The poppy field

                                                                                                 

                                                                                                  

‘One to Watch’ Good Housekeeping

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Young nurse, Gemma, is struggling with the traumas she has witnessed through her job in the NHS. Needing to escape from it all, Gemma agrees to help renovate a rundown farmhouse in Doullens, France, a town near the Somme. There, in a boarded-up cupboard, wrapped in old newspapers, is a tin that reveals the secret letters and heartache of Alice Le Breton, a young volunteer nurse who worked in a casualty clearing station near the front line.

Set in the present day and during the horrifying years of the war, both woman discover deep down the strength and courage to carry on in even the most difficult of times. Through Alice’s words and her unfailing love for her sweetheart at the front, Gemma learns to truly live again.

This is a beautifully written epic historical novel that will take your breath away.

 

Deborah Carr recently signed with HarperCollins' romance imprint HarperImpulse to write, The Poppy Field, an historical romance to commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War. 

She lives on the island of Jersey with her husband and three rescue dogs and is 1/3 of The Blonde Plotters.

My Review

"A beautifully written epic historical novel that will take your breath away" is quite something for a book to live up to. The poppy field deserves every word of praise above and more. I was sucked in from the first when Gemma arrives in France to renovate an old cottage belonging to a distant family member. It was when she discovers a tin of old letters though that the real treat begins. I loved the parallels between the lives of Gemma and Alice and longed to find out the connection between them. The story of the nurses' work in the casualty clearing station during WW1 shows the tremendous research that the author has done to make it seem authentic as well as showing the futility of war and the horrific loss of life. I don't mind admitting that it brought me to tears. The story reminds us that in wartime there isn't always a happy ever after for everyone but there can be a happy right now. We all need to seize happiness when we can. Brilliantly researched, engaging, beautifully told, I can't recommend this book enough.