My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
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Product Description
Review
‘Every once in a while comes a novel that generates its own success, simply by being loved. Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day’
The Times
‘Birdsong for the new millennium’
Tatler
‘Powerful, sometimes shocking, boldly conceived, it fixes on war’s lingering trauma to show how people adapt – or not – and is irradiated by anger and pity’
The Sunday Times
‘[A] tender, elegiac novel. Others have been here before, of course, from Sebastian Faulks to Pat Barker, but Young belongs in their company’
Mail on Sunday
‘Unmissable … in crisp poignant prose Young explores what war really means in terms of mental anguish, while cleverly commenting on class and sex’
Marie Claire
‘Weaving heartbreakingly painful irony, heroic sacrifice, human weakness, vanity, tragedy and the purest of loves, you’ll be left sobbing and grasping onto any hope that all is not lost amid the poppies, the guns and the hospital beds’
Easy Living
‘A memorable and unusual novel which explores new ground in the literature of the Great War’
Linda Grant
‘This novel is a triumph’
Elizabeth Jane Howard
‘Young has a historian’s eye for the private details of war, and a warmth to her prose that makes her small cast emotionally engaging … Through Riley, however, the novel achieves an appeal to compassion and courage that deserves to reach a wide audience … Hindsight tells us peace will not be final, but Young conveys, beautifully, the universal wish that it might be’
Independent
‘Beautifully realised’
Daily Express
‘Masterfully conveyed’
Woman & Home
‘Full of drama, betrayal and addictive real-life detail’
Red
‘This is a moving and powerful novel, one you’re not likely to forget’
Choice
‘A book that should be read by everyone’
New Books
Product Description
Set on the Western Front, in London and in Paris, MY DEAR I WANTED TO TELL YOU 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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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning novel, don't be put off by the terrible front cover!,
By
This review is from: My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (Kindle Edition)
The front cover of this book, reminiscent of yet another beach chick-flick read, nearly put me off. Fortunately with the encouragement of a close friend, I launched into one of the best books I've read this year. So often novels set during the First World War dwell on the painful minutiae of trench-life, with characters taking second place in the spin of a narrative dominated by bloody gore. In contrast this novel pushes the characters to the fore, with piercing characterisation and poignancy. Best of all it is far from predictable, allowing the reader to turn the pages with an anticipatory appetite for what is to follow.
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cant stop thinking about it .........,
This review is from: My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (Kindle Edition)
I have read quite a few war books and heard a tale end interview of the author of this book on the radio and was inspired to buy it. Am so glad I did. It is a rich story of the horrors of war but told from a very human aspect. It is not a documentary of WWI with dates and places, albeit its a full factual account. It is how as people, ordinary people fared in the war and the horrors they faced and the loves they lost. I absolutely loved it and cannot stop thinking about Major Locke, Rose, Julia, Nadine and ofcourse Riley. The book made me cry - and in the middle - not at the end. It is written with such strong emotion and pathos that I, who have never reviewed a book before decided I must review this one. Please read it, as although it is a story, what you learn from this story is far greater than a factual account of what happened in this awful awful war. The characters are so plausible and their incredible bravery makes me so proud to be British. I hope the writer gets the credit she deserves for this, as it truly is thought-provoking, heart rendering and probably even more corny expressions used in these reviews but which are completely needed here!
48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
First rate study of love, war and the endurance of the human spirit,
By Steve Benner "Stonegnome" (Lancaster, UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
The Great War of 1914-1918 has provided rich pickings for novelists over the years; almost a hundred years after the event, the scale of the horrors and human suffering remain such that hardly a month goes by without the appearance of at least one new story based on events of those times. One would think that by now almost everything that there was to say on the matter had already been said, and many times over, at that; in a sense, it probably has. Certainly, Louisa Young's "My Dear I Wanted To Tell You" brings nothing particularly new to the oeuvre; indeed, many of her themes and her characterisations are so predictable as to border on the hackneyed. But what this particular book may lack in originality it more than makes up for in masterful handling of pace, clear-sighted and poignant portrayal of thought-processes and emotions, a wonderful understanding of the human condition, all married to a flawless grasp of dramatic structure and flow.The book draws you in from the very first page, and holds you in a vice-like grip right to the very last page. There are times when it is hard even to remember to breathe. When she finally lets you go, it is with a sense of exhilaration as well as exhaustion. The story is well researched and rich in historical detail but this is always kept properly subservient to the main narrative; Louisa Young always keeps her characters well to the foreground, never allowing the historical fact and scale of the events themselves to take over -- a mistake all too often made in books of this kind. "My Dear I Wanted to Tell You" operates first and foremost at a fundamentally human level, bringing home the truth that in those times there were a great deal more (and more important) battles fought daily in people's minds than in the mud of Flanders, and that the casualties of war on this scale extend well beyond those killed or maimed in the fighting. It also has a lot to say about the endurance and resilience of the human spirit (as well as a fair amount about how fragile that can be too) and the dangerous comfort to be found in lies, both to oneself and to loved ones. Absolutely first rate.
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