I finally got around to reading Carrie's War this weekend!
As I'd been avoiding reading it for such a long time I decided that I would try and read it pretty much in one go. Get it over and done with, you might say, not that I can tell you why I was so hesitant to read this book. I think maybe I'd just loss my motivation. I don't often read books in one go, it usually takes me weeks to finish a book, so I came away feeling a bit phased, like i'd been plunged into an alien world! However, this totally immersive experience did help me get to know the plot and the characters much better than if I'd read it in a more stilted way, so that was positive!
This book was not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a fairly ordinary wartime story of evacuation. A domestic, wholesome, account of daily life in WW2, with a fair share of sadness too. Instead, Nina Bawden's book is a peculiar mix of Goodnight, Mr Tom and a Dickens novel; an interesting combination of domestic and the slightly uncanny. Carrie and her brother are sent to live in rural Wales with God-fearing shop keeper Mr Evans and his sister Lou. Aunty Lou is a lovely but timid lady, frightened of her brother's temper and very keen to please. Mr Evans is a strict, mean man, with strong religious and moral views. Carrie and Nick go to school with the other evacuees in the local chapel, and enjoy the fresh mountain air in their time off. These are all key elements that you might expect in an story about evacuees for the 8-12 age group. However, when the children are sent on an errand to Druids Bottom (no giggling please...), the house of Mr Evan's other sister, whom he disowned when she married, the tone of the story starts to change. On her death bed, Mrs Gotobed (the other sister), is looked after by her beautiful and mysterious housekeeper Hepzibah Green. Also living with the women is Mister Johnny Gotobed, a relative of the family with learning disabilities, and evacuee Albert Sandwich. It is here that it all gets a bit Dickensian! For starters the names have all the quirk of Dickens characters, and Mrs Gotobed has a slight Miss Haversham feel about her! In fact I think all the characters at Druids Bottom could have stepped out of any one of Dickens's classics. Also, due to their rural location, Druids Bottom is still living in the Victorian period, allowing for a clear contrast between the Evans' shop and the rural farmhouse. It is this other setting that made the book stand out for me.
Hepzibah Green is by far my favourite character, a caring, motherly housekeeper, rumoured to be a witch. She is always just about the serve up dinner whenever the children arrive, she is a gifted herbalist, and a very good story teller. She makes Druids Bottom a magical place, and it is around her that the story weaves itself, right up until the very end.
I don't want to give too much away, because I feel I've been doing that too much in my reviews recently, but this story is certainly set in two very different camps. There's the domestic, homely and fairly ordinary world of the Evans's and then their is the magical, valley setting of Druids Bottom, with its myths and intrigue. The actual narrative is also split between two worlds, the past and the present, as the main plot is bracketed by the older Carrie returning to Druids Bottom with her own family. This allows for a lovely little plot twist right at the very end of the book, which I wont give away!
This book was a total surprise, but I actually really enjoyed it! The cover of my copy says that Carrie's War is 'A heartwarming, unforgettable story', a sentiment I was sceptical about to begin with, but I've not been able to shake the characters and haunting plot quite yet. If you're looking for a book that explores what it was like to be an evacuee then this is not the book for you, the war is sort of incidental to the story. Instead this book is an emotional, intriguing tale of friendship, family and loyalty.
Thanks for reading, L x
Next up a firm favourite of mine, one of Jean de Brunhoff's Babar books.
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