Before the Fall

Author/Guide: Juliet West

Why a Booktrail?

WW!: Before the Fall is a story with WW1 as its backdrop but at its core is a tale of love, hope, loss and struggle from the viewpoint of Hannah Loxwood left behind to deal with life in East End London.

ISBN: 978-1447259053
Genre: Fiction, Historical

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Hannah Loxwood has always wanted to escape her life in the East End. She wants to make something of herself and has big dreams but instead she falls pregnant and is quickly married. when the second child comes along her dreams fall further into the distance.

When her husband George joins the army, she has to move back home with her often difficult family set-up.

So when Hannah gets a job in a cafe, and meets a man called Daniel, she finds that she can escape in his world – a world away from pain and war and reality. Except that this world is no less dangerous that the one she thinks she is leaving behind.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Set in and around the streets of places such as Canning Town and Poplar, we experience the streets, the sights, sounds and smells of the war time capital –

“I think the war in everywhere: in the rain, in the grey air that we breathe. It is a current that runs though all of us. You can’t escape the current; either you swim with it, or you go under.”

When Hannah is on her own, London changes, her London changes and the streets she has known so well become alien to her.

Hannah lives in Sabbarton street, where ‘a muddy stream is flowing along the gutters, down towards the creek.’

Hannah spends her time working in a cafe near Glengall Road, Isle of Dogs – the descriptions here evoke war time perfectly – the details of the signs in the window, the sound of the bell and the blackness of what most of the streets must have been coated in –

“The iron bridge spans the creek like the hunched back of a giant. I hurry over, glancing up at the dark sky, a habit I can’t shake, though it’s months since a Zeppelin flew over London.”

They say we’ve got the Zepps beaten……

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer:

Before the fall is a raw and extremely personal account of the war of not just Hannah but I imagine for lots of women at the time and this is what makes it so unique a piece of writing – this is a true story that might never have been told if Juliet had simply disregarded research that she was doing for a newspaper article.

The story of London during the war from the eyes of one woman in one situation is unique as set against the background of Zeppelins, bombings and fires, it is essentially the real story of those who lived through what the men left behind.

The question I was left with was how would I have acted if I had been in Hannah’s shoes? Can we really condemn what she does? How did war change people’s ideas of what was right or wrong? A woman who dared betray a soldier was more than likely thought to be betrayin the country at large. But when it comes down to raw human emotions and one woman in one situation – can we really see what Hannah did not?

Juliet West’s writing is detailed, evocative and intense to suit the nature of the story she is telling – the story is complex and claustrophobic, stifling and confusing, as was war. At least by putting yourself in Hannah’s shoes as Juliet allows us too, we get to see the war – torn london through her eyes and see what she would have seen.

It’s a booktrail into the past – and into the depths of the human spirit.