Set in post-World War I Wales, When the War Came Home sees Natty and her single mum, Ffion, moving once again, as Ffion has lost yet another job. Ffion is an outspoken advocate for the underdog and a follower of the growing suffragette movement. Natty just wishes her mum would leave others to fight the cause.
They are offered a safe haven with Ffion’s brother’s family on their small Welsh farm. Natty is frustrated, resentful and adamant that she doesn’t want to move again, but Ffion promises that this will be the last time. Horror fills Natty when she realises that her cousin, Nerys, is tarred with the same brush as Ffion and is always fighting a cause.
However, it’s when Natty encounters the returned soldiers, including her cousin Huw, that has the greatest impact on her and she on them. Their sense of self and identity has been shattered and must be somehow restored. The scars they returned home with are both physical and emotional. The unimaginable battlefields having robbed them of their innocence.
Parr’s exploration of soldiers’ experience of ‘shell shock’ is commendable, highlighting the price that people pay, both physically and mentally, when sent to war. She also highlights the empathy that those around them need to show to help veterans readjust and to allow home to be a safe place.
Reviewed by Cathy d’Apice
Age Guide 11+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I grew up in South Wales, at the bottom of a valley and quite near a seaside steelworks. Now I live in the middle of England (almost as far from the sea as it’s possible to get) with my husband and our rescue cat, Angharad. I share my time between writing stories and tutoring adults.
Apart from books, rugby union is my favourite thing in the world, especially if Wales is winning. I graduated with distinction from Bath Spa University’s MA in Writing for Young People.
0 Comments