We Must Be Brave

This book was not an easy read. I expected something like a "typical" war story, about a child. In a way I have got what I expected, but this book is nothing of a typical war story. It is a story of people and relationships, a story of love and suffering, a story so full of feelings that it leaves you impressed long after you finished it.
The style of the book is quite full absorbing and not really easy to read. I was sometimes missing some information, what caused some confusion, even though the information was there later in the book. I loved Ellen as a character and consider her being verywell and relistically depicted. Her suffering and her life was so near to me throughout the boook that I consider her being a longtime friend, I would not like to miss any more.
It impressed me very much and I would recommend it highly!

Tough subject matter. It is not an easy read and at times it is quite challenging. However, saying that it is worth persevering with it. This book is based on war however it looks at aspects of war that is not often talked or written about how it affects families, people, relationships the things that are often forgotten.
It is a thinking book- meaning it certainly gets you thinking during and after you have read it.
With all that Frances Liardet has still achieved a beautifully written novel.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for giving me the opportunity to read ’We Must be Brave’ in exchange for my unbiased opinion

Genuinely poignant and a fresh take on the evacuee story. It appears very well researched too and rings true

A beautifully written book. This would make a great read for a woman's reading group. Although fiction, I presume, this could easily be an account of true life taking place in England during WW2. It gives a view of how life in an English village has evolved and how one off encounters can change and influence a whole life time and generation.

When did you last have a really proper cry reading a novel? As far as I’m concerned it happens rarely. However, ‘We Must Be Brave’ had me sobbing several times over during the course of the narrative. The story begins in December 1940 when young housewife, Ellen, fosters five year old Pamela, an abandoned evacuee. It transpires that Pamela’s mother has been killed in a bomb blast. After a disastrous attempt at placing evacuee Pamela elsewhere, Ellen and her husband Selwyn foster the child who proves to be intelligent and quirky and who eventually settles to look upon Ellen as a quasi-mother. There is nothing sentimental in the depiction of this relationship. Author Frances Liardet understands that anyone who has been through Pamela’s experience will not be an easy child, yet Ellen is devoted to her, not least because she knows what it feels like to be displaced and disgraced.
Over the course of the novel we learn about Ellen’s childhood and appreciate why Pamela is so important to her. Liardet paints a very moving picture of extreme poverty without sensationalising it in any way. One can feel the hunger pangs and the bone-chilling cold of a 1930s winter during which Ellen has to resort to sleeping under a ‘mouse-saturated carpet’ laid on top of her bedding for extra warmth. The only hope of survival is given through the occasional acts of kindness from struggling neighbours.
Eventually ‘orphan’ Pamela is claimed and the parting between Ellen and her foster daughter is incredibly moving. The author represents Pamela’s partial understanding of her move to Ireland to live with her kind and caring extended family extremely well. At first she is curious and keen, yet we soon understand that this is mainly because she thinks that Ellen will be coming with her. As the whole truth gradually sinks in we see Pamela’s fear, hurt and anger in full. It is a wholly convincing depiction of a child in utter turmoil.
Post WWII, we learn of the bereft Ellen’s feelings through a series of letters to Pamela that she writes but never posts. We also learn ‘what happens next’ as Ellen lives through the second half of the twentieth century. It’s understandable that Liardet also feels compelled to show the reader what happens to all of the secondary characters as we follow Ellen through the decades: Ellen’s husband, Selwyn, her friend Lucy, and the eccentric Lady Brock and her gardener William Kennet, especially as not all of their relationships with Ellen are as transparent as assumed at first. English village life is also very effectively depicted in an unromantic manner, acknowledging both hardships and improvements over the course of the twentieth century as well as recognising that important traditional aspects have been lost. However, nothing matches the emotional punch of Ellen and Pamela’s war-years bond, and it is for this stand-out depiction that the novel should be read first and foremost, and why I am awarding it ‘5 stars’. ‘We Must Be Brave’ shows us a great deal about love and loss, joy and pain and reminds us that these experiences are frequently linked. Perhaps we must be brave because there is no other better reaction when the unbearable happens.
My thanks to NetGalley and 4th Estate (Harper Collins) for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

What a brilliant book! I loved the dilemmas that the story evoked, and I could totally see how Ellen felt when she rescued Pamela from the back of the bus. The characters are beautifully written, real people that you could meet in your local town or village. The descriptions of the chaos of the war and the bombing really brought home to me how it must have felt to experience that and how easily things could go wrong. Tangled relationships beautifully illustrated weave a fantastic and memorable story. Well worth reading!

What a moving book! I loved the characters of Ellen and Pamela and thought over all this story had a very profound message

A powerful story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the challenges of WWII.

I immediately warmed to Ellen and Pamela and was rooting for a happy ending. At times I thought that Ellen should show more of the strength she demonstrated when taking in Pamela against her husband’s wishes.

This book definitely has three clear stages to it and without giving too much away I did feel that the middle section was a little sombre - I wanted to give Ellen a good shake and get her to DO something about the situation she found herself in.

Despite this, I continued with the book - with tears towards the end - and found it an interesting and thought-provoking read, with an absolutely beautiful cover.

4*, still thinking about this now. Different times and all that, but it does make you wonder how you might have acted in similar circumstances.

I'm not sure that my review will do this book justice. The story is brilliant in it's simplicity, nothing fast paced or even remotely racy or sensational, just a really well told tale. A wonderful use of words, beautifully descriptive scene setting and characters who use phrases I haven't heard in years, perfectly suited to the eras in which the story is set. It has a real sense of nostalgia and took me back years, I loved it, reading this book was like coming home, warm and comforting. Perfect.

Just finished this wonderful book. My eyes are still red from all my tears, and I just know it is going to stay with me for a long time. I am not being very brave at all about it.
Frances Liardet can write. We Must Be Brave is beautiful, studied and full of emotion. It spans fitty years or so, but concentrates on the key times for the story in the 1940s and 1970s. All of the characters are flawed yet written with sensitivity and warmth. I loved them all. It is a long book, but I didn't want to put it down and I wish I hadn't read it yet so that I can start it all over again.
I highly recommend this thoughtful and moving book.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review #WeMustbeBrave #NetGalley

I was on the verge of tears for about the last third of the book - the characters got me deep, and I was utterly engrossed in the story.

Loved, loved loved the first half of this book. The best summary is “Light between oceans” seton the UK in WW2. Young girl is found asleep on the back of a bus with evacuees from the city, but without a parent. Ellen and her husband look after her until the mother or family can be traced, but Pamela’s mum has been killed in the bombings and there is no other family to care for her.

Ellen and her husband have no children of their own and both have their own tales to tell.... but they take Pamela completely in to their hearts,,, until one day there is word that she may have family after all.

Didn’t feel the second half lived up to the first and felt it lost its way a bit, but a good solid ending.

An interesting viewpoint of the effects of war on one woman, it was an emotional read although I found it quite long and could have enjoyed a bit more to the story.

Thank for the review copy

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What an emotional rollercoaster ride this book was. This is a story set in WWII and the hardship that people enjoyed. Warning you will read this book and finish with tears in your eyes.

An interesting book, not exactly gripping but a very well written slow burner that kept me reading. I enjoyed the flashbacks to Ellen's childhood that really gave an insight into how and why Ellen became who she did. Spanning the whole of the 20th century gave this book such authenticity.

I really enjoyed this book and stayed up half the night to finish it in one sitting. Other reviewers have told the story (some at length), so I will just comment. The setting during the war was atmospheric and so was Ella's early life. The male characters in Ella's life were all supportive and kindly - maybe a little friction would have been more realistic. The jump between 1974 and 2010 was too great, I felt, but made for maximum poignancy. However, I thought it was beautifully written, unusual and very, very emotional.
(There are capital letters missing for I and some names, and the speech is not punctuated correctly, which irritated a little, but presumably these will be corrected before publication.)

Set in a fictional village near Southampton (Southampton beingca real place) this story starts during WW2 in 1840 when Ellen finds a young girl four or five years old called Pamela on the back seats of a bus carrying passengers from Southampton who are escaping from a very heavy air raid over there homes that had been going on for some time now, days not hours
Pamela was out on the bus but some Ladies who were so scared for their lives they thought wrongly was on the previous bus carrying another full load of worried passengers. Ellen ended up having to take her home where she already 3 boys who are already being sheltered at their house she shared with her husbands Selwyn and by chance it was their first wedding anniversary and what an anniversary to remember but maybe not as they would have hoped for.
Obviously life was very different in 1940 to what these people were used to and hopefully something that none of us have or will experience but everybody seem to pull together community really was community not everybody out for themselves which so often happens nowadays. But off the soapbox and back to this story sitting in the round the village of Upton with so many wonderful characters existed and in this novel. They are very believable and the detail of life for them at this time is proof that Frances's has done the research and knows the times.
I love this book from page one and really was glued to it to the very end and I hope that you enjoy it too. I love the fact that we get to see the lives of these people and how it was affected not just by the War but by the years afterwards as they recovered and had to learn to live again in post-war Britain. There are secrets that get revealed as you read through the book and most any make sense with what you've read before as you'd expect from any good author. It's a story you have to read as it's written and one you can't take a sneak look at the end because it really won't make any sense, I loved that as well, but what's not to love if you want to simple chill with a good book, be entertained and educated at the same time then be brave and buy this book, after all we must be brave but don't worry you don't have to be to read this book and i do highly recommend it to you.

Thank you net galley for the opportunity to review this book.

A really interesting story, wound around the question, what does it mean to love a child? Childless Ellen has little reason to expect that she will be able to give a child the love she needs, at the moment that it is desperately needed. Despite her own childhood experiences, for three years she makes this child the centre of her world, only to see her torn away. How she deals, bravely, with the loss this child is the heart of this story.

The details of a poverty stricken childhood, Dickensian in detail of cold and hunger, and the way in which Ellen fights against this, with the help of her friends, are compelling, as are the descriptions of war time rural life. An excellent read.

A captivating, epic saga of wartime and its aftermath, of love and loss and unfulfilled dreams, and of how relationships can restore our hope and faith in the human spirit to endure all things. Centering on the domestic and infinitesimal, this book also spans the depth of the human heart and the universal.

Few things clutch at our emotions like an abandoned child, which is where this story starts. Caught up in an air raid, chaos ensues and a young girl gets separated from her mother. She is discovered by Ellen on a bus after all the other passengers have disembarked.

Having no idea of her identity at first or where Pamela's parents might be, Ellen seeks to protect her from harm and takes her into her home, where other refugees are also being temporarily housed. Much to her surprise, and despite her husband's initial disapproval, she soon develops a close and loving attachment to the lost child.

Their adaptation isn't without problems and Ellen does all in her power to find Pamela’s parents. A brief period of bliss occurs before she discovers that Pamela's mother died in the Southampton bombing and her absent father, who had been actively searching for her, wants to take her away to live with relatives in Ireland.

In the interests of protecting Pamela from future distress and helping her to settle in with her cousins, a decision is reached to cut off all contact with Ellen and Selwyn. This devastating news causes Ellen to correspond privately with Pamela instead, penning letters that never get sent.

Life goes on but Ellen never forgets this child of her heart, who she considers to be her own. Will Ellen and Pamela fully recover from their enforced separation? Will they forget one another? Will they ever meet up again? The author manages to resolve these questions satisfactorily with tenderness and grace. A beautiful book I absolutely loved and hated coming to the end of.

Ellen has a harsh poverty-stricken upbringing, living cold and hungry with her mother, brought down by the actions of her father. With the death of her mother, Ellen is all alone. She meets Selwyn Parr, a local miller, damaged from the Great War, and they fall into a life full of love.

With the bombing of Southampton in WW2, Pamela, a lost child, enters their lives and becomes the daughter they could never have. Seemingly destined for sadness, Pamela's departure shapes the rest of Ellen's life.

Beautifully crafted, heartbreaking, sad, yet so full of love, We Must Be Brave is a book to remember, full of characters to care about, and vivid descriptions of the rural community of Upton, Highly recommended.

This book dealt with love, loss and sacrifice spanning most of the twentieth century. The book begins with a bus full of refugees from the bombing in Southampton being brought to the small village of Upton approximately 20 miles away, where Ellen, the wife of the miller, finds a little girl asleep on the back seat of the bus with no one claiming her or admitting that they knew anything about her. Ellen falls for the little girl, Pamela and decides that she will foster her. Eventually, following discoveries about the child's mother, her father turns up three years later determined to take her and send her to live in Ireland with his sister and Pamela's cousins. From the loss of Pamela, which Ellen feels keenly, the story looks at Ellen's own childhood and the losses she suffered then, together with events which follow many years later when Ellen makes a connection with another young girl, Penny.

The complex situations and the depth of characters made this a very enjoyable read, and I ended the book with a few tears, I have to admit!

I was given a copy of this book via Netgalley on behalf of Harper Collins 4th Estate in exchange for an honest review.

I just loved this book. I don’t normally read this type of book but it was so beautifully written and such a sweeping story. It was so lovely to read about someone being kind and selfless in this cynical world. The characters pulled the reader in from the beginning and were very real and the feeling of sadness but just getting on with was a theme throughout without being maudlin.. What struck me at the beginning was the thought that for all its faults thank goodness for the benefit system in this country!

We Must be Brave is a sweet book which clips along at a cracking pace. It is written in three parts -the first is the most compelling and the story of Ellen who is a bride of 18 with an older husband during the latter part of WW2. She takes to her heart a young girl, Pamela, who has been evacuated from Southampton and abandoned on a bus. The second part of the book goes back to Ellen’s childhood and we learn of the hardships she has suffered and how she has come to be the person who brings such warmth to the pages. It is here, in my opinion, that the novel falters a bit and we are quickly brought right up to date - I found that this part jars slightly and seems quite rushed. However, Frances Liardet writes fluently and with real affection for her protagonists. The sacrifices and deprivations suffered by ordinary people during the war are cleverly described and the language is authentic. This isn’t the sort of novel I usually read but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book, but felt it kind of lost its way halfway through. Up to that point I had read an absolutely impeccably written novel with lovely characterisation, of a young girl in 1940, Ellen, who had married an older man, Selwyn. They don't have children but Pamela comes into their lives during an air raid on Southampton. Written through several time-lines you learn of Ellen's childhood years and the hardships endured by her family, and her determined escape from poverty until she meets Selwyn, marries and now has a mill-house caring for several evacuees, plus now, Pamela. The detail with which this war-period and its hardships is described is, basically, heart-rending. "Family At War" is a good comparison to the atmosphere presented to us as readers in all its privations and 'make do and mend' attitude. An absolutely compelling read which momentarily brings in the connections through Selwyn and William and the WW1. However, without giving away spoilers (I hope) the story continues until Pamela leaves. This is where the writing goes rather awry I think. That for me was the end of "book 1". The rest should have been an addendum. Touching though it was, and able to bring together several outstanding strands from the earlier story, I found rather unsatisfactory.

I found this book a joy to read. Poignant , sad but heartwarming. I could well imagine the village of Upton and the characters who lived there. I was almost sorry for the book to end.

I loved this book. What a beautiful story. It really touched me. Set in the 1930s and finishes in the 21st century.
Ellen marries Selwyn knowing that she will never have a family and her marriage won't be a 'normal ' one. However this is a true love story. During a bombing raid a young child loses her mother and Ellen takes her in and cares for her as her own for a few years. That's all i will say about the story line but read it yourself. It is beautifully written and had me in tears more than once.

My thanks to NetGalley for my free copy in exchange for this review.

A quite fascinating read. Ellen Parr find s a little girl sleeping, all alone, in the back of a bus. This is a story of the love Ellen grew to have for the little girl Pamela. Ellen who had recently married always said she didn't want children but little did she know the strength of the love she would have for Pamela who she realised was not her child and would one day have to be returned to her family. Although heartbreaking at times this was a truly wonderful story. A must read.

Pamela was left on a bus. It was 1940 and the bus had taken people away from the bombing in Southampton. No-one knows where her mother is?
Ellen takes her home - to her husband Selwyn and some boy evacuees. Ellen hasn't had the best start in life and is married to Selwyn, a much older Mill owner, who is unable to father children. She starts to look on Pamela as her daughter especially when the fate of her mother is known and pours her love into the little girl. but then her father turns up and Pamela is taken away to Ireland breaking everyone's hearts.
This is the story of Ellen, from her poor beginnings to how her life turns out.
This is a story that will make you smile and cry. It shows us love conquers all and how friendships are important all though our lives and how some people leave a lasting impression which defies everything.

We must be brave is an incredibly moving and beautifully written story. A story of an abandoned evacuee during the chaos of wartime, how it affected normal everyday people, and how fate can intervene in a person's life to change the direction of it for a lifetime. This book was well researched and gave a reality to wartime which can seem an alien subject for young people of today. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

A really lovely wartime story, it starts with how people pull together but gives you so much more than that!

I’ve always been interested in books about England during the First and Second World War, particularly the impact on women and families. This was beautifully written and was totally absorbing and thought provoking. The characters were realistic and well rounded and it so obvious that a great deal of research was undertaken to evoke the spirit of the times. I couldn’t get back to it quickly enough and the ending made perfect sense. Highly recommended.
I’d like to thank the author, publisher and netgalley for a gigital copybiv this book in return for my honest review.

A beautiful story that spans the life of Ellen, through her childhood to old age. Love, loss, heartbreak, this book has it all. I sat reading with tears rolling down my face. This will be a book I read over and over and still cry as though it’s the first time. It’s joined the list of my all time favourite books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

With thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.
I expected a traditional type of wartime story when I started to read this, but it has turned out to be so much more. It’s a story full of feeling and emotion, there are times when the story hurts and the author transmits Ellen’s hurt so well in her words, my heart ached for her situation. It’s a story about love and family bonds, even when you’re not blood family, and how true love lasts for a lifetime.

Although slow at times, "We Must Be Brave" is a delightful exploration of the life of a woman who rescues a lost child from the chaos of war, and realises that her life was missing something before that moment. It's a heart-warming tale of fulfilment, friendships, secrets and love in all its forms, with excellent period detail and a wonderful ending that'll bring a tear to your eye.

The book starts during an air raid on Southampton in WW2. A child is found on a bus, with no sign of any parents, so she is taken to a nearby village where a newly married young woman and her older husband take her in. After a rocky start, they develop a comfortable and loving relationship. Eventually, the child's father turns up …
Throughout the book, parallels are drawn between three storylines of young girls - the adoptive mother, the girl from the air raid and a schoolgirl some years later. The author develops the relationships and characters well, but occasionally the parallels appear a little contrived.
Despite this, the book is a very enjoyable read - evoking the struggles during WW2, the problems left over from WW1 and the changes in England in the post-war years.
Definitely recommended.

Not my usual kind of book but I really enjoyed it. Characters were interesting and a good storyline. Would highly recommend.

This is an enjoyable tale of rural life in southern England, mostly set just before and during WW2. The hardships suffered at a time before benefits, the NHS, etc are described in a way which allows the reader to empathise with the characters. Ellen herself is a complex person who goes through many trials and tribulations before finding a better lifestyle. All the children in the book are lovingly described and there are some interesting dynamics between them and adults such as Ellen, Lucy, William and Althea. A heartwarming read.

For me, the book had three parts, the beginning where Ellen first finds Pamela, she loves her to bits and Pamela grows to love her. There is however a niggling fear in the back of Ellens mind wondering when the bubble will burst and Pamela will be taken away. I think I was so desperate to find out what happened in the end that it spoiled my enjoyment of the middle chapters, this was entirely my fault and nothing to do with the writing. I did, however, love the ending.

A poignant and tough read. Well written and worth sticking with, this book offers enjoyable characters and a new view.

A moving emotional read, sweeping the 20th century. During ww2 4yo Pamela is left on a bus, Ellen takes her home to keep the little girl safe and we’re off from there. It’s a beautiful read, with emotional storytelling without ever descending into cheese.

A story about love, sorrow and the ability of people to carry on despite everything.

This will be a massive hit come the New Year!