| SYNOPSIS: |
The War Comes to Witham Street follows the lives of a group of families living in Lincoln, England, from August 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945. A rest and recuperate scheme for two servicemen, one British and one American, places them with two families. The effect they have on those who have offered the hospitality is profound. Another neighbour has to cope with a love affair of her daughter, a naive young girl, with a G.I. Throughout the novel is the day to day problems of the neighbours, the way they get on with each other and with their families, all seen through the eyes of a child. Jane, like most of the other children, is without her father, and relies on grandparents and other relations to fill the gap. And it is through Jane and growing up at a difficult time that we can laugh at attempts to keep moral high, and sympathise with the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and tragedies of those left to cope with war their own way. |
