A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson (Doubleday)
I am always going to read everything that Youngson writes
after the wonderful gift her Meet Me At the Museum gave me when I was so
ill and I am so pleased to say that this one is just as good (possibly even
better) than Museum.
I’ve read a lot of fiction and non fiction set in World War
Two and yet in this book Youngson manages to introduce me to a completely new
story from that time as we meet the women and children of Gibraltar who are
forcibly evacuated from the Rock as a safety precaution while the men remain to
work the essential port operations.
Their arrival and stay in Britain isn’t simple either, as
they are first (disastrously) evacuated to French North Africa before coming to London where,
despite their British citizenship, they are treated with some suspicion. Rather
than being billeted in the country like most evacuees or held in large camps like many
refugees they are housed in a hotel in central London which I found fascinating as
it shows that no one really knew how to treat them. Their return to the Rock at
the end of the war was also handled very differently from other evacuees and
refugees.
Our main narrator is Rose and we follow her story closely
through the war years as well as learning lots about life in Gibraltar and how
society there was structured. Lots of ideas and themes are tackled in the book,
but it isn’t an issue book, and throughout the story Rose remains a likeable
character even in her fish out of water role.
I'd love to know if anyone else saw a parallel to one of my favourite classic novels - I can't say more for fear of spoiling the plot but it *isn't* Little Women!
The book has made me want to know more about Gibraltar and
its wartime history from a non-military point of view and firmly places Youngson
on my must read list.
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