Digging for Victory at Rookery House (Rookery House #2) by Rosie Hendry
Genre: Historical fiction, WW2, Sagas
Read: 29th July 2023
Published: 27th July 2023
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Spring has arrived and it’s time to Dig for Victory…
March 1941
After Flo Butterworth loses everything in Manchester’s Christmas Blitz, she decides to leave the area and join the Women’s Land Army. Putting the past firmly behind her, she arrives at Rookery House in Norfolk hoping for a new start and a chance to do the gardening work she loves.
The grip of war has intensified and growing more food is vital to keep the nation going. Thea buys an extra field to grow crops, and in the village, her sister Prue leads members of The Mother’s Day Club and Women’s Institute as they take on a derelict allotment. Meanwhile the construction of a nearby aerodrome disrupts village life and brings even more new residents to Rookery House, including Hettie’s difficult sister, Ada. With Rookery House now bursting at the seams, will it still be the happy home it’s always been?
When an enemy plane crashes nearby, Flo must help German airmen who might have been directly responsible for her family loss. She quickly finds that her heart-breaking past cannot so easily be forgotten. Can she do the right thing? And will her new friends help her move on towards a brighter future?
A heart-warming and uplifting novel following the much-loved characters from the award-winning Mother’s Day Club.
MY THOUGHTS:
Can new friends help her face an uncertain future...?
Oh, what an absolute joy it is to return to Rookery House and the village of Great Plumstead. I have spent just a day with them but it feels more like a lifetime of friendship and love, embraced in the warmth of Hettie's kitchen. Although this is book 2 in this series, the village, Rookery House and it's occupants were introduced to us in the Mother's Day Club books, of which there are also two. There was a novella last Christmas and I am pleased to note that there is to be another this Christmas. And I can't wait to rejoin everyone at Rookery House once again.
After Flo Butterworth loses her family in the Manchester Christmas Blitz, she flees to the only place that felt like home - in Lancashire with her grandparents. There she comes to the decision to join the Women's Land Army and do what she loves best. Working in the fresh air on the land. This is how she can contribute to the war effort - not by typing letters or taking shorthand.
In Great Plumstead, the village is bursting at the seams with all the goings on what with the Mother's Day Club, the WI, the WVS, the big house having been turned into a hospital...and now even more changes are afoot. Thea has come to the decision to purchase five more acres behind her own property at Rookery House upon which she intends to sow even more crops and branch out into keeping pigs and rabbits for meat production whilst still maintaining their existing land, Primrose the cow for milk, butter and cheese and the chickens for eggs. And with this new purchase, Thea realised that she would need some full time help and approached the Land Army about enlisting a Land Girl for the task. Enter Flo.
When Flo arrived in Great Plumstead she came with the baggage she intended to keep firmly packed away. But she didn't realise she would be living in a house with a family and would have preferred a hostel with other girls so she didn't run the risk of getting attached to anyone, lest the past come back to haunt her. But once at Rookery House, all her defences soon came down once in the warmth of Hettie's kitchen and welcome heart of what truly was a home. Rookery House was full to bursting but everyone moved like a well-oiled machine and worked well together, both in and out of the house. And soon Flo's knowledge of the land was put to good use, not just at Rookery House, but in the village as well.
The parish had finally seen fit to grant the WI with a space in the village allotment, though it came with its own set of problems. Having been previously owned by an elderly woman no longer able to to maintain it, it had been left to rack and ruin with brambles, nettles and overrun with weeds heavily rooted in its soil. The WI were determined to "Dig for Victory" and create a profitable place to grow vegetables they can all use to sell at the markets. Flo's knowledge of horticulture learned from her grandfather gave the women a good start and idea on how to best make use of their land and their crops.
But that wasn't all to change in the village. It seems an aerodrome was to be built on the outskirts and everyone who lived in the vicinity their houses were being requisitioned by the government for the project. They had four weeks to move out and find other lodgings. Not an easy feat in the middle of a war with evacuees fleeing to the countryside and all places once vacant were now full to bursting. Including Rookery House. But still, they made room for one more in the form of Hettie's older sister whose home of forty seven years was to be bulldozed to make way for the runway. She came with her own set of problems and Hettie wondered if they had taken on a little bit more than they could in this case.
Then with the news that even more things were becoming rationed, the women put their heads together to come up with a plan to "make and mend"...making the best of a bad situation. Is there nothing the women of Great Plumstead cannot do?
I thoroughly enjoyed my time back with everyone in the village, it was like coming home to old friends. I really didn't want my time there to end and I'll surely be counting down the weeks until the Christmas publication comes out. It is so easy to become involved in village life as you lose yourself in the pages with the characters and their lives. I thoroughly recommend reading this series and although this is the second book of this series, the village and its characters are introduced in a previous 2-book series which I recommend beginning first.
4. A Wartime Christmas at Rookery House
5. Digging for Victory at Rookery House
The next book which the author acknowledges at the end to be coming a few months will be "A Christmas Baby at Rookery House". And I cannot wait. Of course it is no secret whose baby it is having read this book and quite honestly I saw that bit of news coming a long time before it was even announced. Still, while these types of saga stories can be predictable in part there is also a little unpredictability about them also. And either way, my enjoyment is never spoilt because of it. This book, as with all the others, is such a delightfully easy read with such short snappy chapters to keep the pace moving that I really didn't want my time in Great Plumstead to end. And I cannot wait to return in a few short months time.
Another wonderful installment to this easy heartwarming series that I highly recommend.
I would like to thank #RosieHendry, #RookeryHousePress and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #DiggingForVictoryAtRookeryHouse in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Listening to her father's tales of life during the Second World War sparked Rosie's interest in this period and she's especially intrigued by how women's lives changed during the war years. She loves researching further, searching out gems of real life events which inspire her writing.
When she's not working, Rosie enjoys walking along the beach, reading and is grateful for the fact that her husband is a much better cook than her.
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