Jean Fullerton, A Ration Book Victory (Corvus 2022)
Dressed in their Sunday best, 5-year-old Philomena (Queenie) Dooley attends church with her family in Kinsale, Ireland. Shunned as ‘tinkers’ they sit at the back, but a prosperous farmer’s boy catches her eye. She and Patrick become friends “for ever”. That was before Nora came between them and she married Fergus Brogan instead.
Queenie Brogan barters grocery rations for eggs with Bernadine O’Toole. Though “just a shade over 21” Queenie is a grandmother.
Queenie bursts in. Father Mahon has collapsed and is in hospital. Mattie McCarthy née Brogan has her suspicions about Granny and Father Mahon. Though he’s in the care of doctors, Queenie has faith in ‘spirits’.
Jo Sweete, the second Brogan girl, bows her head in church, praying to be blessed with children as her sisters have been. Ida and Pearl are fighting. Billy knows. Aunt Pearl is his ‘real mother’. Pearl’s husband, a rich gangster, is a bad influence.
Ida and Jeremiah are discussing their growing removals business, contemplating a move to East Ham and larger premises, when a V-2 shatters the entire street.
The Brogan girls celebrate Victory in Europe in style in front of Buckingham Palace.
Tommy and Jo are adopting a war orphan.
A few issues around paternity are resolved. The deadly rivalry between Nora and Philomena (Queenie) plays out with tragic consequences. But surrounded by grandchildren, the Brogan family moves into the new post-war future.
The easy dialogue and the colloquial style bring the good ole’ days of the war era to life. This is just at the end of the war, when the young women had waited so patiently and fearfully for their husbands to come home. The joy and catharsis of VE Day really comes across.
This WWII family saga is Book 8 in the Ration Book series.
This review first appeared in Historical Novels Review.
Susie Helme 
Leave a comment