Why a Booktrail?
WW2: A ten year old refugee raised by a former suffragette. Thrown together by WW2 and chance….
Crooked Heart
What you need to know before your trail
Ten year old Noel lives in Hampstead with former suffragette Mattie. He loves his books and has bookish opinions which her opinions are rather strong and exacting. However, she is starting to lose her memory and that’s when life for Noel starts to go down hill. For as war beckons, he is evacuated away to St Albans leaving poor Mattie behind.
Settling into school as best he can, he soon makes a friend with Vee Sedge. Vee spends her time writing letters to the government in the hope that she is making some kind of effort to the war. Along with her son Donald, she hopes to benefit financially from the war if she can. When she gets the chance to take in Noel, the question really is who will benefit the most?
Travel Guide
The war torn streets of London are no place for a young boy – or are they? Not really for that’s why Noel is moved to St Albans but it’s not that far from London for Vee Sedge who aims to make money from the disaster any which way she can. Vee is one unique lady:
“She seemed to move like the actors in silent films, all jerks and freezes.”
Noel has that misplaced edge to him. Having been removed from his aunt and his familiar surroundings, he now finds himself with a woman who values money above al else, and a disdain for authority as did Mattie, he is as at outsider as Vee in her own surroundings.
“The day after that, all the children disappeared, as if London had shrugged and the small people had fallen off the edge.”
They end up heading back to London, in and out of the bombed suburbs, seeing what is there for the taking.
The background is one of The Blitz, the destruction and the atmosphere of ‘Every man for himself’ which was a way to survive for many. People were afraid and unsure of what was to come. Working and helping each other was one thing, bur survival beat all else. Vee and Noel survive in the only way they can. The war brings out the best and the worst in people and the scams, the bombs, the shortages and the sheer unknown make people do strange and desperate things.
Booktrailer Review
Clare @thebooktrailer
Perhaps one of the most charming and poignantly written books about what it must have been like during the Blitz. Vee and Noel are just two great characters on their own and when together, they make a formidable team. Vee on the fiddle as she is and Noel not wanting to join in with the other kids as he feels disloyal to Mattie if he goes against what she has taught him. The question this book make me ask myself was ‘ is it ever ok to look out for number one even during war time? Can we condone people in war when we haven’t stood in their shoes?
This really gave me another perception of what went on behind the scenes of war. It wasn’t all WI and helping others in their time of need. And I think that sometimes it’s nice to read something different but which tells it in a unique way. Noel and Vee I just love and what a wonderfully drawn duo!
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Twitter: @lissakevans
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