Extreme choices.

Izabela meets Bill when he’s brought to her farm by the Nazis as part of a work team; the Nazis occupy Czechoslovakia but want to keep the industry going and when Izzy’s mother says that yes, they could do with some help on the farm (Izzy’s father and older brother have gone to fight in the resistance) the Nazis bring a couple of British prisoners of war. Izzy falls for Bill fairly quickly as he does her; her English isn’t good (and, to be fair, his Czech is non-existent) but it happens. And then the looks and touches and secret conversations turn into a longing to be together. Izzy makes a tremendous decision; she’ll join Bill and do a runner. The pair do so with Izzy dressed as a boy, hair shorn. It’s against everything in the wartime ‘rules’. Discovery would mean death.

The Prisoner’s Wife is an exhilarating tale of mental strength and deception. Based on a true story and told via a couple of different narratives – Izzy’s and Bill’s, which I’ll expand on in a moment – it provides an at times awful but nevertheless compelling and immersive story that leaves you with a couple of threads untied for a dramatic and meaningful finish.

Starting with the writing, Brookes’ prose is wondrous, fully of imagery and detailing that makes everything easy to picture. Too easy to picture, you might lament, when the horrors arrive, as you know they will. There are many chapters confined to very small places, yet these come alive as much as those of wider scope, owing to Brookes’ skill when it comes to description and, arguably, storytelling in general.

That then supports the earlier notion of immersion; an expansion must be made on narrative. Brookes does something very literary with her narratives. You have the regular choice – as there have been many books that do such by this time – of two narratives split by point of view as to cover both main characters, and a further choice to write one in first person and one in third. So far, so normal. But with Brookes’ story and her inclusion of language as a continual plot thread, the narrative takes on an additional purpose. Izzy’s command of English is slight, and in disguise she must remain mute so that her voice does not betray her. So then Brookes’ first person narrative shows the progression of Izzy’s English comprehension as well as provides the reader a way to know about her when she cannot speak. The latter is perhaps pretty obvious, but the former is particularly interesting for the way and times Brookes chooses to focus on it – at the start Izzy thinks a lot about English but by the end her progression is far more in the subtext. And then you have Bill’s third person narrative – it’s not so focused (he gets dialogue after all) and creates an interesting distance between him and yourself, the reader, where you end up caring far more for Izzy, the person who stands to lose so much more. You may even get irritated with Bill on occasion – he is far from the perfect person in Brookes’ narrative, away from any commentary on his situation as a prisoner of war, and is in fact often eclipsed by the other main (somewhere between main and secondary) characters.

These other characters, then, they must be noted. Staying away from where they are located and who they are exactly as to avoid spoilers, you have Ralph, who becomes very important to Izzy, Max, who is a more quiet, bookish, sort (it’s not major but there’s a book-about-books thread going on here), and Scotty, whose character development you are sure to enjoy. Indeed Brookes develops all three characters, and some others, very well so that the various themes and, certainly, the history we’re looking at here, is relaid all the better. Brookes’ employs every aspect of storytelling in her explanation of the various scenes, showing how everything contributes towards the greater whole in a particularly notable and poignant way.

Necessarily, given the circumstances, the romance is mostly confined to thoughts and certainly the thrill is in the deception. Where romantic thoughts come in they are Izzy’s, understandably. This all said, it’s in Izzy’s thoughts of romance that a fair amount of her character development can be found – she beings very much a young woman, taken up completely by thoughts of Bill and forgetting the world (which is of course really dangerous) and ends up mature beyond her years. Part of this development, which in some ways coexists with the use of language, is in Izzy’s adoption of the persona of the fictional boy she becomes. She starts to think in terms of Algernon Cousins, her secondary identity, which becomes interesting in itself.

Better get to history – I’ve spoken about near everything else at this point! Brookes ups the anti and fools you sometimes into thinking it’s alright (well, alright as alright can be in the situation). You do become somewhat immune to everything after a few chapters – oh, they’re on the run but they’re finding places to sleep… oh a POW camp is scary but there’s an established routine – but the answer to ‘how much worse can it get?’ is, probably (I won’t assume how much you know about the war) ‘worse’, every time. There are some unapologetically realistic authors of wartime fiction – people such as Kristin Harmel with her baby murders, Jennifer Robson with the gas chambers, and Vincent Lamb with things I’m still trying to forget to this day; Brookes is on the same level. This is the war, and you can have a romance and some happier times, but it is still a war.

Two last things of note. Firstly the question of class that is looked at in the novel – it takes a backseat because it’s not as important as… well, the subjects included in the previous paragraph, but Brookes does include a small study of classism in the army through one of her characters and the effects it has on a general level. This happens in a POW camp and in the POW camp we also see – second thing of note – some of the lesser-known tasks given to dissenting prisoners. Brookes spends a good few pages on the subject – it’s yucky. It’s also something this reviewer’s never read about before and she’s read a fair number of wartime novels.

In sum, then, The Prisoner’s Wife is an expertly written, page-turning, novel that will do well on the shelves of any reader of WW2 fiction and historical fiction in general. It has the characters, it has the facts, and it has its romance when the time is right.

Publisher: Century (Penguin)
Pages: 396
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-1-529-12428-6
First Published: 16th April 2020
Date Reviewed: 29th August 2024

This list isn’t exhausted; I’ve chosen to exclude books that I’ve reviewed and some I’ve posted about on Instagram – this post is an edited version of the books that have entered my life since April.

Chloe C Peñaranda: The Stars Are Dying – From the publisher for interview. This has a The Hunger Games-esque aspect to it with vampires, a romantasy with darkness. I’m very much looking forward to giving it a read.

Edward Carey: Edith Holler – From the publisher for interview. I’ve previously read Carey’s B: A Year In Plagues And Pencils and enjoyed his style (I’ve also a copy of his Madame Tussaud novel, Little, I really should read some time…)

Gill Paul: Scandalous Women – This is with much thanks to Gill Paul who gave me a copy of her book. It’s out in the UK now and looks at the work and rivalry of Jackie Collins and Jacqueline Susann. I have high hopes for this book.

Kaliane Bradley: The Ministry Of Time – I saw this book in a bookshop. No idea what it was about. I definitely have a thing for very plain covers with fonts that have been jazzed up. I now know that it’s about Arctic exploration and potentially some time travel.

Kristin Harmel: The Paris Daughter – Harmel’s latest book has been much lauded and I did love The Forest Of Vanishing Stars.

Kristy Woodson Harvey: A Happier Life – Woodson Harvey’s latest; I said in a TikTok video, and probably also on this blog, that since reading The Summer Of Songbirds I would be reading more Woodson Harvey. My second read, The Wedding Veil, confirmed it.

Sue Lynn Tan: Daughter Of The Moon Goddess – I first saw Tan’s book on Amazon and didn’t realise she was big on BookTok, at least it sounds like she was before I saw any videos.

Susan Stokes Chapman: The Shadow Key – I wanted to read Pandora back when it was released and never got around to it (and don’t have a copy either). I thought I’d get ahead of my inevitable desire for her second novel and buy a copy early.

Tan Twan Eng: The House Of Doors – Years ago I stayed at a monastery for a week (they had a guest house) and the bookshelf in the common room had a copy of The Garden Of Evening Mists. I kept meaning to pick it up and see what it was about, but didn’t. And then every now and then I’d remember it and knew I had too many books to read to consider it. Like with Susan Stokes Chapman, when this newer book was released I made a decision.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi: Before We Say Goodbye – My friend bought a copy of Before The Coffee Gets Cold a while back, and told me of Kawaguchi’s fame. I’ve suggested we read each of our books at the same time and compare as much as is possible.

Zadie Smith: The Fraud – I don’t believe this requires a comment!

I’m currently reading both Edith Holler and Scandalous Women, and The Stars Are Dying will follow as soon as one of those ‘slots’ is up for grabs. I’ve currently a podcast TBR and a not-podcast TBR to work with and that’s proving fairly manageable so far; I’ve been actively using the idea for a month or so after a few months of thinking about it.

Tell me about your latest books!

The rom-com of the summer.

Maya rushes to the Tube train; she’s late for work again. As she puts her makeup on she notices the incredibly hot guy sat across from her is looking at her; they begin conversing. Noah only recognises they’ve reached his station when they arrive and he rushes off the train, gesturing to Maya to call him. But he didn’t give her his number – they didn’t exchange any details. Then Maya finds the notebook he’s left behind; when, later, her co-workers push her to open it, she finds it’s full of a ‘thirty things to do before turning 30′ list. With her friends’ influence, she decides to go through the list herself one thing at a time, adapting the goals as needed (Maya’s never going to be a physiotherapist and she’s not sure about jumping out of a plane), in the hope that she’ll run into Noah at some point, give him back his notebook, and maybe forge a lasting connection. But in starting the list she meets an irritating guy at an art class, and then when her parents find out she wants to pursue her Masters, they request she starts looking for a husband at the same time. Maya’s life has been monotonous for years; she’s going to change that right now.

The Thirty Before Thirty List is Tasneem Abdur-Rashid’s second rom-com following 2022’s Finding Mr Perfectly Fine. If you had been hoping that book 2 (well, book 3 if you count her pseudonym) would be just as good as the first you’re in luck – it’s not just as good, it’s even better.

Leaving that there before I end up in full Marks And Spencers puns territory, The Thirty Before Thirty List has everything: solid plot, solid character development, a highly satisfying case of author answering the reader’s questions when they have them, and good pacing.

Told in the first person, you get a great sense for who Maya is but Abdur-Rashid never shies away from letting the reader figure things out before Maya does when it makes sense. There is in fact only one place where it takes Maya too long and that is arguably to show how in her own head Maya is; flawed characters, highly realistic and relatable characters, are Abdur-Rashid’s bread and butter.

There are many characters in this book that in other books might be too large a number, but here each character is developed enough within the scope of their literary placement (main, secondary, and so on) that it never becomes difficult to keep up and you never forget any of them either. Shout outs should be given to Maya’s mother, Maya’s brother Malik, cousins Pinky and Pretty, and co-worker Lucy, whose role as ever-closer-friend as the journey continues is rather lovely. There’s another interesting thread of friendship throughout as Maya gets to grips with best friend Dina’s continued (but not large) distance as the latter takes more time for her growing family and Maya works with these changes, learning to turn to others when Dina isn’t available and taking the moments Dina is available as special. (Anyone who’s at or been through that age when your friends or yourself are going through the changes brought about by having children will appreciate the author’s approach.)

All these words and not one about the romantic aspect… like Finding Mr Perfectly Fine, there are a few contenders here. There’s obviously Noah, the guy from the train; there’s Zakariya from art class (because you know he’ll be there somewhere); and then there’s the man Maya’s parents set her up to meet in a dekha dekhi arrangement. There are also a couple of other men involved in romances. Please note, artistic license may have been used here to prevent spoilers.

You find yourself working out what you think will happen, Abdur-Rashid says, ‘not so fast’, and this repeats throughout. It’s exhilarating – when you put the romance thread together with the use of communication in the book, Abdur-Rashid’s priorising of reader questions, laugh-out-loud humour, and nods to popular culture (Bridgerton gets two nods, thank me for that info later) you get a book that you want to finish as quick as you can because you want to find out what happens. You also find yourself in a situation where you mourn the loss of your ability to read in a more measured fashion because you know books aren’t written over night and you’ve a long wait ahead of you for the next book because it hasn’t been written yet. (Unless you haven’t read the author’s first book in which case I’m very envious. You’re in for another treat.)

All that to say – okay, really I might just have got carried away with how well this book is written – the romance is top-notch, brilliantly done. You’re unlikely to disagree with who (if she does pick one) Maya chooses because the author again never shies away from details. There are no really bad guys here but there are definitely ones more suited than others.

So to the promised inclusion of what happens to Zara (the main character from the author’s previous book)¹ – you get a good number of pages to not just find out where Zara ‘went’ after her book was over but to enjoy a bit of the ride along with her. And perhaps the best bit – you’re not left hankering for more after she makes her exit. It’s a very decent closure.

Last thing – you’re going to get hungry reading this. Food is a big part of the novel. It’s there for the regular mealtimes, it’s there for gatherings, and it’s there when people need another person to lean on and talk to. It’s there for meetings and karaoke and post-shopping refuelling and potential in-laws all meeting for the first time.

The Thirty Before Thirty List is excellent. It’s fun, it’s well-written, and, as a bonus, it leaves just enough questions at your feet for you to spend a good time afterwards thinking about whether you agree with one or two characters’ actions. This is always a great thing to close a book on, and also a review – I’m still questioning one character’s resolution and I like the fact that I am very much.

I was invited to and attended the launch of this book.

Publisher: Zaffre Books (Bonnier)
Pages: 380
Type: Fiction
Age: Adult
ISBN: 978-1-838-77818-7
First Published: 18th July 2024
Date Reviewed: 15th August 2024

Footnotes

¹ See my interview with Tasneem, episode 85 of the podcast.

I’ve read some good books this summer (I’ll leave chronicling August until later). I remember some years ago, a blogger called Judith said that she doesn’t write many negative reviews any more (by that time) because she’d got really good at knowing whether she’d like a book or not prior to choosing it. I remember being mystified by this, but now I feel I’m getting there myself.

All books are works of fiction.

Elaine Chiew: The Light Between Us – Tian Wei lives in 1920s China; he finds a letter from a woman from the next century. In 2019 in Singapore, archiver Charlie finds a letter from a 1920s man, written to someone else. By placing their subsequent letters in the way they found their firsts, both Tian Wei and Charlie are able to begin a correspondence across time, and over time it may develop into something more as the pair share their worries and successes. Fans of The Lake House/Il Mare, and The Time Traveller’s Wife will enjoy this in particular, but the subject matter, especially in terms of Tian Wei’s time and life, will interest many others. Chiew’s writing style is focused on details but not at all in a way that becomes overly much – it’s difficult to describe, but her prose is singular and her focuses appealing.

Emma Cowell: The Island Love Song – Ella, Georgia, and Georgia’s daughter, Phoenix, have travelled to the Greek island of Hydra to spread their mother’s/grandmother’s ashes. For Ella, the trip is very difficult – she was last on the island as a teenager, one beautiful holiday with the love of her life before he suddenly and intentionally disappeared; he was a musician and years later she still has to bear listening to his hit song that was written about her. For Georgia it all needs to go strictly to plan but at the same time she probably needs this time away from her husband. And Phoenix is along for the ride. Ella’s turmoil comes to a head when she makes a surprise discovery, and the trip for her mother morphs into something else entirely. There’s a lot to appreciate here – setting, characterisation, and Cowell’s deft decisions when it comes to letting the reader know more; I shan’t be more specific than that to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say it’s a page turner and enjoyable.

Mark Stay: The Crow Folk – Wartime Britain. Faye Bright has grown up in Woodville, Kent (fictional village, real county). She helps her dad with his pub, she’s a local volunteer for the war effort, and she’s a bell ringer at St Irene’s. She’s also started to have some strange experiences and has found a spell book of her late mother’s which has left her, unsurprisingly, with a heck load of questions. One day animated scarecrows approach a group of villagers but none of the villagers believe what they’ve seen. Except Faye… and perhaps Miss Charlotte, the woman commonly thought to be a witch… and maybe also Mrs Teach, there’s always been something about her. So now not only is there a war on, but Faye’s got this book she wants to learn from (which also includes a recipe for jam roly-poly for some reason), and she’s got to work with the bonkers situation of scarecrows coming to life, led by a demon – who’s a scarecrow, too – while the fair number of villagers who saw these scarecrows don’t believe it happened. But they better do at some point – that demon’s not joking. This is a wonderfully comedic low fantasy fairly similar in tone to Terry Pratchett and Claire North’s The End Of The Day.

Mark Stay: Babes In The Wood – Pretty much straight after the episodes with the crowfolk, and getting towards the Battle of Britain, Faye and co have situation on their hands involving Kindertransport children, creepy artwork, and secret meetings. Brilliant again, this time with a little more darkness and specific WW2 themework.

Mark Stay: The Ghost Of Ivy Barn – We reach the Battle Of Britain. It’s coming soon to a witches’ circle near you (well, they hope). Also, there’s the ghost of a pilot in one of the villager’s barns that Faye needs to help. This book has the best dialogue in the series, I’d say, wherein the plan to get the Nazis not to bomb Britain is to communicate to them, in chant, ‘you cannot cross the sea’. In English.

Mark Stay: The Holly King – Book four sees the season of Christmas and the attempt by an ancient god to take over the village. Less travelling this time, if you count Kent to the coast as ‘travelling’, but as always, lots of fun.

Susan Muaddi Darraj: Behind You Is The Sea – A book of connected short stories about which I’ve been using the term ‘fractured narrative’, Muaddi Darraj’s story in stories focuses on American Christian Palestinians as they find their identities, as they work with horrible truths they discover, as they work with wonderful truths they discover, and as they work with the different generations. Focusing mostly on the same family and featuring a good few extremely poignant stories, this is a stunning book told in lovely prose that necessarily differs per point of view.

Was it a ton of reading? No, but it was a ton enjoyable and so far August has been just as good.

Episode 104: Matt Ottley

Charlie and Matt Ottley (The Tree Of Ecstasy And Unbearable Sadness) discuss Matt’s type I bipolar disorder and how it has influenced this, his latest book, and his life in general. As Matt is also a composer and illustrator and the book involves both, we also discuss in detail the creation of the music and artwork.

Please note that there are mentions of child sexual abuse and attempted suicide in this episode.

If you’re unable to use the media player above, this page has various other options for listening as well as the transcript.

Apart from what I’ve previously discussed, the year’s reading so far has been great. Looking at this list there’s only one book I wasn’t keen on, The Priory Of The Orange Tree which I read in readalong fashion with a friend until Christmas. I then completed it quickly because it was starting to make all the grief feel never-ending (that is not a criticism of the book – it’s just that I had been reading it all that while) and so my friend fell behind but she’s since finished it, too, and felt similarly to me by the end of it. I posted a brief review to TikTok (I’ve lost my way there, it’s a lot more difficult than writing, I find) but plan to post a longer review here in time.

All books are works of fiction.

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: This Is How You Lose The Time War – In the far-flung future, two people meet each other across a battlefield and begin sending each other letters hidden in various technological ways. Over time – literally – they fall in love and try to work out how to have a life together when they both belong to different factions that are trying to mould the future to fit their desires. This book is fantastically done but it definitely requires a lot of attention; the description is sparse and much is left to the imagination.

Chịkọdịlị Emelụmadụ: Dazzling – In two dual timeline narratives we follow Treasure and Ozoemena – one girl whose father was killed, the other whose father has disappeared. We find out about their lives in the Nigerian Civil War and their lives beyond that. Ozoemena has been joined to the secretive leopard society and Treasure is being pressured by spirits; both are somewhat struggling at school. I’ll have to leave it there or risk spoiling the entirety – this is a great magical realism/fantasy/mythological story of two girls coming into their own and being more than what their society has created for them to be.

Diana Gabaldon: Voyager – With Brianna and Roger now second and third voices to help Claire decide what to do, she chooses to go back to Jamie. A lot has changed since she’s been away, for both Scotland and the Fraser family, and with Jamie hiding in plain sight from the authorities, it’s not going to be the same life she had before. So much going on that’s difficult not to spoil. I loved this book for the going-back-in-time-again aspect, and it was nice to get away from the book-length flashback of the previous, but there was one big issue I had with this book concerning a second marriage that did mean I had to pause for a week or so. Unfortunately I found the TV show version of the plot thread made it worse, but I did battle on and finish both. I am still generally happily reading the series and am looking forward to book four, I just could’ve done without the unbelieveable plot thread which was less believeable, to me, than the time travel…

Jacquie Bloese: The Golden Hour – In Victorian Brighton, Ellen and her brother take erotic photographs of women to sell abroad. Ellen comes across Lily who is struggling in an abusive household, and offers her money to pose – Lily takes her up on it so long as the photos do indeed go abroad. Meanwhile, Clementine, from America, is stuck in a disagreeable marriage to a man who won’t let her to anything she wants to do. This is an incredibly immersive book – great sense of location – about a fictional photography business and the music hall theatres that are fairly related, alongside a backdrop of the experiences of women of different classes, all looking to gain agency in their own lives. It’s very well done.

Jessica Bull: Miss Austen Investigates – Jane Austen comes back from a rendezvous with Tom Lefroy to a silent gathering – a woman has been murdered. Unhappy with the seeming lack of seriousness with which the magistrate starts dealing with the situation, Jane decides to do her own investigations much to the surprise and relative shock of the locals. This is a brilliant book, Bull’s homage to Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, and, in the way that it looks at a book that was already a parody, a homage somewhat to Gothic fiction, too.

Kate Weston: You May Now Kill The Bride – Five close friends go to a hen party (one of their own). The bride is killed. They then decide to go to another hen party anyway and now ‘inevitable’ happens. This is a very good whodunnit where the group of suspects are rarely apart from each other. It’s also rather funny.

Liz Fenwick: The Cornish House – Maddie and Hannah are grieving their husband and father respectively. And now Maddie has inherited a house all the way down in Cornwall; they go there – it’s a large old house and needs a lot of work but they could both do with a fresh start. There is also a rather attractive man around Maddie’s age who helps them out when they can’t find the house. This book, Fenwick’s debut, looks at the grieving process and how people move through it. It also sports some romance and there is a mystery element to the house that turns into a whole theme when it drags up stuff from the past that Maddie had thought she’d buried. A really nice, somewhat cosy, read with a great use of dialogue. I’d been wanting to read it for a few years, and I loved it.

Liz Fenwick: The Secret Shore – With all hands on deck for the war, Merry has become a map-maker for the war effort; she uses her abilities and local knowledge of Cornwall to assist with the plans for what would become the Normandy landings. And now, like many women, she suddenly has more agency over her life, but there is a choice to be made in regards to whether she stays single and able to have a career or gets married and loses it all, and there is a handsome American in the ranks who is starting to steal her heart. This is an almost epic tale of resilience in war and person with an excellent thread of female agency running throughout and a great use of Dorothy Sayers’ gentleman detective, too.

Manda Scott: Any Human Power – When Lan dies, she promises her grandson, Finn, that she will communicate with him after death. She soon finds the ability to do so – infiltrate the MMORPG they enjoyed with their online guild. But the promise she made in life means that Lan must linger and not move on. Years later, Lan’s granddaughter, who she never met, posts a controversial opinion on social media and suddenly the whole thing spirals out of control. The family must secure their property, but they also decide to further the politics and create their own manifesto, and Lan is there for it all, helping Finn as much as she can. This book hit me hard – I was grieving and Scott’s writing of death and grief is incredibly powerful. It’s a very up-to-the-minute book with a lot of discussion on how we can change the world for the better and why we must do so. There is also, in Lan’s presence, a constant thread of Shamanistic belief that runs throughout. Worth reading!

Matt Ottley: The Tree Of Ecstasy And Unbearable Sadness – A boy deals with bipolar disorder, his mind taking him to fantastical places. This is a wonderful graphic novel (or multi-model narrative as I believe Ottley calls it). The artwork is superb, the prose lovely, and the author/artist is also a composer; there’s a musical work to accompany the book; the whole experience is awesome.

Natalie Jenner: Every Time We Say Goodbye – Vivian leaves Bloomsbury Books and moves to Italy to work in the film industry; the affects of WW2 are still there at Cinecitta, but for Vivian, her time is about being a success and also looking to find out what happened to her fiancé, who fought in the war. An interesting follow-up to Bloomsbury Girls that takes a well-loved character and moves her elsewhere for her very own storyline, this book features Jenner’s now-signature careful use of celebrities passed and steady focus on character development.

Nikki Marmery: Lilith – Thrown out of Eden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge, Lilith leaves Adam to his feelings of superiority and beings her search for the goddess she knows was taken from them both. This is a story stretching from Genesis to the present day and beyond and Marmery leaves you with an absolute wealth of information about early religion. It’s beautifully written to boot.

Samantha Shannon: The Priory Of The Orange Tree – The Nameless One is awakening and must be stopped. The kingdom of Berethnet is at odds with others but needs an heir; women inherit the throne. Meanwhile Ead is far from home protecting the Berethnet queen, Tani is preparing for her exams to become a dragon rider, and Niclays is trying to remain on the down-low. this was not a book for me; I didn’t find there to be much story, never got on with the characters, too many characters died to serve the plot, and so on.

Only one I didn’t enjoy very much, and I was disappointed because I’d been looking forward to reading it for so long, but the others were all great experiences. Over this, June, month, I’ve already read Mark Stay’s Witches Of Woodville series – at least the four books currently published – and am now reading both Susan Muaddi Darraj’s Behind You Is The Sea and Elaine Chiew’s The Light Between Us, both different genres and enjoyable.

Episode 100: Liz Fenwick

Charlie and Liz Fenwick (The Secret Shore) discuss the women cartographers who were fundamental in the Allies winning the Second World War and the way women at university at the time had to choose between their career and having a family. We also discuss Liz’s love of Cornwall, her use of Dorothy Sayer’s Gaudy Night, and we go back a few times to the people who were involved in the secret flotillas that preceded the Normandy landings.

If you’re unable to use the media player above, this page has various other options for listening as well as the transcript.