I read The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn in the cold days of April and enjoyed being transported to the Second World War and its impacts on the family who own a great Dorset house.

The novel begins in 1919 and sets up the dynamics of this blended family, with its three children at the heart. The first, Cristabel, is the product of the owner of the house and his first wife, who dies in childbirth. The second, Flossie, shares Cristabel’s father, but her mother is the owner’s second wife. The third, Digby, shares a mother with Flossie but his father is the younger brother of Cristabel’s father, who is now the occupant of the family seat. The three children roam around their childhood in the attics of the house and down on the beach, largely ignored by their succession of parents, who are too busy with friends, flying expeditions, house parties and trips to London to pay them much attention.

This way of life comes to an abrupt end with the onset of the Second World War, as the now grown up children are scattered to play their part, always returning to the house in Dorset. The house adapts as German planes fly overhead the once peaceful countryside, a prisoner of war camp is set up near by, land girls arrive, and finally troops preparing for D-Day come to the house for exercise and recreation. Flossie comes into her own as the one left to deal with it all, whilst Digby and Cristabel both forge their own adventures, doing what they can for the war effort.

Place seeps through every page of this meticulously researched book and the three protagonists are shaped by it, always returning to their love of theatre, born from the beachside theatre created from the bones of a washed-up whale. A lovely read.