Ties That Bind (On the Home Front)

WRITTEN BY ROSIE MEDDON

REVIEW BY KATE PETTIGREW

In August 1943, Esme Trevannion is enjoying a romantic lunch in a London hotel not far from her husband Richard’s Whitehall office. The couple are celebrating Richard’s 30th birthday and, despite the war, are making plans for their future, and that of their two-year-old son, Kit. On her way home Esme finds her way blocked. A bomb has fallen. Kit and his nanny are dead. A stunned and grieving Esme goes to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin in Devon while Richard has to remain in Whitehall. While trying to come to terms with her loss, former Special Operations Executive member Esme accepts a role as a driver for a secret mission and comes across a handsome young airman called Jack who makes her start questioning her marriage to Richard. Her cousin Louise has her own marital problems, too. Her husband Douglas has been stationed in Canada for three years, and their marriage was a speedy wartime one. Is it, marry in haste, repent at leisure? Meanwhile, Esme accidentally comes across her uncle Luke during one of her midnight drives. What exactly is he doing in the woods, and why does her swear her to secrecy?

The novel is the last in a trilogy that looks at the women in the family’s war. It is tightly written and an incisive look at loss, grieving and love. Meddon has also written a World War I trilogy of the family, all stand-alone books but historical sagas ideal for fans of Liz Trenow and Ellie Curzon.