaned on her for support in the adult world she did not comprehend; as for example, Ascot. In this book the roles are reversed. Both work as "nurses" at Mary's hospital but it is Lalage, now a widow, who is the more mature while Elizabeth, who has lost her fiancé in the same "action" as Lalage lost her husband is unhappy and has become proud and spiteful. The head nurse - always referred to by Pippa as "Awful Matron", and apparently by others as well is aided by Miss Masquerier, the historical novelist (a possible pseudonym for Ms Oman?) who is Quartermaster. There are other competent nurses and several "staff" who are minors, ranging from fourteen to seventeen years and who seem to work as maids.
Despite the fact that the Woodside "Seat", is an extensive country house with wings and large gardens, it is now being used as a hospital, in which patients fill the "White Ballroom, while the "pillared hall" and the "green drawing-room, with its cold marble faces..." have become a cafeteria; there is still considerable class distinction. "From the cool and distant staff quarters came the leisurely sound of elderly feet on stone flags." Not only minors are employed as servants but apparently the elderly as well.
"Miss Masquerier, who could be so sarcastic on paper about the Bourbons, went in fear of her once devoted and invaluable retainer. Florence, like many of her type, had not taken at all kindly to the idea of a Second German War..." One wonders what "her type" is? Old retainers? Servants? Old women? The elderly?
For the botanically interested here is much to enjoy. It is Spring and Summer after the terrible winter of 1941-42 "'Campion, speedwell and garlic,'� thought Mary. �'Hooray for the Red, White and Blue'!" At times there seems to be a catalogue of flowers, wild, as well as hot-house and cut.
"Everyone agreed that 1942 looked like being a bumper year, and that, except for the news on the wireless and in the papers, one had nothing of which to complain."
"...the weather had suddenly become mild and lovely, with pacific skies, streaked grey and silver, like the bosom of the deep..."
There are diversions, of course, Mary takes a trip to London:
[She] refolded her newspaper with a gentle sigh, and resigned herself to the most soothing occupation in this life—watching English countryside in high summer, fly past the windows of a railway carriage.
There is also tragedy, of course.
Pippa's reinvention of herself has not been all that she could have desired
"...I don’t know anything about little Johnson, though, except that her parents differed, and her mother remarried and went to Australia...
Little Johnson" is in fact Pippa. The above statement is not funny until some pages later on where the ancient Mrs Wilson exclaims: "...she has lost her mother—and in the saddest way..."
Later Mrs Wilson explains: "I happened to look out of the window, and there I saw our little guest, standing up to her waist amongst wet cabbages, staring upwards at the darkening sky... Some aircraft, from one of our local stations, I imagine, were drawing near overhead, moving in formation - a beautiful sight such an impression of power and efficiency!"
“Quite extraordinary," continues Mrs Wilson "it still seems to me, to be able to dine in Went and return for breakfast, having bombed Cologne!"
Mrs Wilson is also convinced that Pippa will soon be settled, marrying airman David Cox, the reader is not so sure. It is not David flying above the wet cabbages, nor is it David's picture on Pippa's night stand. Unfortunately Ms Oman did not pursue her saga. We will never know if Pippa got "settled" if Elizabeth made a horrible marriage, if Lalage found a new love, or who survived the war.
Ms Oman kills off quite a few people here, one of them is even upper class!
I admit that I am apprehensive about reading the next volume in Angela Thirkell's chronicle. I last left off at Cheerfulness Breaks in in 1939-1940...
January 24, 2021
Somewhere in England is the sequel to Oman’s Nothing to Report which I read in December 2020. Set during 1942, the first half is told from the perspective of a newcomer to Went. 19 year old Pippa Johnson has come to serve as a nurse at the military hospital Mary Hungerfort is running out of her ancestral home, Woodside. Then the second half of the book switches to Mary herself and her challenges in running the hospital, her usual challenges of dealing with village life and missing her husband who is serving abroad. Like its predecessor, this book is fairly plotless with gentle humor and light romance. It is a really fascinating look in detail of a small slice of life during wartime. I feel that Oman could have continued to write many more books a la Angela Thirkell or Elizabeth Gaskell in this world of village life and its inhabitants.
June 24, 2022
I adored this book and finished it with a tear in my eye. I have been so drawn in with the characters and feel sad to leave them. I'm glad that I read it immediately after as a lot of the villagers and their homes were already familiar. This time she mentions Barsetshire as its setting!!
Carola Oman is so good at describing scenes - I loved her description of the Forces Canteen. The book is set at the beginning of Spring to the end of Summer and it was joyous to read the descriptions of flowers and trees and gardens. She describes train journeys and bus journeys and shopping and visiting so very well.
As with the previous book, there was a lot of humour and also poignant episodes ( a few more this time with it being 1942). I loved both books, definitely rereads.
Carola Oman is so good at describing scenes - I loved her description of the Forces Canteen. The book is set at the beginning of Spring to the end of Summer and it was joyous to read the descriptions of flowers and trees and gardens. She describes train journeys and bus journeys and shopping and visiting so very well.
As with the previous book, there was a lot of humour and also poignant episodes ( a few more this time with it being 1942). I loved both books, definitely rereads.
January 22, 2021
I very much enjoyed this one, along with it's predecessor. It's very Thirkell-y, and I'd have been happy for many other volumes, although will make due with just the two. I do wish we'd gotten a p.o.v. switch back to Pippa in the latter half of the book, even if just for a moment, but oh well.
September 20, 2022
4 Stars
October 6, 2023
A lovely and fitting sequel to "Nothing to Report." There are have been sadnesses and triumphs since the first book and Mary Morrison Hungerford is still fighting the good fight. This is a good depiction of what people thought and how they went about life even knowing they might be "blitzed" at any moment.
I wish the author had done a whole series of these - I would have loved to see the village of Went in the immediate post-war world. But Oman did not write that story and we'll just have to imagine how life went on.
I wish the author had done a whole series of these - I would have loved to see the village of Went in the immediate post-war world. But Oman did not write that story and we'll just have to imagine how life went on.
June 6, 2021
(Late night read.)
Not as good as the first book, Nothing to Report.
I wasn’t expecting Pippa, the young girl who is the central character at the beginning of the story, to just fade out and become swamped by all the other characters, so many characters, in the story and Mary � "Button", Mary Morrison, from the first book - doesn’t show up until much later in the book. I think Somewhere in England may have gained itself an extra star if the author hadn't gifted this story with an unsatisfying ‘rushed� fizzer for an ending.
Not as good as the first book, Nothing to Report.
I wasn’t expecting Pippa, the young girl who is the central character at the beginning of the story, to just fade out and become swamped by all the other characters, so many characters, in the story and Mary � "Button", Mary Morrison, from the first book - doesn’t show up until much later in the book. I think Somewhere in England may have gained itself an extra star if the author hadn't gifted this story with an unsatisfying ‘rushed� fizzer for an ending.
March 17, 2025
Not as funny as the prequel to this book (Nothing to Report) but very interesting social history as life being lived during WW2 . Set in 1942 and published in 1943 this is a realistic view of the mostly undramatic reality of � getting on with life� for women on the Homefront
There is the feeling that Carola Oman intended to write further books about these characters, as at least 2 of the young women have budding romances which are unresolved at the end of the book
A pity that there are no more books in this series
There is the feeling that Carola Oman intended to write further books about these characters, as at least 2 of the young women have budding romances which are unresolved at the end of the book
A pity that there are no more books in this series
May 2, 2021
I enjoyed the WWII-era setting and detail, but there were so many characters that it was hard to keep them all straight. I liked the main character, though, and the humor was generally kind.
July 2, 2023
Some lovely turns of phrase, including the delightful final sentence of the book, but overall, rather crushingly boring.
May 20, 2024
A reread of a WW2 home front novel
November 24, 2020
See my review here:
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