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Library | Shelf Number | Material Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Athlone Park Library | HELY 3510 | English Fiction | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When war breaks out in 1939, guns and fat barrage balloons invade Hyde Park. The Dulcimer grandchildren are sent into Sussex, and they find life at Dulcimer Hall as humdrum as ever - with no excitements or worries about a German invasion, and no inkling at all of the dramas developing in the lives of the adults around them.
Into their world comes Maggie Dunlop, a Scottish girl taken on as a nursery maid. Having escaped her violent father, soon she's thriving, adored by the children, well liked by both staff and family. Little does she know that her popularity is sowing dangerous seeds of jealousy, or that feelings of affection can grow into a deep yet impossible love.
Author Notes
Sara Hely was born in London before the Second World War. During the war she was evacuated to Sussex and later to America. She then lived in Ireland for several years before marrying a publisher with whom she settled in Scotland. Besides raising three daughters and one son, she has written and published a number of children's books, helped to manage a farm and run a fast-food franchise. She now lives in Ayrshire with her husband.
Reviews (1)
Booklist Review
This entertaining, sprawling World War II story, with its Upstairs, Downstairs feel, centers on the families headed by grandmotherly twin sisters at their respective estates on Long Island and Sussex, England. When 1940 London proves too dangerous, the daughters and widowed daughter-in-law of Lord and Lady Dulcimer bring their children and servants to Sussex and then seek greater safety in America at the estate of the Vorsts, owners of a string of luxury hotels. Appetizing plot lines abound, the major one involving the lovely but manipulative widow Antonia, whose children are looked after by nursery maid Maggie Dunlop. When her dashing brother-in-law Lord Dartmore declines marriage despite their dalliance, Antonia abruptly marries much-younger David Vorst, who runs the London Vorst hotel. But David's desire to join the RAF rather than return home to America suits Antonia no more than his friendship with Maggie. When military assignments bring David and Maggie together years later, there's little doubt whether the twain shall meet. Hely, evacuated to America as a child during the war, spins a fine tale. --Michele Leber