The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

[Janet]

 

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison

 

The ‘blurb’

England, 31st August 1939: the world is on the brink of war. As Hitler prepares to invade Poland, thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate which has been opened up to evacuees by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, an enigmatic childless couple. Soon Anna gets drawn into their unravelling relationship, seeing things that are not meant for her eyes and finding herself part-witness and part-accomplice to a love affair, with unforeseen consequences.

 

A story of longing, loss and complicated loyalties, combining a sweeping narrative with subtle psychological observation, The Very Thought of You is not just a love story but a story about love.

 

I’ve just realised I’ve read three books in a row that feature WW2! I normally vary my reading matter so that I don’t read similar books one after the other, but I’d only taken one book to my Mum’s when I went to stay and I finished it - so I had to buy another. What’s a girl to do, eh?!

 

This started off really well. Anna is a charming little girl and the story whips along at a fair pace. She is sent to a large house in Yorkshire which has been turned into a boarding school for evacuees. Whilst wandering the corridor one night she sees an argument between the owners of the house. She feels empathy towards Thomas, who is in a wheelchair due to suffering polio, but finds Elizabeth cool and standoffish and is unable to warm to her. As Thomas and Elizabeth’s relationship crumbles, Anna finds herself becoming a confidante for Thomas.

 

 

Thomas finds happiness with another woman, but tragedy strikes. Anna also receives tragic news and they bond as they help one another to cope with their separate losses. The war ends and Anna returns to London but she never forgets Thomas. Years later, unable to stop thinking about him she goes to visit him but doesn’t quite receive the reception she’d hoped for and she doesn’t return to Ashton Hall until she’s an old woman and Thomas is long since dead.

 

 

I thought the first three sections of this book were really well written and I enjoyed the story, but then we only got 47 pages to wrap up the years 1946 to 2006, which felt completely rushed and as though the author wanted to finish as quickly as possible. I liked the conclusion of this gentle love story,

which didn’t have the obligatory happy ending,

but would have liked a bit more detail - it left me feeling a bit cheated!

[Heffalumpi]

I too really enjoyed this book and thought that it was well written. I liked the way it changed the focus on to the different characters so that you felt that you got to learn alot about them. So much more could have been written and I felt that the author could have written so much more without it becoming boring. It was one of those books that I really didn't want to end.