June Francis, It Had to be You (Allison & Busby 2012)
1952 Yorkshire. Two half-sisters are separated and, as adults, find out about each other.
Emma Booth is with her grandfather Harold, advising him not to go out, as it’s icy. Despite conditions, they go to the pictures. On the way out, the old man slips on the icy pavement and fatally hits his head, leaving Emma with only memories of her grandparents and her parents.
She finds a letter to her grandmother from a woman, Lizzie Booth, and discovers she has a half-sister. She decides to go to Liverpool to meet her. On the train, her bag is stolen, but a kind passer-by gives her some money to continue her journey. She arrives to find the house derelict, and furthermore, sprains her ankle at the door, but a young constable, Dougie Marshall, stops to help. Dougie and Emma make enquiries about her family, which end at Mrs Elsie Gregory, Betty’s aunt.
Finally, Emma gets a letter directly to Betty; the half-sisters meet and get along famously. Emma opens her tearoom on Whit bank holiday weekend.
Betty has a secret regarding Uncle Teddy, which the girls eventually find out about.
Betty is able to continue her studies in Liverpool. ‘Our Jared’ is home from Korea.
More nefarious behaviour on Teddy’s part prompts Elsie to confess to the youngsters the secrets of the past.
The dialogue in this post-war family saga is unnatural in places. The story is told linearly, as is the usual template for family sagas—first these people did this, then those people did that. This can get tiresome at times, when you’re having to read about every cup of tea and every scone and every cigarette. I know it’s Yorkshire, but are people really SO often referred to as ‘our So-and-so’? The characters are interesting and relatable, and the pacing is good.
Susie Helme 
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