Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Two women. One house. And a wartime secret that spans decades…
Norfolk, 1945: Only a few months ago Nancy Jones was fighting for her country as a gunner girl. Now she’s struggling to adjust to her responsibilities as a gamekeeper’s wife. After a whirlwind romance, Nancy is deeply in love with her handsome husband Joe but there is still so much they don’t know about each other. When a secret from Nancy’s war years threatens to resurface, will the terrible truth about the worst night of her life shatter their new marriage?
Norfolk, 2019: Devastated by the sudden loss of her husband, Lorna Haynes escapes to the beautiful but crumbling Gamekeeper’s Cottage. There, she stumbles upon a locked room. When she enters, it’s like going back in time. A soldier’s uniform hangs on the back of the door, the flowery wallpaper still intact, the spindle of the record player frozen and ready to play. At the back of the room, Lorna discovers a red, leather-bound diary in a hidden compartment of a desk drawer.
As Lorna battles with heartache, she takes comfort in reading the ink-stained words. Turning the pages of the old book, she learns of the incredible bravery of the woman who lived in the house decades before her. And discovers a shocking wartime secret that will change the course of her own life…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Secret Diary to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s only been a few months since Anna Stuart’s debut historical fiction novel, The Berlin Zookeeper, was published and already we are lucky enough to have another book from this author, The Secret Diary. I really enjoyed this new book, it was easy to get into and there was just enough mystery to have the reader guessing until the final point of reveal. It’s a dual timeline story which goes back and forth between the present day and the years after the conclusion of World War Two. It tells the story of two women Lorna and Nancy separated by many years and who never meet yet both are going through transitions and adjustments in their lives. They are attempting to establish new paths following emotional upheavals and it made for an interesting read.
Lorna arrives with her two young boys to stay with her mother Mary and step father David in Gamekeeper’s Cottage. She needs time and space as her world has been torn apart with the loss of her husband Matt in a car accident. Lorna is experiencing an endless tide of grief which she sees no way out of. She is lost, confused and angry and wishes someone would just come to take things over so she could check out for awhile. You feel every bit of her pain and anguish and wish you could take it away from her. When she discovers a diary in a secret drawer in the annex of the cottage, the history teacher in her is alerted and she soon discovers it belonged to Nancy who was David’s mother. Lorna becomes lost in Nancy’s story, as does the reader, and she can see so many emotions that she too is struggling with. The more she reads the more questions arise and Lorna soon realises there is a story here that needs a lot of answers. She wants to know the truth behind certain things especially as to what the big secret is that the gunner girls were hiding. Reading the book gifts Lorna a little bit of healing and acceptance. It also takes her mind off what she can’t face or confront at the moment.
I loved how Mary and David were so supportive of her and were giving her the time and space she needed to come to terms with the loss of someone who was her rock and anchor. Tilly was another great character who featured mid-way through, she provided the fun element. I enjoyed reading about the Langham base and dome in the present and how Lorna becomes a volunteer and slowly little bits of Nancy’s secret come to the fore. Lorna’s story bridged the gap between the past and the present and it was wonderfully written as I really cared for her as a character.
Both past and present are interwoven seamlessly together and strong connections are established between the two timelines and both female characters share an emotional connection to each other. Usually with this kind of story I would favour perhaps the past over the present but in this case I couldn’t choose as both strands of the story had me deeply invested in the characters and the eventual outcome for both of them. It’s a sign of a good author who can have you hooked on two plots that merge very well together.
It’s 1945 and the war is coming to an end and for Nancy a new stage in her life is starting to emerge. But is it one she is comfortable and confident in? She is writing a diary detailing her experiences as a new wife to Joe and living in Gamekeeper’s Cottage on the Langham Estate with his parents Ted and Betty. Nancy the gunner girl who loved her time working alongside Dot, Peggy and Connie doing their bit for the war effort is no more and she is trying to come to terms with this. The freedom she experienced and the exhilaration of trying to bring the enemy down has disappeared and she can’t reconcile the fact that a wife is meant to stay at home, keep house and have children. What happened to being able to work outside the kitchen? Peace had come at a price for Nancy and she is not willing to accept it. No doubt war had changed them all but Ted and Nancy and many villagers in Langham remain firmly rooted in the past when it comes to their views. Nancy working as a gamekeeper and shooting with a gun is unheard of and they will not allow it to happen.
Nancy, alongside her gunner girls, was a woman ahead of her time. She had had a real taste of the power of what women could do when called to step up to the mark and she didn’t want to let this feeling go. Yes, women had been fighting for their rights ever since the suffragette movement had come to the fore of public consciences but really women’s efforts during the war showed how strong, brave, resilient and capable they were when needed. Nancy wasn’t going to let all she had found go just to stay in the cottage and provide for Joe and Ted. She knew what she wanted and was determined to achieve no matter the obstacles she would face.
I loved her fighting spirit and that she wanted to know more from Joe about being a gamekeeper. She could see the cottage needed repairs and new innovations were needed on the land but money was a major issue. She wanted to help in any way she could but it was like old entrenched views mean she was pushed to one side and made to remain at home. I loved how she defied convention and really followed her heart. Joe seemed very open to having a wife who wanted to work and think outside the box but that’s not to say he would upset his parents. The thrill of life, death and urgency that Nancy experienced during the war meant that she found peacetime dull. How can one go back to normal and continue on life as it existed pre war when so much had altered in six long years for everyone?
Nancy constantly wrestles with her emotions and viewpoints and she spills her feelings out into a diary which when it neared completion she rips out part of it and hides the remainder. Within the pages a secret is detailed and one which the gunner girls promised would never come to light. This secret weighs heavily on Nancy and I think it influenced her hugely throughout the book. If it did come to light the life she was establishing with Joe would come falling down and it was like something was hanging over her preventing her from fully striking out and doing what she wanted in her new life. So yes she wanted to be different and work outside the home but at the same time she knew if her secret would come out it would threaten everything.
I had a vague notion as to what the big secret could be that the girls were so fearful of it becoming common knowledge but as to the exact details and reasons for certain things I was certainly very clueless. When things did eventually come to light I thought it all made sense and tied in perfectly with the themes and overall plot. Whilst reading about Nancy she often referred to events during the war and things she did with the gunner girls and initially I was thinking had I missed out on a previous book featuring this character? Scenes were described as if they had already been mentioned and it took a while for that sense to disappear. I would have liked to read even more details about Nancy’s time at the camp and the work she did but that didn’t happen. I loved Nancy’s side of the story and the diary was very well written and all she learned really helped Lorna in the present cope with the challenges she was facing. Nancy had left part of her life story and it was like it was specially there for Lorna to help her when she needed it most.
Anna Stuart has written a great story and as much as I loved her previous book I think I enjoyed this one even more. There are a lot of issues raised that are almost commonplace today but during Nancy’s time they were only emerging and it was fascinating to see how they were being viewed and dealt with at the time. There is plenty of mystery and suspense through the story to keep the reader guessing alongside the more emotional element and it all blended so well together and in turn made for a very enjoyable read. I look forward to seeing where Anna Stuart’s next book will take us.
No comments:
Post a Comment