Product Description

It is the summer of 1939, and the residents of the idyllic fishing village of Bexham are preparing for war. Beautiful Judy Melton, daughter of a naval war hero, the social butterfly Meggie Gore-Stewart, seemingly demure Mathilda Eastcott, and Rusty Todd, the tomboy daughter of the owner of the local boatyard, are all determined to play an active role while their husbands and brothers, fathers and lovers are away fighting. But knitting socks and dodging bombs are not what they have in mind.

However, it is not just the young women who are determined to find new roles for themselves -- so are their mothers. In this manner the little Sussex port, facing as it does the coastline of Nazi-invaded France, finds its closely sewn social fabric beginning to unstitch, inch by inch.

The women of Bexham meet under the chestnut tree on the green to look back on a landscape that has changed irrevocably, and which they have helped to alter. None of them is the same as before, and yet, as the men return from war, they are expected to slip back into their simple roles of mother, daughter, grand-mother. Only the chestnut tree continues to flourish in the accepted fashion, becoming the uniting symbol of all that has passed forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1744974 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-22
• Released on: 2003-04-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From Booklist
British writer Bingham follows the lives of four women from the fishing village of Bexham during World War II: Judy, who is married to a solider lost in battle and who works for the war effort in any way she can; Meggie, who serves as a spy in occupied France; Mattie, who works as a driver and falls in love with an American general; and Rusty, who endures heartbreak and hard work while she tries to keep her family intact. The many ways these women react to, participate in, and are affected by the war create a story that is at once harrowing and luminous. Bingham expertly downplays horrific events so that the swiftness and capriciousness of death is stunning and unsettling, while her detailed depiction of home-front life is mesmerizing. The reaction of the men of Bexham to the abrupt emancipation of women during war and the women's perspective on this change shape much of the story as Bingham's quartet of women show breathtaking courage, suffer sorrow, find joy, and together create a haunting, distinctly female portrait of war. Neal Wyatt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
Summer 1939 and the residents of the little Sussex fishing port are preparing for war. Beautiful shy Judy, her feckless friend social butterfly Maggie, the seemingly demure Mathilda and tomboy Corrie are all determined to play an active part in the defence of their country as the closely sewn social fabric gradually unstitches as having been freed by war, the women now have to relinquish their independence..

About the Author
Charlotte Bingham comes from a literary family -- her father sold a story to H G Wells when he was only seventeen -- and Charlotte wrote her autobiography, Coronet Among the Weeds, at the age of nineteen. Since then, she has written comedy and drama series, films and plays for both England and America with her husband, the actor and playwright Terence Brady. Among her most recent novels are the highly acclaimed bestsellers To Hear a Nightingale, The Business, Change of Heart (winner of the 1994 Romantic Novel of the Year Award), Debutantes, In Sunshine or In Shadow, Stardust, Nanny, The Nightingale Sings, Grand Affair, Love Song, The Love Knot, The Kissing Garden, The Blue Note, The Season and Summertime.