This book is a lovely, sunshiny coming of age story set in the English countryside. It is set in the present just after the outbreak of a war affecting most of the world against an un-named enemy.

American girl Daisy is sent to England to stay with her aunt. She is mesmerised by her cousin Edmond and during an idyllic few weeks of English country summer falls in the love with him and becomes convinced that they share a telepathic link.

The five cousins are split up in the turmoil at the start of the war and the book tells how Daisy and Piper, the littlest cousin, set out to find the others.

It is dark—any book about war will be. But the darkness is punctuated by lush descriptions of the English countryside and Daisy’s fierce strange love for her cousins make it shine.

I picked up the graphic novel of this first—I love the Beardsley-style illustrations. It appeals to my interest in steam-punk and decorative men.

Then I discovered my father had the novel—he claimed I_ had given it to him. It had got him in trouble with The Mother because she thought the book very immoral and rude. She then informed me that there were several other books of a similar nature in my father’s collection and wasn’t it dreadful (these turned out to be something called the _Saturday Book, an illustrated guide to the less savoury wall paintings of Pompeii, and a collection of articles from Esquire).

I guess The Mother thinks I don’t know about the Anais Ninn book in her knicker drawer.

If you love the countryside, read this. It’s an account of farm childhood at the start of this century. Susan is an imaginative little girl for whom the world is both magical and prosaic. She fears giants and grabbing arms on her walk home from school but has a deep love and a keen eye for day-to-day rhythms of the farming year. The story, which must be part-autobiography, is full of annecdotes and snippets of information which really sparked my imagination. Writers and anyone studying folklore or social history would find this book useful.