This was another book that I got as a Christmas present from my Auntie. It tells the story of Hetty Gilbert, an orphaned canal child living with her Aunt and Uncle in Liverpool. Though the book was quite long (it follows Hetty from being a young girl through until she is a late teenager), it didn't have a very complex plot which meant that overall it lacked something for me.
The main premise is that a young Hetty forms a friendship with a middle-aged librarian who is dissatisfied with life, and so begins an unlikely pairing . There were obviously other minor storylines throughout it, including a couple of romances, and tackling some of the difficulties of living through the second world war, but I don't think any were detailed enough for them to have any real emotional impact on the reader.
Upon googling the author I have found out that Katie Flynn is quite old and has written over 90 books, some under a pseudonym. This helped me to understand the way the novel is written, as it is quite methodical and straightlaced, using very simplistic descriptions and remaining uptight about more private issues such as love and sex. This reflects traditions of other authors that I would class as being within the same genre such as Catherine Cookson and Maeve Binchy.
Overall, I found aspects of this book interesting, as they taught me about certain events that I did not know a great deal about, and the relationships were endearing, if a little stereotypical. However, I think that the ending felt rushed, and the plot was overdrawn for how predictable and simplistic it was. One for Grandma I think.
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