In this sensitively written novel, Noel Streatfeild ostensibly explores the impact of World War II on an upper-middle-class London family. Really, though, it’s a consideration of the experience of four children who must cope after their beloved, steady father, Alex, is killed by a bomb during the Blitz. The Wiltshire kids are left in the care—if you can call it that—of their pretty and narcissistic mother, Lena, who turns to alcohol and attempts to fill her emotional and sexual void with an American soldier. Not surprisingly, there’s considerable fallout. Lena is oblivious of her children’s needs and struggles; she’s too preoccupied with her own. Alex’s parents and four sisters step in to fill the gaps. The latter divide up care for the children over their summer holidays from boarding school when Lena spirals out of control and later when she marries an unlikeable, domineering man.

A longer novel, Saplings, with its well-drawn child characters and insightful treatment of wartime upheaval and parental loss, held my interest throughout. However, the final quarter of the novel loses focus as the family breaks apart, and the book’s conclusion struck me as abrupt. Interestingly, aside from the children’s former governess, Ruth Glover, and their nanny, the men are far more sympathetically drawn and more attuned to the children’s needs than the women. Alex’s sister, Lyndsey, a novelist, is a particularly unpleasant creation. In the end, although it’s an imperfectly realized novel, it is mostly an interesting and absorbing one. ( )

First published in 1945 and although the main characters of this novel are all children this is an adult novel rather than a children’s novel and quite different to the children’s stories by Streatfield that I’ve read (Ballet Shoes and White Boots).

The novel follows the four children of the Wiltshire family, a comfortably middle-class family, from the eve of WWII breaking out through to 1944. At first the four children (Laurel, Tony, Kim and Tuesday) are shown to be reasonably content and secure in their parents’ affections on a family holiday to the sea-side. But gradually we become aware through the conversations of the adults that change is coming; the family will be moving out of London to stay with their grandparents in the countryside as bombing is anticipated in London and the eldest children will be sent to boarding school as the grandparents can’t really manage all four children plus the additional evacuees they’ve been asked to take on. And as the war progresses there are further disruptions and tragedies for the children (and adults) to cope with.

Streatfeild certainly had a gift for writing from a child’s perspective and especially in describing how a child’s inner thoughts and feelings can be overlooked or misunderstood by even well-meaning and loving adults. She also had a gift for appreciating the psychological impact of the disruption and disturbance of war on otherwise comfortably off children in a way I wouldn’t have thought was so well understood at the time this novel was written. In that sense this is not a happy novel - none of the children are unaffected by what they’ve experienced - but it doesn’t end entirely without hope for them to process these experiences and recover from them. The book almost seems to be written as a plea for other grown-ups to acknowledge the psychological effects of the war on British children - yes, they won't have faced food shortages or the effects of war in the same way children in occupied Europe will have, but the effects of what they have suffered are still very real and need to be ackowledged.

Strongly recommended and definitely deserving of being republished. ( )

Some fantastic sections and some less fantastic but the portrayal of the children, especially Laurel, is sensitive and insightful. ( )

One of Streatfeild's early novels for adults, before she turned to writing for children. It covers some of the same ground as her later works, but in less detail, and with much more focus on the adults in the family.

Interesting, but not nearly as engaging as her children's books--even the lesser ones. ( )

Upper crust London family before, during and toward end of WW II and how the war changed their lives. Very focused on children - Laurel, Tony, Kim and Tuesday. ( )