Back to Blog
Light a penny candle review5/12/2023 Looking back, I’m amused at how much I understood about the Blitz, London and evacuation when I first read this at the age of about 14. Only child Elizabeth travels to a small town a couple of hours from Dublin and encounters Aisling and her large rambling Irish family, a group of people who seem extraordinary to her, but quite normal to the rest of us and their lives continue to be intertwined long after the war is over and she returns to the UK. It has what Stephen King would call a 'what if' premise, what if a 10 year old from London is sent to live in a small town in Ireland to escape the Blitz during the Second World War. Before the awful phrase 'chicklit' was invented this type of book used to be known as a sweeping family saga, although that phrase doesn't do it justice either. The first book picked from my shelves for rereading was an absolute joy. My current copy is a second hand paperback, published in 1992 and much creased by previous owners. The book: The copy I first read was a hardback library book with, I think, a picture of a red head and a blonde woman facing each other beside the Irish Sea. The book is Light a Penny Candle, the author is Maeve Binchy and first time around it was borrowed from the Walkinstown Library in 1980something.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |