This is a sequel to All in the Blue Unclouded Weather, a book I may or may not have read as a child. (That title is familiar but the characters were not.)

It is about three sisters, living in a country town during the 1940s. (Heather is 14, Cathy turns 12 and, at a guess, Vivienne is nine or ten).

It's very episodic, more like a collection of sequential short stories, than an actual novel. The historical details are interesting, and the book does a good job of capturing the girls' perspectives and motivations and significant experiences. However, the descriptions of the season - autumn - were my favourite part.

When Nurse Durbach had whirled away to tackle a dozen other jobs, Vivienne had gazed out at the lawn, carpeted gloriously with fallen leaves. Some had blown against the window panes, attaching themselves like a frieze of red and gold paper decorations. [...] Some spiralled down to join the window-pane frieze, others drifted out across the lawn, some clung stubbornly to their stalks even when tugged by a strong gust of wind. There seemed to be some unfathomable pattern in the sequence of their falling. Autumn leaves would make beautiful dresses, she thought idly, if they could only be preserved and stitched together. Such garments would be breathtaking - a rich gold and red fabric that would rustle at the wearer's every movement. ( )