The reader is treated responsibly we understand that ‘there is a war on’, that other events and activities take precedence. When Olive and Cliff arrive in Devon after a threatening seven-hour journey to a lack of welcome or hospitality, there is no author panacea this is how it was for so many at this time. I admire the fact that Emma Carroll doesn’t ‘soft soap’ the reality for her readers. We care about Olive andCliff, their search for Sukie, and their insecure footings in strange places, times and amongst strange people. Her research of her setting, from bomb-ravaged London to the perilous Devon coastline, with a city family, exhausted by fear, loss, uncertainty and danger, is so assured. Emma Carroll maintains pace and interest for her readers. ‘Letters from the Lighthouse‘ is gripping reading from the outset. That the story, with Olive and Cliff, should move to Devon, with evacuees, and a secret refugee support network, is quite some feat of dextrous writing. It was obvious she was up to something and the movie was a cover to distract her 13- year old sister, Olive, our story teller, and their younger brother, Cliff. When the pages ran out, I felt bereft, desperate to follow up the mystery of Sukie’s disappearance from the air raid that interrupted the screening of ‘The Mark of Zorro’. I was given the opening chapters of this title in March.
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