The Heroes' Welcome by Louisa Young - A Moving Story About Life in the Aftermath of the First World War.

It's five years since I read My Dear I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, and the story of the men and women caught up in the First World War both in France and at home, has stayed in my mind, especially as my father fought in the Great War when not much more than a boy, and although he returned, suffering physical wounds far less severe than Riley's, his life was never the same.

The Heroes' Welcome takes up the story of Riley and his girlfriend, Nadine, as they marry in March 1919, with Peter, his Commanding Officer, and Rose, Peter's cousin who had nursed Riley, and Peter's son, Tom, in attendance. The fact that Peter's wife, Julia, is not there illustrates the strain their marriage is already under after the war.
Louisa Young quotes a passage from The Odyssey about a wife so relieved to see her husband again she feels like a shipwrecked sailor reaching land. Julia wants to rekindle their love and take up where they left off, but Peter has his own problems dealing with the fact that so many of his men were lost.
Riley and Nadine too have their problems coming to terms with Riley's injuries which get in the way of the joy of their marriage, and the reaction of their families to their wedding.
This book is worth reading too for Louisa's ability to get right into the heads of her characters as they journey forward through 1919, trying to put the war behind them but, like Peter, unable to talk about their experiences. She also graphically illustrates the reaction of society to the injured: there was not a heroes' welcome waiting for them all.

I'm pleased to say that Devotion, Louisa Young's next book, set in 1930s Italy will be released on April 6th.

'Tom loves Nenna. Nenna loves her father. Her father loves 
Mussolini.'

This continues the story of Tom Locke, Peter's son, and I can't wait!  

My Summer Reading List - Gorgeous books to be read this summer!

Here are my gorgeous books to be read this summer!
And here's why I've chosen them (in no particular order!).
1. The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies
I've chosen this because I love the sweeping romantic novels set in exotic places that Rosanna Ley writes so well, and I'm hoping that this one set in Ceylon in the 1920s and 1930s with its powerful themes of love, loss, and secrets revealed will do the trick.
2. The Lake House by Kate Morton
I've already enjoyed two books by this author, The Secret Keeper and The House at Riverton, so I'm looking forward to reading it. The blurb states: A missing child; an abandoned house and an unsolved mystery. Perfect! I can't wait!
3. Last Dance in Havana by Rosanna Ley
If you've been following my blog, you'll know how much I love Rosanna Ley's novels; I've read four in the past year! So I'm looking forward to reading this one set in Cuba and England from the 1950s to the present day, and enjoying Rosanna's skill at combining place and the action of the story. This one should be Hot! Hot! Hot!
4. The Heroes' Welcome by Louisa Young
I read My Dear I wanted to tell you four years ago, and was moved by the story set in the First World War about how the war affected the soldiers fighting in it and how it affected those at home.
This one is the sequel, and looks at the life of the couples after the soldiers have returned. I am especially interested because my father was a soldier who returned, but whose life was never the same.
Louisa Young is the granddaughter of Kathleen Scott, the widow of Captain Scott of the Antarctic, and her first book, A Great Task of Happiness, was a biography of her grandmother's colourful life which I'm looking forward to reading as well.
5. Songs of Love and War by Santa Montefiore
This is another of my favourite authors, and I have read nearly all of her books. Songs of Love and War is another sweeping story set in Ireland and is the first of a trilogy, so that will be wonderful to see what happens next. It follows three girls whose lives are affected by the First World War and the Irish Uprising. I'm looking forward to it because Santa Montefiore is another writer who can combine setting, characters and story to produce a really absorbing novel.
6. The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans
Another favourite author! I remember her telling the story at the London Book Fair a few years ago how, working at a publishers, she submitted her first novel, Going Home, under a pseudonym and was delighted that it was accepted!
This book is about Keepsake House in Cornwall and the romantic and dangerous secrets that is holds. Another epic read!

I hope that you might find something here to try too. Happy Summer Reading!

My Dear, I wanted to tell you by Louisa Young - Kindle or paperback?

I had a Kindle for Christmas, and I've been very disappointed that many new books for sale are more expensive to download than to order the paperback and have it delivered to my home. Of course you do get your ebook immediately, but there is another thing. . .

I first saw Louisa Young's beautiful book in Sainsbury's. I was drawn to it by the cover which sets the story in the First World War which I'm researching at the moment. (Someone, giving an Amazon Customer Review, said that the cover was 'reminiscent of yet another beach chick-flick read' - I don't know what they were looking at!)
The back of the cover is important too, and gives, of course, the blurb, but this one is very special because it explains the title: the words on the buff coloured form that would be filled in at a Casualty Clearing Station, 'My Dear . . . I wanted to tell you. . .' which you don't find out until halfway through the book.
This is all lost when you download it on Kindle.
Also, I looked at the first few pages on Amazon, and the formatting is all lost as well. Louisa Young sets the scene in the Prologue by describing the sounds and effects of the Battle of Messines on both sides of the Channel on the main protagonists of the story. All  the gaps between the paragraphs are lost and they all run into each other. Not what Lousia had intended, I'm sure.
Anyway, enough of all that, I really enjoyed this book. The contrasting love affairs between Riley and Nadine, and that of his commanding officer, Peter, and his wife, Julia, and the support which Rose, Peter's sister, gives to them all, are set against the horrific backdrop of the First World War. This is a moving story about how ordinary people coped with their lives during that time.
So, as you can see, I bought the paperback.
Which would you prefer?