The Blue And Distant Hills
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4.6 • 16 Ratings
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- £0.99
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
A young girl's search for her identity and for a love that can overcome her past.
Questa Adamson is stranded in Italy for the duration of the Second World War. When she finally returns to England she is haunted by terrible memories. She finds that the safe childhood world she remembers has disappeared and that she is as alone in her home country as she has been in Italy.
She also finds that she has inherited a tumbledown manor house in Shropshire and is determined to restore the estate to its former glory, despite rationing and post-war austerity. And when she meets her mysterious neighbor, Marcus, it seems as if she might, at last, begin to drop her guard and learn to love.
But loving Marcus brings its own special difficulties and Questa soon finds herself faced with an extraordinary and painful choice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In post-WW II England a frightened young girl comes to maturity and love in this sensitive historical/fantasy by the author of First Love, Last Love. Having been stranded in Italy at the beginning of the war, Questa Adamson spent years narrowly evading the Fascists and enduring near-starvation and brutalization by German soldiers. At age 17 she returns to her native land and learns that she has inherited the nearly ruined Shropshire estate of Eagle Court. Her short-lived tranquility is disturbed by the arrival of her father's old friend, Grace Syrett, seeking refuge from London's housing shortage for herself and her young son, Dickie. While the women reach an uneasy truce, Questa falls into swoons in which she finds love with a mysterious neighbor, a young Roman named Marcus who lived in the area 20 centuries previously. She also befriends a modern neighbor, elderly, crippled Randolph Atherton, who teaches her how to farm her land. When disaster strikes, Questa manages to find the strength to surmount her troubles and embrace a new love who seems to be Marcus's legacy. Saxon paints a vivid picture of life in postwar England, its inhabitants bitterly struggling with shortages and other deprivations. Her attempt to integrate Questa's dreamworld of Roman Britain is never fully convincing, however.
Customer Reviews
The blue and distant hills
It is a must read I am a huge fan of Judith Saxton .
Mrs Maureen Nixon
What can I say other than the fact that I truly love this book. I first read it about 15 years ago and have been desperate to revisit it but I had difficulty tracking it down for all sorts of reasons. So much happened to the young main character during the second world war to leave her very scarred psychologically and scared of people, only some of which we find out about but far more is hinted at and is a source of sadness for her. As the story unfolds, one has perhaps to suspend belief but, nonetheless, one can still get lost in the mingling of past and present and the story becomes so, so believable and real. Read it, please, if you enjoy a different kind of love story!