This book was given to me to read by a co-worker, and as our reading tastes are usually similar I looked forward to reading this debut novel from this Author. I will come straight out now and say the only reason this book received the two thumbs it did is because it is located in my home county of Yorkshire, England.

However, if you like books with multiple characters, each with their own separate plot and agenda, this may be the book for you. I found the profusion of characters and plots became rather confusing after a while, and this nearly resulted in my consigning it to my empty ‘did not finish’ pile. The reason it did not end up there was the hope I held that when I turned the next page the development of the main protagonist would start and the storyline proper would then get underway. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and I’m not sure if it is the sheer number of characters that prevented this, or sympathy for the Author that they may have been a little unsure of themselves in this area of their writing. I feel that if the Author had pared down the amount of characters in the novel, and concentrated some of that energy into the development of the key ones, this would have become a much better, if not compelling, read.

What a disappointment, I was expecting a book based around the evacuees from the London Blitz and the way it affected them both mentally and physically; I was expecting maybe something more along the lines of ‘Good Night, Mr. Tom’, but received a rehashing of parts of ‘The Go-Between’ and ‘Atonement’ without any of the plot development or characters that would truly make it worth the time I invested in reading this. I feel that an outstanding editor would have been able to point out these issues to the Author, and with gentle guidance been able to help them turn this into a fresh perspective on love and happiness.

The ending of this book was the final nail in the coffin for me; most of the novel takes place during World War II, and when I say most it is probably about 75% of the book, then in the final 25% the Author suddenly felt the need to cram sixty years into about 50 pages; no explanation or tie in to the rest of the book, just ‘here it is’. In this particular case this is one of those books that would have been better off left with an open-ending without the Author feeling the need to tie everything up neatly.

Unfortunately I don’t feel I could recommend this book to any one group of readers, but it may be something that book clubs would enjoy dissecting at their meetings.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/02/review-the-very-thought-of-you-rosie-aliso...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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This book was given to me to read by a co-worker, and as our reading tastes are usually similar I looked forward to reading this debut novel from this Author. I will come straight out now and say the only reason this book received the two thumbs it did is because it is located in my home county of Yorkshire, England.

However, if you like books with multiple characters, each with their own separate plot and agenda, this may be the book for you. I found the profusion of characters and plots became rather confusing after a while, and this nearly resulted in my consigning it to my empty ‘did not finish’ pile. The reason it did not end up there was the hope I held that when I turned the next page the development of the main protagonist would start and the storyline proper would then get underway. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and I’m not sure if it is the sheer number of characters that prevented this, or sympathy for the Author that they may have been a little unsure of themselves in this area of their writing. I feel that if the Author had pared down the amount of characters in the novel, and concentrated some of that energy into the development of the key ones, this would have become a much better, if not compelling, read.

What a disappointment, I was expecting a book based around the evacuees from the London Blitz and the way it affected them both mentally and physically; I was expecting maybe something more along the lines of ‘Good Night, Mr. Tom’, but received a rehashing of parts of ‘The Go-Between’ and ‘Atonement’ without any of the plot development or characters that would truly make it worth the time I invested in reading this. I feel that an outstanding editor would have been able to point out these issues to the Author, and with gentle guidance been able to help them turn this into a fresh perspective on love and happiness.

The ending of this book was the final nail in the coffin for me; most of the novel takes place during World War II, and when I say most it is probably about 75% of the book, then in the final 25% the Author suddenly felt the need to cram sixty years into about 50 pages; no explanation or tie in to the rest of the book, just ‘here it is’. In this particular case this is one of those books that would have been better off left with an open-ending without the Author feeling the need to tie everything up neatly.

Unfortunately I don’t feel I could recommend this book to any one group of readers, but it may be something that book clubs would enjoy dissecting at their meetings.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/04/02/review-the-very-thought-of-you-rosie-aliso...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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(7.5)At the outbreak of the Second World War, London families were encouraged to evacuate their children to the countryside, where they would be safe from aerial bombing. Eight year old Anna Sand's father is already away fighting in Egypt, so it is a wrench for her to be separated from her mother. Anna is fortunate to be placed at Ashton Park along with 80 odd other children. It is a beautiful old house owned by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, a childless couple. Thomas was struck down with polio early in their marriage and their marriage is floundering. They decide to set up a boarding school. As an only child, Anna is a quiet and studious and soon comes to the attention of the Ashton's, especially Thomas.
Anna and the other children do not anticipate the length of their stay and it is only after a tragic event that Anna's stay comes to an end. In the absence of her parents she has formed a strong attachment to both Ashton Park and some of the teachers. However this attachment causes Anna to struggle as an adult to form close relationships.
This book was a little disappointing for me, as it falls more into the romantic fiction category, with it's strong emphasis on the adult relationships within rather than the upheaval for the children. ( )

Historical fiction is a magnet to me. I loved this book so much, it was difficult to lay it down. I felt right at home with the story. No, I was not a evacuee little girl in England in August, 1939 being bussed away from her mum to somewhere in the countryside. Anna, along with many other children who did not have relatives in the countryside were sent there to protect them from the soon expected bombings by the Germans.

Anna and her group had the good luck of being taken to a beautiful old mansion. She was a reader like me and was amazed at the marble floors and the amazing statues on the grounds, the many rooms and the sound of classical music on a piano. This story starts with her and brings in people like the owner of the mansion who was wheelchair bound, his beautiful but uncontented wife. A teacher who made learning very special, and of course her mother and close to the end, her father.

This stands out to me from this book, the quote from one of Alfred Lloyd Tennyson's poems
"I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

There is much more that I could tell you about this wonderful book but that is for you to find out. ( )

England is on the brink of war, so eight-year-old Anna is evacuated. An independent and loving child, she finds herself as part of a temporary school in a large country house in Yorkshire. More thoughtful than most, she finds herself drawn to the owners: Thomas Ashton, wheelchair-bound and a lover of poetry, and his strict, stressed wife.

Lovely writing, well-researched and realistic. Some unpleasant scenes, some of them unexpected, with bittersweet ending, but overall I enjoyed this novel. ( )

My sister was reading another book about World War II evacuees, so when I saw this one might be good to read while I was waiting to get the other one. I was a bit disappointed. I thought Anna might be a witness to some kind of mystery rather than an affair and a couple's fight. I got tired of the backstories of all the secondary characters. The one thing I did like was the author's poems and poetic prose. She did a good job in describing the estate and grounds of Ashton Place. ( )

On the whole, I thought this book was OK but it had promise to be something more. There seemed to be too many point-of-view characters—Anna, Rebecca, Thomas, Elizabeth, even Ruth Weir here and there, so everyone remained a bit flat and unfocused. ( )

Oh my goodness what a wonderful book and a very fitting ending if I can say that ...every woman should read this book . The charecters are outstanding .

I read this one because of an automated recommendation system. It was ok but not worthy of some of the hype and sales I've seen. ( )

This was a story about World War 11 evacuees in London. The story centered around Anna Sands.This novel was just O.K. for me. ( )

The experience of reading The Very Thought of You was, for me, quite uneven. Parts of it had a tender, calm beauty, while other seemed unnecessarily banal. Generally, I enjoyed the sections that detailed the lives of the evacuees. This is an aspect of the affect of WWII that I have rarely read about and it was a pleasure to be able to do so. WWII is the frame of the story, but is largely distant from the tale, which was interesting, too.

The language was at times quite beautiful, although not particularly lyrical. It had a simplicity to it that made it feel natural. I would like to share two quotes that I adored. The first is a comment made to Anna when she has stayed up too late reading: "A true lover of books knows no time" (191). Why I love this is likely obvious. The second is an old, sad, lonely man's reflection on his life: "So I may seem like an old wreck to you—but inside I'm still dancing, as they say" (292). This man has been through a lot, most of it awful and only some of that self-made, but he can still feel that overall his life has been a good one. That is some powerful stuff, and it does not come off as some forced message, but as a simple, beautiful truth.

There were two aspects of this novel I did not enjoy. The more minor of the two is something I see as a weakness in the storytelling: the viewpoint, which generally follows Anna or the Ashtons occasionally shifted to the Nortons, friends of the Ashtons. These sections always seemed to come out of nowhere and really did not seem important to the overall narrative. Having finished the book, they seem to have been included to allow more discussion of artists (perhaps Alison is a big fan of the art of that time period) and to allow her to add a scene about the Holocaust. The temptation to include the latter is understandable, but I did not appreciate her hurried attempt to fit it in; in my opinion, the book would have been better off had she remained within her main construct.

More frustrating was that this, like a surprising number of other books I have read, seems to be showing that all marriages result in unhappiness, affairs and, ultimately, divorce. While I imagine this is often true, I find it frustrating when every single main character ends up the same way. I would not call this a glorification of affairs, so much as a de-glorification of matrimony and a Chretien de Troyes-ish sense that true love lies outside of marriage. I'm not saying that every novel should depict wedded bliss, as that would be unrealistic, but not every could cheats (or so I choose to hope).

Regardless of my opinion, The Very Thought of You has received a really great reception, having been considered for the Orange Prize. The book is certainly well written and covers a fairly unique war experience, that of the children left behind and safe, physically anyway. It may not have been precisely my cup of tea, but, if it sounds good to you, please do not let me dissuade you. ( )

Alison's debut novel was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize, a great achievement for any new author. This story has some strong points - solid background research, well drawn flawed characters (not exactly three dimensional but there was some depth to them) and descriptive details that allowed me to visualize the time period and the sprawling stately home and grounds of fictional Ashton Park. The downside for me is that I came away feeling that the author tried too hard to pack too much into one book - too many characters, too many narrators, too many lovers, too many divergent plots - in her quest to write a story exploring various forms of love. The story of Anna that I thought I was going to read about became the story of Thomas, the story of Elizabeth, the story of Ruth and the story of Roberta. While each story on its own or a couple of them at a time did work, the mess of all of them jumbled together didn't work particularly well for me. For a first time author, I am willing to make some allowances. What I am not willing to make an allowance for is that Alison managed to give virtually all of her main adult characters the same 'flaw', for lack of a better word right now without going into spoilers to explain further. I am having a little difficulty seeing this as a story about love. It strikes me that it is more a story about longing and searching than about love.

Overall, an interesting story about World War II, child evacuees and the British spirit to carry on as the war pounded on around them. ( )

Gentle story of love from 1st WW to present with Thomas, Elizabeth and Anna ( )

In 1939 as war looms in Europe eight-year-old Anna Sands is evacuated with thousands of other London children to the safety of the countryside. She finds herself billeted at a large stately home in Yorkshire which has been opened as a school for 80 or so children by its owners Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton. Anna is a withdrawn and thoughtful child and takes to observing the Ashton's and finally becomes drawn into their unhappy marriage, becoming an accomplice to Charles' love affair with one of the school's teachers.

I found the characters in this book hard to relate to. They all seemed to be drawn inward towards themselves and nonew of them seemed to be able to truly express their feelings. In a way they reminded me of the characters in Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach - so afraid of expressing themselves that they deprive one another any chance for happiness. While some of the passages in the book are quite moving, overall the reader is left with a sense of not really knowing the characters and being a little more than irritated at their total inability to express themselves. ( )

I'm afraid I was very disappointed with this book. I fully expected to like it, especially as it's set during wartime, which always interests me. The first half was ok, but it never really built up into a fully formed story for me and I ended up skimming the second half.

There was no real focal point for the story. From the blurb, it appeared that it would be about evacuee, Anna Sands, but it was also about her mother, and the Ashtons of Ashton Park, who took in Anna and many other evacuees. That would have been fine, but for me the characters never came to life, and neither did the story.

The section of the book after the war and up to almost the present day felt very rushed and that didn't work at all. Some other reviewers on Amazon say that the author is telling, not showing, and I would totally agree with that. She is just giving us information rather than a fully rounded story.

Overall, not a successful read for me, and not one I would recommend to others. ( )

The Very Thought of You is a multifaceted story set in London at the time of WWII. This novel is the story of the complications of trying to maintain families sent spinning out of their assumed courses by war at their doorstep, told mostly from the perspective of a child. Sent from London, away from her mother to live in the countryside to escape the anticipated bombing raids on the city, she longs for a holiday at the beach but finds herself at a large mansion in the countryside that has been turned into a boarding school - no beach in sight. What happens to her mother after years of living a new kind of life without husband or child. What happens to the young couple who own the estate turned school, facing a life neither one imagined. What is to become of these children who spend years away from parents in such different surroundings without the individual attention of a personal family. It all seemed tragically real. I loved how the story was brought to conclusion - a satisfying read with an enlightening glimpse into the era. ( )

This novel centers around Anna Sands, who is evacuated from London at the start of the Second World War and sent to live in a great house in Yorkshire called Ashton Park. It's been turned into a refuge and school by Elizabeth Ashton, whose husband was struck by polio soon after they were married, leaving him in a wheelchair. The story moves between Anna's adjustments, her mother left alone in London, her father in the army, her new schoolmates, teachers and the unhappy Ashtons.

This is Alison's first novel and it shows in the not quite three dimensional characters and a plot that veers between dispassionate summaries and high melodrama. I'll take a look at what she does next, but this story, which had so much promise, was clumsy and lacked nuance. ( )

This was a very sad novel that I found to be just okay. I fund that I spent the better part of the beginning waiting for something to actually happen. Once something did happen, it never really developed into something I couldn't walk away from for a bit. ( )

This book, while good, did not meet my expectations but I am a romantic at heart and the story was thwarted at every love line in the book. Perhaps that is as the author meant it; that nothing is forever and that while we have it we should appreciate it even if it is the hope of love.
The story begins as the children of London are being evacuated to the countrysides about London prior to and during the blitz. Our main character Anna is one of these children and is removed to an estate called Ashton Park, a lovely estate with ponds, wooded areas and lots of greens for the children to run and play. The estate is owned by Thomas (whose legs are paralyzed from contracting polio) and Elizabeth Ashton. It is turned into a school with dormitories for the children. Once over their homesickness, the children come to love Ashton Park. The owners, teachers and staff are all very nice and accommodating.
As the story moves on our Anna becomes privy to some of the secrets of the house. One being the true relationship of the owners. This follows Anna throughout her life, affecting her own marriage and life. This is the part of the book that did not ring true for me.
Although we all pine for what may have been usually we get on with our lives. Anna seems to have gone through some of the motions but forever lived with that emptiness.
Like I said, I did enjoy the book. I would not have ended it as Ms. Allison did and I am very surprised that this book was short listed for the Orange Prize in 2010. I gave it 3 stars. ( )

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is a surprisingly complicated story about love and loss of those left behind by the soldiers at the dawn of World War II. It follows the stories of multiple characters during the war and beyond, as they each try to find happiness and love during a time of tumult and chaos. Some are more successful than others, while others remain content with what they are able to experience.

The multiple character plot strands become a bit confusing after a while. There is the love triangle between Thomas, Elizabeth, and Ruth. Then there is Anna and her childish longings for her mother and for a father figure, and Roberta finding happiness and a newly-gained sense of freedom in war-torn London. There are too many characters for any one to be developed properly, and the individual stories do not coincide well enough for a continuously smooth transition from one strand to another. The result is a jagged, often confusing, jump from one character to another with no sense of continuity.

Another point of contention is the fact that the ending seems rushed. Three-fourths of the novel occurs during World War II and is strengthened by the reader’s knowledge of what is occurring during that time. The final section of the novel, approximately fifty pages, covers a time span of over sixty years. This is a huge jump in time with very little or explanation or connection to previous sections. The reader is left feeling that Ms. Alison was compelled to connect two key plot lines together without thinking through the impact it would have on the overall novel. Some stories are best left open-ended, without the author connecting the dots. The Very Thought of You would have been one of them, had Ms. Alison left well enough alone and ended the novel with the second world war.

The Very Thought of You was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for fiction, and I must confess that I remain unconvinced as to why it was. I was not drawn into any of the stories and found several of the key characters quite despicable. None of them had very much backbone, and while their weaknesses created much of the drama, I still scoffed at some of the realism behind their actions.

The Very Thought of You is one of those novels in which my expectations did not live up to reality, in that I was really hoping to read a story about the children sent away during the London Blitz and the psychological impact of such upheaval. Rather, the children's plight is one small portion of a much larger, and more complex novel. Without some of the extraneous characters and story offshoots, The Very Thought of You would have been a compelling reader. Instead, it tries too hard to define love and belonging. It is not a horrible novel, but there is an element of redundancy to it that is disappointing, as I do not feel Ms. Alison was breaking new ground in any way but rather rehashing old facts and philosophies about love and happiness. She falls short in making it a fresh perspective, and the reader is left disappointed.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Atria Books Galley Grab for this review copy!

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/09/very-thought-of-you-by-rosie-alison.h...

What a gorgeously written, poignant novel! I could picture the settings and feel the heartaches contained in is pages.

Quick summary: Anna Sands is eight years old when in 1939, part of the wave of children evacuated from London to the countryside to keep them safe during the war. This book chronicles her life from that time until the year 2006, when she is 75. The interwoven tales of Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, Ruth Weir (one of the teachers at the boarding school), and Roberta, Anna's mother, all play their parts to perfection.

Anna is part of a group of 86 evacuees taken in my Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, a childless couple who live in the North Yorkshire Moors and open a boarding school in order to help as many children as they can. Thomas, a former diplomat, is now confined to a wheelchair.

The reader is transfixed by the tales of loves thwarted, loves lost, loves that die their own slow death, as well as tragedy and revenge. Many of the characters are plain unlikeable, some you feel sorry for, and others you want to have good things happen to. I was totally taken in by these stories, even when they didn't work out the way I'd like them to.

I can see why this one was shortlisted for the Orange Prize; it's definitely a winner. If you're looking for a "feel good" story, this one may not be for you; there are some sad happenings here. If you're looking for a story that makes you feel for the characters, where you find yourself rooting for someone even though you know that, technically, what they're doing is at least morally ambiguous - in other words, if you want a story that feels like real-life, with all of its twists and foibles, pick this one up.

QUOTES (from an eGalley; may be different in finished title):

It was on a bench under this tree that the duty staff recently found an elderly woman sitting alone after closing hours, apparently enjoying the view. On closer inspection she was found to be serenely dead, her fingers locked around a faded love letter.

And a memory would come back to her of the longing she had known for him before their marriage. But she knew that now it was only a memory of a feeling, not the feeling itself.

Writing: 5 out of 5 stars
Plot: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Characters: 4 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 4.5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars ( )

It was surprising to me that this book was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for fiction, with all the wonderful writing out there! I found this book to be okay, but I really wasn’t very impressed by it.

Anna Sands, age 8, is evacuated from London in 1939 (as other children were) prior to the threatened German bombing during World War II. Her mother, alone while her husband is fighting the war, is lonely at first, but quickly adjusts to being a young vibrant woman “relishing her late bloom of sensuality.” This self-relishing business happens to a couple of the women in this book.

Anna's destination, along with 85 other children, is Ashton Park, a large estate owned by Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, a wealthy couple in their thirties. Thomas, warm-hearted and generous, is in a wheelchair from polio, and his ten-year marriage to the cold and emotionally volatile (but relishing her late bloom) Elizabeth has become a pretense. They both come to resent each other, and Elizabeth soon descends into debauchery and drunkenness. Thomas wonders if he can ever find solace from any aspect of his life. The solution he embraces has far-reaching repercussions.

Anna, spending four years at Ashton Park, is one of those who is deeply affected by the actions of the Ashtons, as well as by the separation from her parents. As we follow her through the years, we find out just how deeply and irreversibly her life was changed by that interlude.

Discussion: Other characters come and go somewhat disjointedly, in an inadvertent plotful complement to the choppy prose. Long passages read like this one:

"She began to worry. She watched and watched out of the window, hoping for a glimpse of the sea on every horizon. They seemed to roll through empty countryside for too long. Clutching her food bag and book, she fell asleep. Her legs did not touch the floor but swung from side to side with the train’s motion. In the late afternoon, the train slowed and she woke up. They were pulling into a station on a great bend.”

And on and on…

Evaluation: Lots of broken characters and tragedy portrayed in mostly plodding prose. It’s a haunting story but could have been way better. For those thinking that this is a story about the war, well, it's actually not. In a sentence, it can be summarized: marriage sucks, life sucks, and then you die. ( )

Prepare to have your eyes opened, your heart broken, and your view of the amazing endurance of the human spirit revised and revived. You will experience all of these things when you read Rosie Alison's "The Very Thought of You". A shattering, yet spirit-sustaining, glimpse into loss and survivorship, this is a story which will resonate with many. Few will be unaffected. In the summer of 1939, with the impending threats of WWII devastation looming large, thousands of children were evacuated from London, sent to safer locations in the surrounding countryside. These children were torn from their homes and separated from their parents, and no one could be certain what the future would hold. "The Very Thought of You" focuses on one such child, Anna Sands, relocated to the wealthy manor home of Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton. Childless themselves, the Ashtons welcome the children and provide them with care and an education. It is the gallant and gentle Thomas who becomes a touchstone in Anna's life. He is a man who suffers great loss and unspeakable tragedy, yet he lives his life with appreciation for the beauty he sees among the devastation. True love comes to Thomas in midlife, but it is not a love with whom he will be allowed to share life on earth. However, even death cannot dim the luminescence of this love. Your heart will ache for Thomas, but his soul remains undaunted through it all. As with many who have experienced the shock of wartime desolation, Anna searches throughout her life for real peace of mind. As a married adult, with children of her own, Anna finds some measure of comfort in reconnecting with Thomas. They form a somewhat tentative, but still caring relationship, keeping touch in letters and Christmas cards. Ultimately, Anna's search for fulfillment will come full circle and bring her once again to Ashton Manor. As the song says: "The very thought of you, and I forget to do those little ordinary things that everyone ought to do....". This story and these characters are neither little nor ordinary. They will stay in the reader's consciousness for a very long time.

Book Copy Gratis Simon & Schuster ( )

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison starts off with 8-year-old Anna Sands being evacuated, like many other London children during World War II, to the English countryside to escape the impending German attack. Anna pictures herself on a sunshine-filled beach holiday but instead finds herself in a school set up in a sprawling Yorkshire mansion, Ashton Park. There, wealthy, childless Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton are attempting to rejuvenate their lives and their love by surrounding themselves with children in need of their help. During the course of her time at Ashton Park that spans several years of the war, Anna finds herself much more entangled in Thomas's tragic love story than even she will ever understand.

The novel gets off to a promising start with Anna embarking on a new adventure. Alison's lush prose evokes a magical, if practical, refuge in the far-reaching grounds of Ashton Park. Anna is taken with Elizabeth, who is all beauty and poise in public, and with Thomas, whose gentle demeanor and impeccable manners cover over a lifetime of pain and heartbreak. As the story wears on, Anna begins to glimpse the darker underbelly of life with a couple whose union was fragile at best, and put under stress by Thomas's struggle with polio, his inability to walk afterwards, and finally the couple's inability to have children. It seems that Anna is always on hand to witness the unfolding of events as the couple disintegrates and each begins to search for fulfillment from others. Elizabeth throws herself at any man that might impregnate her, while Thomas discovers a love that stimulates his heart and his mind in a way he never believed possible.

By its midpoint, the book had begun to frustrate me. Alison's writing is technically beautiful, but at times it seemed an excess of words kept me from ever truly engaging with the characters, who never really came to life, or becoming involved with their situations. A steady stream of commentary from an overintrusive narrative voice built up a wall of words that made the mid-section of The Very Thought of You, the part that depends on your sympathies to succeed, boring and trite. Instead of being captivated at Thomas's joy at finding his one true, if forbidden, love, I was eager to put the chapters of their mooning over each other with an army of true love cliches (fluttering limbs, a world lit up with love, the pressing of flowers into books with sentimental messages) behind me. That, and Anna's popping up at the most inopportune and inappropriate of times to bear witness to adult drama well beyond her years was bothersome to me.

In its final chapters, The Very Thought of You gains back some ground as it follows its characters into a later time. Thomas's lasting love and the profound impact the wartime years at Ashton Park had on Anna well into her adulthood are far more compelling. While I didn't love the book, by the time I turned the last page, I'd arrived at a fragile acceptance of the story's imperfect, broken characters who so often failed in their search for love. The Very Thought of You, is, as it promised to be, a haunting story, but never for the reasons you might expect. ( )

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is set in England during the Second World War. Anna Sands, a young girl living in London, is evacuated from the city along with other children and moved to the countryside where it is hoped the children will be safe from the bombings taking place in the city. Anna is relocated to the Ashton Estate in the Yorkshire countryside; Elizabeth and Thomas Ashton, a childless couple, have opened their estate to the evacuees where they educate and care for the youngsters. This haunting war time novel chronicles the suffering during the war but also the impact of the war time experience for years to come.

There is an obvious theme of separation in The Very Thought of You as the children live away from their parents and homes but separation pervades this novel and taints almost all relationships between the characters; in fact, the quote below very accurately sums up the novel:

"one long story of separation, just as Wordsworth had said. From people, from places, from the past you could never quite reach even as you lived it"

Many characters have been shattered by loss and and are separated both literally and metaphorically from those they love. It is as if they are outsiders observing their lives and desperately wanting to participate but they are held back by their inability to express love freely - an emotional stunting arising from pasts filled with too much loneliness and tragedy. Thomas suffered the loss of siblings to disease and WWI and the following is said about its effect upon him:

Thomas felt he had been cut off at the roots. In the months that followed, he grew oddly estranged from himself. A profound detachment separated him from hope, and his heart was numbed, leaving him distanced from the quick of his feelings.

And this quote referring to the children - the evacuees:

Yet none of these consolations could staunch the Christmas-night tears in the dormitories. The remembrance of home, of mothers, of fathers. The emotional wasteland of their lives without them. It would take years for many of them to dare to love again.

The characters experience different losses and are changed in different ways by loss but all suffer from this chronic detachment.

My thoughts
I have seen this book referred to as a love story but I prefer to call it a story about love. It covers marital love, parental love and romantic love but is less about the love story itself and more about the characters' difficulty with love. There are glimpses of the redemptive power of love but they are only glimpses - the theme of unrequited love is much more dominant which lends a melancholy tone to the book. For that reason, I felt the book was the perfect length - long enough to appreciate the history that frames the novel and long enough for some therapeutic wallowing in the sadness that defines the novel but not so long as to plunge you into a depression over the aching loss experienced by the characters. Furthermore, the writing is excellent (hence all the quotes in this review) and I thought the author beautifully captured the emotions and at times, lack thereof, experienced by her characters. I will not soon forget the characters or their haunting stories. ( )