V for Victory: A Novel

“Wartime is a time of "make-do". Mend and reuse older clothes, plant that Victory Garden to get vegetables, scam your neighbors, donate scrap to be used to make airplanes, etc. Hold it, "scam your neighbors"? How does THAT make the list? Well, read Lissa Evans' charming novel, "Crooked Heart", and you'll find out.”

The paragraph above was the first paragraph of my review of British author Lissa Evans’s novel, “Crooked Hearts”. The book was a wonderful picture of 1939 England, right after was had been declared on September 3rd. The government, frightened by predicted bombings by the Germans, made arrangements to send the children of London to safety elsewhere in England. The children, usually sent in school groups, were “adopted” by people living in small towns or suburbs, who were paid by the British government to look after the children. “Paid by the government”, is the important fact here.

One of the children sent was 9 year old Noel Bostock. A brilliant child, he marches to his own drummer. His parents were not around and he was raised by his great-aunt, a suffragette. She died right before the war began, and after living with an aunt and uncle, he found himself on the train and soon to be in the clutches of Vee Sedge, a small-time con artist. The previous book tells the story of how little boy and middle aged lady made a life together.

In “V for Victory “, the two have moved back to London and Vee is the proprietor of a boarding house in Hampstead. The tenants are a varied lot, and pitch in together to teach now 14 year old Noel various school subjects. It’s now winter, 1944, and London is under bombardment by the German V1 and V2 rockets which do particularly nasty damage to the areas the fall into. The people of London are sick of the war, the losses accrued, the deprivations, and the dullness and dismalness of daily life.

In “V for Victory”, Lissa Evans writes a story of people dealing with the war. She introduces new characters like Winifred Bright, an air raid warden and her fellow wardens, who clean up after the bombings. Vee gets a boyfriend, from the US, and begins to have a little fun. (The saying that the “Yanks are over paid, over sexed, and over here” comes to mind here). This book is so good and is a perfect sequel to “Crooked Hearts”. I only wish I had known about it last year when it was published.

When I finished reading The Crooked Heart I hated to leave Noel behind. I enjoyed that book so much. I was excited to find V is for Victory to read more about his world. It was a very fun book to read. I look forward to reading more by Lissa Evans.