I read the last few pages on Christmas day so I followed the Brogan family's preparations for Christmas in tandem with my own, 78 years later and 100 miles north of London's East End. What a difference! Jo's family suffered privation in so many ways; lacking sleep, clothing and food. And surrounded by the constant risk of injury, destruction, loss and death in the daily wartime bombings.
Jean Fullerton makes this the background for a very creditable love story laced with family disapproval, misunderstandings and passion in time-honoured Romeo and Juliet style. Jo Brogan's family is a rich set of fully-developed characters, and workmates of both Jo and Tommy provide yet more sub-plots with their own stories. I shouldn't have been surprised to find out later that this book has a companion: Pocketful of Dreams (The Brogans of Mafeking Terrace #1) is set in 1939. I imagine that some of the sub-plots which seem a little cursory spring from a much fuller treatment in this first novel. Strangely, my copy of 'A Ration Book Christmas' doesn't mention that it is the second in a series.
My interest was in the wartime Christmas theme rather than a family saga. I recently read a social history, 'Christmas at War: True Stories of How Britain Came Together on the Home Front' by Caroline Taggart. Jean Fullerton highlights many of the situations I'd already learnt about and makes them memorable by weaving them into a stonkingly good story.
I also now understand all kinds of detail of how the Home Defence organisations coped during the blitz with details about training, duties, equipment, shelters, shifts and teamwork described as the air-raided world the Brogans and Sweetes lived in.
Jean Fullerton makes this the background for a very creditable love story laced with family disapproval, misunderstandings and passion in time-honoured Romeo and Juliet style. Jo Brogan's family is a rich set of fully-developed characters, and workmates of both Jo and Tommy provide yet more sub-plots with their own stories. I shouldn't have been surprised to find out later that this book has a companion: Pocketful of Dreams (The Brogans of Mafeking Terrace #1) is set in 1939. I imagine that some of the sub-plots which seem a little cursory spring from a much fuller treatment in this first novel. Strangely, my copy of 'A Ration Book Christmas' doesn't mention that it is the second in a series.
My interest was in the wartime Christmas theme rather than a family saga. I recently read a social history, 'Christmas at War: True Stories of How Britain Came Together on the Home Front' by Caroline Taggart. Jean Fullerton highlights many of the situations I'd already learnt about and makes them memorable by weaving them into a stonkingly good story.
I also now understand all kinds of detail of how the Home Defence organisations coped during the blitz with details about training, duties, equipment, shelters, shifts and teamwork described as the air-raided world the Brogans and Sweetes lived in.