The Oaken Heart

World War II on the home front: Fans of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or James Herriot will enjoy this unique historical account. Library Journal This remarkable firsthand accountfrom the acclaimed Golden Age mystery authorwas written to let people know how the Second World War affected ordinary English country people. The Oaken Heart is Margery Allinghams tribute to the resiliency and determination of the people of Tolleshunt DArcy, the Essex village where she lived and nicknamed Auburn in her manuscript. Allingham, already a successful mystery author in 1939, was at work on the Albert Campion novel Traitors Purse. The first hint of war was felt in the alarm of a radio announcers voice, and Allingham put down her pen as her peaceful corner of the world braced for sending its men into battle, and even possible invasion. As villagers rallied around the causesupporting each other and their countryAllingham found herself acting as the local billeting officer and first aid organizer. She writes of the sacrifices of farmers, the mistrust of politics, the grim acceptance of rationing, the bombing of London. And through it all, the never-ending hope for peace. The Oaken Heart captures the personal and universal toll of war, far from the front lines, written by a woman whose own quest for justice jumped from the page to the streets where she lived. Engrossing and moving. Kirkus Reviews Her record of the events and people of this fraught wartime period is rendered with the skill found in the best of her fictional writing . . . remains an insight into another facet of a remarkable talent. Crime Time