I was on library duty on the May Bank Holiday. Probably because of the holiday we were very quiet after the first rush, so I was looking through the books for sale and picked up this book and started to read. I took it home and finished it the next day.
The story starts with the heady, glamorous days enjoyed by the well off just before the outbreak of the Second World War. The young Sidney Chambers is at the 18th birthday party of his best friend, Robert Kendall. This is when we first meet Amanda, who is Robert’s sister. Sidney and Robert join up together, and very soon we’re plunged into the horrors experienced by the soldiers at the front. Robert and many of his battalion are killed. The writing of this part of Sidney’s life is the best part of the book.
When the war is over, he can’t settle into the life he led before the war. He decides that it is God that will make him whole again and give him peace. Neither his family nor Amanda can understand his decision. So, his troubled relationship with Amanda takes another twist. After his training, he serves a term in a small parish and is faced with moral dilemmas. Shortly afterwards, he is offered the parish at Grantchester, which is where the book ends.
If you watched the TV series this makes an interesting back story. However, it stands alone as a good read, especially the war experiences. For me this book had several ‘hooks’. One of the men in Sidney’s regiment came from Markinch and I was at school with the author’s wife Marilyn, who lived in Markinch. It’s a place not often mentioned in literature. The second was a description of the battle at Monte Cassino, one of the bloodiest battles in the war, in which my dad fought. A third connection is that we have friends who live in the village next to Grantchester.
I find these personal connections attract me to a book. There are several, mostly crime writers, who I’m drawn to for that reason. Do any of you have the same affliction? And if you happen to have discovered a good book recently, please write a review and pass on the word.
