Fans of Fiona Valpy and Kate Quinn will be absolutely gripped from the very first page. Lucy’s search for the author will uncover the story of a forgotten sister who vanished from the island one night, never to be seen again.Ī timeless story of love and bravery. As she prepares the old family house for sale, Lucy discovers a box of handwritten notes, one word standing out: resistance. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep – a childhood friend who has now become their enemy.Ģ016: Two generations later, Lucy returns to Guernsey after the death of a distant cousin. Another will uncover her story.ġ940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. However, I’m sure the many readers of this author’s previous books, set in the present day, will enjoy this novel.‘Wow! What an enthralling and emotional read! I was literally in tears… Captivating.’ Goodreads reviewer, A world at war.

But here we are shown officers undergoing both sentry duty and censorship.įor me, the novel never recovered fully after this, and I found the twist ending too predictable. Their own letters, however, were left uncensored because they were trusted not to betray anything that might aid the enemy if the letters fell into the wrong hands. Officers would not stand on sentry duty, but they were expected to censor the letters of their men. The author also seems confused about which duties were carried out by privates and which by officers. The first of the New Army ‘Service’ battalions raised by the DCLI only arrived in France in May 1915, due to the time it took to provide uniforms, equipment, and training. A two-minute internet search confirmed what I suspected: that the two battalions of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry sent to France in 1914 were pre-war Regulars. There isn’t room here to list all the mistakes, but key among them is the dating. The bibliography suggests Cook has done some research, but she seems to have misinterpreted much of what she has read to fit preconceived myths.

Unfortunately once the war began, I was unable to suspend my disbelief because of the number of historical inaccuracies. Despite class differences, love blossoms as Cordelia begins to take an interest in gardening – but will the looming war tear them apart? I really enjoyed the first half of this book, with its well-developed characters and evocative descriptions of the garden. A dramatic encounter by a moonlit lake brings together debutante Cordelia and Isaac, the handsome landscape gardener hired by her father to redesign his Cornish estate.

The Hidden Letters by Lorna Cook