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Title: Hay Bales and Hollyhocks
Author: Sheila Newberry
Narrator: Katy Sobey
Format: Unabridged
Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-02-16
Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
The Cambridge Fens, 1938. Little Rosanna is part of a close-knit Fenland family and the youngest of three cousins. In a time of childhood abandon and adventures on the water, life couldn't be more perfect. But things are not always as they seem. When Rosanna's new baby brother is born, tragedy strikes the family. And with the outbreak of World War II just around the corner and a move to the Norfolk countryside, Rosanna's life is changed forever. As she and the family grow together, she realises that to find happiness, we sometimes have to break away from the things we know.
Critic Reviews:
"Like having dinner with your mother in her warm and cosy kitchen." (Diane Allan, best-selling author of For the Sake of Her Family)
"Gloriously nostalgic...a perfect example of her talent." (Maureen Lee, best-selling author)
Members Reviews:
Norfolk based family saga
Hay Bales and Hollyhocks is a British family saga set between the years 1938 and 1968 mainly in and around Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The prologue opens in 1968 with Rosanne and Sim, two travelers, recently met.
The book then turns back to 1938, four year old Rosy lives in the fens with her extended family. She plays with her older cousins in and around the river Ouse, but soon a baby brother arrives to change her life. During the first years of the war, the women and children move into Kings Lynn for safety while the men go to war, but when a bomb falls too closely they find new cottages on a farm.
The war brings it's own trials and obstacles for Rosy and her family. In later years, Rosy yearns for her freedom, she spends an idyllic summer holiday boating on the river Ouse once again with her cousins, but soon her life is turned upside down again by a sibling.
This is a book packed with detailed nostalgia of the era, showing thorough knowledge and research by the author, but at times it felt a little like walking around a living museum rather than relying on the writing style, language and story content to create the atmosphere of yesteryear.