Set on the Western Front, in London and in Paris, MY DEAR I WANTED TO TELLYOU is a moving and brilliant novel of love, class and sex in wartime, and how war affects those left behind as well as those who fight.
While Riley Purefoy and Peter Locke fight for their country, their survival and their sanity in the trenches of Flanders, Nadine Waveney, Julia Locke and Rose Locke do what they can at home.
Beautiful, obsessive Julia and gentle, eccentric Peter are married: each day Julia goes through rituals to prepare for her beloved husband’s return. Nadine and Riley, only eighteen when the war starts, and with problems of their own already, want above all to make promises – but how can they when the future is not in their hands? And Rose? Well, what did happen to the traditionally brought-up women who lost all hope of marriage, because all the young men were dead?
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This was a well-researched story with an interesting take on WW1 literature. I liked the way the lives and experiences of the characters were interwoven, although some were better developed than others. The descriptions were lyrical and moving and the plot was well constructed. It portrayed courage in a different way to that usually shown in war literature and portrayed the mental anguish felt by so many throughout the war.
