Review: Keep The Home Fires Burning By Anne Bennett

Paperback, 554 pages
Publisher: Harper Torch
Publication Date: January 1, 2011
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0007359195

A moving and gripping drama as one family struggles to survive through the strains of the Second World War The year is 1940 and Bill and Marion Whittaker live happily with their five children in a terraced house on Albert Road in Birmingham. But when Bill enlists to fight in the Second World War, the family are plunged into poverty. Marion is forced to pawn all her worldly possessions and decides to take in two lodgers, Peggy Wagstaffe and Violet Clooney. These two lively girls bring some light relief to the family and bring with them Peggy's handsome brother Sam - who catches the eye of Marion's sixteen-year-old daughter, Sarah. 1944 and the war grinds on. Disaster strikes with an explosion at the local munitions factory, leaving Sarah badly disfigured. Then news arrives that Sam has been blinded in action. Can these two injured souls help each other to repair not only their physical but emotional scars? And will Bill return to the safety of family and home?

  My Thoughts: 

This was one of my many online purchases from the Book Depository in the U.K.(yes, they offer free world wide shipping too!)  As a fan of the PBS series, Home Fires, I've been constantly searching for similar books set against the backdrop of World War 2 Britain.  In "Keep The Home Fires Burning," Anne Bennett has  created a remarkably gripping story of one family's struggle to survive and persevere during the war years.  The author has certainly done her research and brings a great deal of historical accounts into the story that swiftly takes the reader back in time to that particular period filled with apprehension, fear, and the will to keep moving forward.  She also provides the reader with the perspective of being a devout catholic family living in Britain during this period as well.  The Whittaker family will capture your heart and stay with you long after the last page has been read as the experience the tragedies of war and the ever-present love that holds them together throughout the years.  "Keep The Home Fires Burning" is an emotionally charged story with well-developed characters and a gripping plot...keep the tissues near by!  I enjoyed every page of this and I'm looking forward to reading other novels by this amazing author! FIVE stars.