Wake

Travel Guide

War in London

The destruction and horror of war is the forth character in this story as well as being the backdrop and setting for the whole of the action. this one short paragraph – even out of context – sums up even just a hint at the hidden horrors of wartime –

“Without saying anything, each knows they will not speak of this. Nor the sight of this body, never, to anyone. No matter who may ask.”

The writing is addictive and emotional and you know that you are being drawn in deeper to these women’s experiences. Meeting each one at such a traumatic stage of their lives is addictive and compelling

Hammersmith Palais

Hettie dances for money at the Hammersmith. “Ever since she can remember she has felt it, this hunger for something more.That thought it would be happy at the Palais, but instead feels she is going in circles, round and round the floor.”

Bombed London

Evelyn works in the pensions office where she’s been forced to harden her heart, Sitting on the bus one day –

“Earlier the bus stopped by a half ruined house and  she could see into the upstairs bedroom, see the red-flowered wallpaper that the last unlucky occupants choose, weather -faded now, streaked with water and rust. when the bus lurched on again she was glad; it seemed too sad a thing, too intimate to be seen”

Ada sees her dead son in the street  and chases him hoping that he will turn and smile and hug his dear mum once again. She remembers the day that he set off for war –

The night before he left for France, when he had finished the training and was home at the end of a week’s leave, she knocked at the door of his room.. he was packing the last of his things, his big bag and greatcoat already waiting in the hall.

France
Meanwhile, this body of the unknown soldier from Northern France closer and closer to its final resting place in Westminster Abbey…