The Very Thought of You

May 09, 2012 Brian rated it 1 of 5 stars

I generally enjoy novels set during the Second World War. It's a period when stakes were high and when British society was struggling to reshape itself in the face of imminent catastrophe. So when I saw that this story took place in a stately home converted into a school for evacuees, run by a couple whose marriage was under terrible strain after he had become crippled by polio, I thought it sounded as if it might be a good read.

Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. The narrative seemed to have onl...more

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Jan 13, 2010 Sian Milne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have just finished this book and I have to say that even though it has left me feeling a little sad, it was a very good book.

Apart from 2 of them, I didnt find any of the characters particularly likeable but I did find myself wanting a happier ending for some of them.

The main character of the little girl Anna was very sweet, I found myself sympathising with her and was very sad that once the war was over how things didnt work out for her due to her childhood and how it affected her entire lif...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Dougal rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010

All credit to Rosie Alison for getting her first book published, by whatever means. Most of us dream of being a 'writer' and never get past a first page of idle jottings. It requires grit and determination to go all the way.

However, just a few pages into this book I was reminded of the old adage, 'Everyone has a book in them and that is where it is best left'. Words alone can't describe quite how bad this book is. I don't want you to put yourself through reading it, so words will have to do.

I'v...more All credit to Rosie Alison for getting her first book published, by whatever means. Most of us dream of being a 'writer' and never get past a first page of idle jottings. It requires grit and determination to go all the way.

However, just a few pages into this book I was reminded of the old adage, 'Everyone has a book in them and that is where it is best left'. Words alone can't describe quite how bad this book is. I don't want you to put yourself through reading it, so words will have to do.

I've read a review where someone threw the book over the side of a cross-channel ferry rather than finish it. Another where they binned it as it wasn't worth sending to the charity shop. I know exactly how they felt. I plodded around a fifth of the way through it before throwing in the towel, and that fifth was a real struggle.

Unfortunately, Rosie Alison just can't write. If she was prepared to spend a little time doing a creative writing course (perhaps A174 with the Open University?), or even read a primer on the subject, she might realise that 'less is more'. Overuse and, or, strange use of adjectives and adverbs just doesn't cut it, eg 'Nazi stukas', 'lustrous moustache', 'gummy teeth' or 'eerie warning'. And 'point of view' changes grate; they're continuous and inappropriate. There is even the odd error in tense.

Metaphors are laughable: 'It was as if her heart had been suddenely tuned into a strange new wireless station for other people's sorrows.'

Characterisation of an eight year old child is totally inappropriate. We have Anna, at eight, hearing the wheels of a man's wheelchair squeak and feeling sorry for him and for his wife: 'She worried that Mrs Ashton might not be happy being married to a cripple - they couldn't go dancing together, and she could imagine Mrs Ashton dancing. That must make him sad, too, she thought. How could such a beautiful woman be married to a man who couldn't walk?' It just isn't credible.
Or the following: 'Did the Ashtons have any children of their own, she wondered? She hoped so. He must be a kind father.'

But it's the standard of written English that is truly unforgiveable. Or maybe it is. It's difficult to tell someone their written English isn't up to scratch, particularly a graduate in English Literature from Oxford. But surely her friends could have helped out a little? If you haven't read the book you may be wondering just how bad it is. It's very bad, page after page. Just two examples will make the point:

'He could not contain his own joy...'
'Norton found a woman streaming with blood in a crater, and he pulled her out, while his wife ran to help an old man trapped by a wall.'

I really recommed giving this a miss. Life's too short.
(less)

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Dec 07, 2012 Elaine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

Ack! What a string of bad books in a row. This book loses a somewhat original and daring spark of a plot in heavy handed writing that muses on love as a thing at great length, telling about love and being in love, without showing why or how the characters feel that way. The prose is truly heavy and plodding, and the whole book could have been a lovely 70 page novella but instead dawdles on and on.

There are also wierd extraneous walk-on characters (an ambassador and his wife) who seem to exist o...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Emily Crowe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I upgraded this to 4 stars from what would have just been 3.5 stars...

I seem to be on somewhat of a kick this summer reading WWII fiction. The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison (shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize) mostly follows the story of young Anna Sands, whose mother evacuates her from London in 1939 in order to escape the Blitz; Anna fortuitously ends up at a large Yorkshire estate whose family has taken in dozens of children and set up a school for them. The author does a great job o...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Michelle added it

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is a surprisingly complicated story about love and loss of those left behind by the soldiers at the dawn of World War II. It follows the stories of multiple characters during the war and beyond, as they each try to find happiness and love during a time of tumult and chaos. Some are more successful than others, while others remain content with what they are able to experience.

The multiple character plot strands become a bit confusing after a while. There i...more The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is a surprisingly complicated story about love and loss of those left behind by the soldiers at the dawn of World War II. It follows the stories of multiple characters during the war and beyond, as they each try to find happiness and love during a time of tumult and chaos. Some are more successful than others, while others remain content with what they are able to experience.

The multiple character plot strands become a bit confusing after a while. There is the love triangle between Thomas, Elizabeth, and Ruth. Then there is Anna and her childish longings for her mother and for a father figure, and Roberta finding happiness and a newly-gained sense of freedom in war-torn London. There are too many characters for any one to be developed properly, and the individual stories do not coincide well enough for a continuously smooth transition from one strand to another. The result is a jagged, often confusing, jump from one character to another with no sense of continuity.

Another point of contention is the fact that the ending seems rushed. Three-fourths of the novel occurs during World War II and is strengthened by the reader’s knowledge of what is occurring during that time. The final section of the novel, approximately fifty pages, covers a time span of over sixty years. This is a huge jump in time with very little or explanation or connection to previous sections. The reader is left feeling that Ms. Alison was compelled to connect two key plot lines together without thinking through the impact it would have on the overall novel. Some stories are best left open-ended, without the author connecting the dots. The Very Thought of You would have been one of them, had Ms. Alison left well enough alone and ended the novel with the second world war.

The Very Thought of You was shortlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for fiction, and I must confess that I remain unconvinced as to why it was. I was not drawn into any of the stories and found several of the key characters quite despicable. None of them had very much backbone, and while their weaknesses created much of the drama, I still scoffed at some of the realism behind their actions.

The Very Thought of You is one of those novels in which my expectations did not live up to reality, in that I was really hoping to read a story about the children sent away during the London Blitz and the psychological impact of such upheaval. Rather, the children's plight is one small portion of a much larger, and more complex novel. Without some of the extraneous characters and story offshoots, The Very Thought of You would have been a compelling reader. Instead, it tries too hard to define love and belonging. It is not a horrible novel, but there is an element of redundancy to it that is disappointing, as I do not feel Ms. Alison was breaking new ground in any way but rather rehashing old facts and philosophies about love and happiness. She falls short in making it a fresh perspective, and the reader is left disappointed.

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Atria Books Galley Grab for this review copy!(less)

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Oct 28, 2012 Mattie Haag rated it 1 of 5 stars

This novel is by a wide margin the worst book I have ever read.
As the World War II period is one of my favorites, I picked this book up expecting to find an intriguing read about a young girl overcoming the odds in the midst of a terrible conflict, told from a fresh point of view. What I found, however, was a messy and ridiculous book that I found hard to finish.
When London becomes unsafe due to the threat of German bombs, Anna Sands leaves for the English countryside for the Ashton estate, a...more This novel is by a wide margin the worst book I have ever read.
As the World War II period is one of my favorites, I picked this book up expecting to find an intriguing read about a young girl overcoming the odds in the midst of a terrible conflict, told from a fresh point of view. What I found, however, was a messy and ridiculous book that I found hard to finish.
When London becomes unsafe due to the threat of German bombs, Anna Sands leaves for the English countryside for the Ashton estate, a school for evacuees. Anna soon becomes aware of a love affair occurring between Thomas Ashton and a young teacher. While the two embark on a poetic and love-filled journey, Thomas’ wife, Elizabeth, amidst infidelity of her own, does everything in her power to break up the two. Meanwhile, Anna’s mother has been carrying on an affair of her own while her husband fights in the war. Skip ahead twenty years, and Anna is engaged in infidelity of her own as she discovers the nature of her failing marriage. Finally, another sixty or so years later, Anna dies peacefully on the estate grounds, clasping one of Ruth and Thomas’ love letters.
Told from several different points of view, it is often difficult to tell whose story is being told. All of the characters are unlikeable, and there is too much to be told and too little explanation. The events are unrealistic and nominal. The pace is slow, the plotline is tenuous, and Alison’s language is ridiculous and ineffective. The characterization of the protagonist is impractical, as Anna makes observations far beyond her age. Furthermore, this book’s setting promises history and a coming of age story, and barely references the war or Anna’s growing up. Finally, the amount of love affairs is silly- is every human engaged in adultery, or does it just seem that way to Alison?
From the first page to the last, I found myself disgusted and sad that this chance for a good read had been wasted. A graduate of Oxford with a degree in English Literature, I would have expected more from the author. However, having received a mockery of a novel, I have to give my opinion- that this book is not worth anyone’s time. (less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

The sections of this book from the point of view of Anna as a child are superb. The logic used to make sense of the unknown, the bewilderment caused by the unexplainable and the simple acceptance of more than an adult might expect are there without apology or explanation. All the repressed longing and throwing things behind closed doors seemed terribly British, but made sense of the grown-up Anna's not being able to acknowledge her need for the unobtainable and made the actions of Elizabeth all...more

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May 27, 2012 Sallie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh my! This book will grab your heart and never let it go! It's hard to imagine what parents and children went through in WWII England as they prepared for the Blitz. Children by the thousands were sent from London to the countryside for safekeeping, and little Anna Sands joined hundreds of other children who hugged parents goodbye at train stations. Anna is sent to Ashton in Yourshire where she finds herself having to adjust to new schooling, new people, good plentiful food, and a strange atmos...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Danielle Rossman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Very Thought of You took my breath away as Rosie Allison tells this haunting tale of coming of age from a child's perspective during pre WWII England and beyond. It is 1939 and Hitler is storming down on Poland and England feels the march of German boots coming. Thus begins a mass evacuation of the children of London to safer locations along the English countryside. Initially, we meet Anna and her mother Roberta who are on a lovely shopping trip that culminates in a delightful luncheon. But...more The Very Thought of You took my breath away as Rosie Allison tells this haunting tale of coming of age from a child's perspective during pre WWII England and beyond. It is 1939 and Hitler is storming down on Poland and England feels the march of German boots coming. Thus begins a mass evacuation of the children of London to safer locations along the English countryside. Initially, we meet Anna and her mother Roberta who are on a lovely shopping trip that culminates in a delightful luncheon. But Roberta is quite sad because she knows she will not see her daughter for quite awhile as she prepares her for evacuation. Anna is very blithe about this and sees herself as going on a trip to the seashore. Like most children, she is more worried about getting a bathing costume, then the actual reasons for the evacuation. She is a very brave eight year old and gets on the bus that will take her to an unknown place with a stiff upper lip and absolutely no tears in sight. She is a strong little soldier! Little does she know that she is marching towards a home that will forever change her life. She is sent to live at the palatial mansion of Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton who have turned their home into a dormitory and school to house the London evacuees. Anna lands in the middle of an unhappy marriage as we meet polio stricken Thomas who is confined to a wheelchair and an obviously infertile Elizabeth who longs for a child and can not bear the advent of her monthly cycle. Anna witnesses this emotional torrent one evening spying into an open door and her innocent childhood life is changed by seeing such an adult conflict. She will find herself drawn to Thomas and he in turn finds her a dear and comforting child that he can trust. Being put in such adult situations will shape her own adult life and we will see how her own life is always lived in the shadow of the Ashton Estate....This is a beautiful and emotional tale that is less about the war raging through Europe, but more about the people trying to live just beyond its reaches. The writing style is no less then exquisite as Rosie Allison crafts a tale that is so bittersweet and emotionally draining for the reader. She speeds up some parts of the story to move the plot, but then slows down the tale with shifting points of views from other characters that keep the reader longing for more. We also come to know Pawel, Ruth and also Roberta as more then just characters in the back story. Instead they become part of the fabric of Ashton Park in ways that personify love and courage...and longing. All of the characters are longing for something, but all these longings seem to draw us back to the emotion of love and at times the lack there of. The historical backdrop must also be acknowledged along with the deeply accurate way Rosie Allison paints the era in terms of time and accuracy. This is an impressive debut novel that reminds me in many ways of my favorite childhood novel The Secret Garden...that in itself sends chills up my spine! All I can say is that Rosie Allison is most certainly on my short list.(less)

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Sep 22, 2011 Jill Furedy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having read all of Kate Morton's books this year, I inevitably compared this "gothic-light" tale to hers, and it suffered for the comparison. I won this on the Goodreads giveaway page, and was excited for it to arrive, having read the glowing reviews and notice about the Orange Prize list. And while there were scenes that were beautifully written, it didn't come together for me. The Norton's had such exciting, dynamic lives, but they only popped up sporadically, while I was hearing every last de...more Having read all of Kate Morton's books this year, I inevitably compared this "gothic-light" tale to hers, and it suffered for the comparison. I won this on the Goodreads giveaway page, and was excited for it to arrive, having read the glowing reviews and notice about the Orange Prize list. And while there were scenes that were beautifully written, it didn't come together for me. The Norton's had such exciting, dynamic lives, but they only popped up sporadically, while I was hearing every last detail of infidelities on all sides. I wanted to know what fascinating and socially significant things I was missing out on in the Norton's lives while reading about people who seemed to only fall in love with beauty or with the idea of unblemished ideallistic love. And everyone was "shaken" by their encounters with the objects of their affection...often literally shaking. I found the intense reactions a little off-putting since so many characters, who should have had different personalities, shared the same experience.
I liked Anna as a child, but not as an adult. I liked Roberta and was interested to see how she shaped her life without her family, until that too was swallowed up by the ongoing themes of love, faithfulness, guilt and grief. Anna's father was a noncharacter...might as well have killed him off for all the impact he had on the story. Elizabeth had promise as a complex character, obsessing over Thomas and then over having children, but she was never fully realized. Ruth wasn't terribly interesting herself, but was necessary to the plot. And Thomas should have been so charismatic from the other characters descriptions of him and reactions to him, that I wanted to feel what they did...and never quite felt it. It seemed he just reacted to life, never took action on his own, and I suppose a pleasant dispostion in the face of tragedy might pass as charming, but again, it didn't transcend the page as such. So while there were passages to enjoy in the book, I didn't take much away from it in the end.
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Sep 06, 2011 Carla Ford rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel is just full of broken hearts, people for whom life has taken sad twists and turns, and left them sad, lonely, and searching for love and fulfilment. Opening in London in 1939, Anna and her mother Roberta are on a shopping trip, but not a happy one. This shopping trip is to purchase the clothes that Anna will be taking with her as she is evacuated from London. Thousands of children are being evacuated as the threat of bombing in London becomes more real. As Roberta watches the bus wi...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Virginia Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-romance, inspirational, womens-fiction

Prepare to have your eyes opened, your heart broken, and your view of the amazing endurance of the human spirit revised and revived. You will experience all of these things when you read Rosie Alison's "The Very Thought of You". A shattering, yet spirit-sustaining, glimpse into loss and survivorship, this is a story which will resonate with many. Few will be unaffected. In the summer of 1939, with the impending threats of WWII devastation looming large, thousands of children were evacuated from...more Prepare to have your eyes opened, your heart broken, and your view of the amazing endurance of the human spirit revised and revived. You will experience all of these things when you read Rosie Alison's "The Very Thought of You". A shattering, yet spirit-sustaining, glimpse into loss and survivorship, this is a story which will resonate with many. Few will be unaffected. In the summer of 1939, with the impending threats of WWII devastation looming large, thousands of children were evacuated from London, sent to safer locations in the surrounding countryside. These children were torn from their homes and separated from their parents, and no one could be certain what the future would hold. "The Very Thought of You" focuses on one such child, Anna Sands, relocated to the wealthy manor home of Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton. Childless themselves, the Ashtons welcome the children and provide them with care and an education. It is the gallant and gentle Thomas who becomes a touchstone in Anna's life. He is a man who suffers great loss and unspeakable tragedy, yet he lives his life with appreciation for the beauty he sees among the devastation. True love comes to Thomas in midlife, but it is not a love with whom he will be allowed to share life on earth. However, even death cannot dim the luminescence of this love. Your heart will ache for Thomas, but his soul remains undaunted through it all. As with many who have experienced the shock of wartime desolation, Anna searches throughout her life for real peace of mind. As a married adult, with children of her own, Anna finds some measure of comfort in reconnecting with Thomas. They form a somewhat tentative, but still caring relationship, keeping touch in letters and Christmas cards. Ultimately, Anna's search for fulfillment will come full circle and bring her once again to Ashton Manor. As the song says: "The very thought of you, and I forget to do those little ordinary things that everyone ought to do....". This story and these characters are neither little nor ordinary. They will stay in the reader's consciousness for a very long time.

Review Copy Gratis Simon & Schuster(less)

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Aug 16, 2011 Rocky41-7 rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: cheap, easy-read, lousy, poorly-written, tragic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After reading the description of this book, I was very excited. It sounded like an excellent WWII drama. WHAT a disappointment. The cover led you to believe that the story was about Anna, a WWII evacuee, but the real main plot here was the infidelity. Every single married person here was involved in some kind of affair with at least one person. Mrs. Ashton was an intetresting, troubled charecter, but she wasn't fleshed out enough. Alison seemed to just enjoy talking in great detail about the var...more After reading the description of this book, I was very excited. It sounded like an excellent WWII drama. WHAT a disappointment. The cover led you to believe that the story was about Anna, a WWII evacuee, but the real main plot here was the infidelity. Every single married person here was involved in some kind of affair with at least one person. Mrs. Ashton was an intetresting, troubled charecter, but she wasn't fleshed out enough. Alison seemed to just enjoy talking in great detail about the various men she slept with and how she felt about it. Mr. Ashton I liked at first, but gradually lost sympathy for him. He was just as much to blame for the faliure of his marriage. He rarely spoke to Mrs. Ashton, locked himself up in his study most of the time and tried to ignore the world around him. When he begins to fall in love with another woman, instead of getting a divorce or having some self control like normal people, he waits until she's pregnant to announce to his wife that he's leaving her. Then,in a fit of jealous rage, Mrs. Ashton crashes the car with both her and the other woman in it, killing both woman and the unborn child. Mr. Ashton's life just seems like a never-ending sob story but his lack of emotion really bothered me. He had no depth. He was flat.
As for Anna, she somehow manages to fall in love with Mr. Ashton at age 12 and stays in love with him until the day she dies. Despite the fact that she is married to a very attractive, loving husband with two children, she rushes out and sleeps with a sixty year old salesman and then goes back to Ashton Park in hopes of getting it on with her old teacher. Eventually her husband divorces her, but not before having an affair with one of his co-workers. Anna starts drinking heavily after this, becoming nothing so much as a carbon copy of Mrs. Ashton, the woman she loathed.
During Anna's evacuation, we see things from her mother Roberta's point of view. Roberta is one of the more loathsome charecters in this book. She gets a job with a radio station after Anna leaves and immediately sets out scoping out men for an affair. She feels no remorse for this and spends weeks cultivating a relationship solely to sleep with the man. When she got killed on a walk home from her hubby's air-raid shelter, it was a blessing. However, her death scene was rushed and hurried, leaving you thinking '...wait, did she just die?'
Overall, the book was a major let-down. It made all marriages seem worthless and that cheating was an expected part of marriage, as none of those who were cheated on reacted, even though they knew what was happening. Anna was completely pathetic as an adult, spending most of her life wallowing in self-pity. I wanted to slap her. And then there were those parts told from the POV of Peter Norton and her husband, which felt totally out of place and were quite boring. I'm not sure why they were included, but they were unecessary and added nothing.(less)

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Jul 27, 2011 Laurie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-general

This impressive first novel - shortlisted for the Orange Prize - traces the lives of Anna and Roberta, as well as Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth Ashton, primarily during the war years. Moodily atmospheric and increasingly melancholy, we're privy to their inner lives (multiple third person perspective) as those lives intersect and diverge, playing again and again on novelist Alison's title theme. Inner desires, memories, dreams, and resentments shift and collide with outward actions and appearanc...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Colleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british, england

The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is set in England during the Second World War. Anna Sands, a young girl living in London, is evacuated from the city along with other children and moved to the countryside where it is hoped the children will be safe from the bombings taking place in the city. Anna is relocated to the Ashton Estate in the Yorkshire countryside; Elizabeth and Thomas Ashton, a childless couple, have opened their estate to the evacuees where they educate and care for the young...more The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison is set in England during the Second World War. Anna Sands, a young girl living in London, is evacuated from the city along with other children and moved to the countryside where it is hoped the children will be safe from the bombings taking place in the city. Anna is relocated to the Ashton Estate in the Yorkshire countryside; Elizabeth and Thomas Ashton, a childless couple, have opened their estate to the evacuees where they educate and care for the youngsters. This haunting war time novel chronicles the suffering during the war but also the impact of the war time experience for years to come.

There is an obvious theme of separation in The Very Thought of You as the children live away from their parents and homes but separation pervades this novel and taints almost all relationships between the characters; in fact, the quote below very accurately sums up the novel:

"one long story of separation, just as Wordsworth had said. From people, from places, from the past you could never quite reach even as you lived it"

Many characters have been shattered by loss and and are separated both literally and metaphorically from those they love. It is as if they are outsiders observing their lives and desperately wanting to participate but they are held back by their inability to express love freely - an emotional stunting arising from pasts filled with too much loneliness and tragedy. Thomas suffered the loss of siblings to disease and WWI and the following is said about its effect upon him:

Thomas felt he had been cut off at the roots. In the months that followed, he grew oddly estranged from himself. A profound detachment separated him from hope, and his heart was numbed, leaving him distanced from the quick of his feelings.

And this quote referring to the children - the evacuees:

Yet none of these consolations could staunch the Christmas-night tears in the dormitories. The remembrance of home, of mothers, of fathers. The emotional wasteland of their lives without them. It would take years for many of them to dare to love again.

The characters experience different losses and are changed in different ways by loss but all suffer from this chronic detachment.

My thoughts
I have seen this book referred to as a love story but I prefer to call it a story about love. It covers marital love, parental love and romantic love but is less about the love story itself and more about the characters' difficulty with love. There are glimpses of the redemptive power of love but they are only glimpses - the theme of unrequited love is much more dominant which lends a melancholy tone to the book. For that reason, I felt the book was the perfect length - long enough to appreciate the history that frames the novel and long enough for some therapeutic wallowing in the sadness that defines the novel but not so long as to plunge you into a depression over the aching loss experienced by the characters. Furthermore, the writing is excellent (hence all the quotes in this review) and I thought the author beautifully captured the emotions and at times, lack thereof, experienced by her characters. I will not soon forget the characters or their haunting stories. (less)

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Mar 21, 2011 Melissa rated it 1 of 5 stars

I hated this book.
Ok, let me start by saying that I'm really sorry about what I'm about to say. I hate having to give a negative review, but I just really did not enjoy this book at all. =/
It just wasn't at all what I expected. I thought the story was about the little girl Anna, but really she was only a small part. The whole book is about cheating on spouses. Literally every couple in this book is involved in infidelity. If they're not cheating, they're planning to cheat. It just drove me craz...more I hated this book.
Ok, let me start by saying that I'm really sorry about what I'm about to say. I hate having to give a negative review, but I just really did not enjoy this book at all. =/
It just wasn't at all what I expected. I thought the story was about the little girl Anna, but really she was only a small part. The whole book is about cheating on spouses. Literally every couple in this book is involved in infidelity. If they're not cheating, they're planning to cheat. It just drove me crazy. I just think that ruined what could have been a really good story. Every person is screwed up in some way. I suppose the story is supposed to be a study of human heartbreak and psychology, but I just got so annoyed with all of the self pity that every person had. I just wanted to tell them to get over it and move on with their lives. Yes it's sad that Elizabeth can't have children, but she needs to stop wallowing in self pity and live her life, and the same with Thomas being stuck in a wheelchair. Yes it's sad, but after so many years you have to learn to pick yourself up and live your life. And b/c of all their self pity, they ruined their marriage. Ugh! It annoyed me so badly. Boohoo I can't have children, so I'm depressed, so I'm gonna go cheat on my husband with 20 other guys. And boohoo I'm in a wheelchair so I'm worried about having sex with my wife anymore b/c I feel inadequate and b/c of this I've now turned my wife away from me and she doesn't love me anymore, and now I don't love her anymore. So I'm gonna go have an affair with this other woman. blah! What is wrong with these people?!
And then the one person in the book that I liked, Anna, ends up being just as screwed up as an adult. She has an amazing husband who loves her, but she doesn't love him back, b/c deep down she's in love with Mr. Ashton her old school teacher who's old enough to be her father. And she'd rather cheat on her husband with some random old fat guy than have sex with her own attractive husband. I don't get it!
I'm sorry maybe I missed the point on this. But Jesus people if you don't love someone then don't marry them. And if you feel you don't love them anymore then divorce them, and stop cheating! And for God sakes, work out your issues!
I was so frustrated that I didn't have any emotion or sadness when certain characters died throughout the book (I won't say who, b/c I don't want to spoil the book for those of you who haven't read it).
I enjoy World War 2 stories, but I definitely did not enjoy this one. I'm sorry but I just can't recommend this book.
The one good part of the book was around the end. I thought it was somewhat poignant and I enjoyed that.
My favorite parts of the book involved Anna's childhood. I enjoyed her story as she went to school at Ashton. I enjoyed the history of the Ashton estate. I also enjoyed the childhood innocence. But I absolutely hated all the adults in the book.

I'm so sorry for this bad review, but I just couldn't deal with all the cheating, psychological issues, bad decisions, self pity, etc.(less)

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Jan 10, 2011 Danceheap rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book kept me interested and reading despite its flaws. Reading that the Nortons were relatives of Alison's and were her inspiration explains their presence in the book, though oftentimes I felt that they were superfluous to the story itself feels which seems to follow a separate path. I enjoyed the first half of the book the most - the impact of the war on so many different lives - and the different relationships and would have been happy if it ended somewhere after Anna returns to London w...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Calvin Allen rated it 3 of 5 stars

A debut novel by Rosie Alison, better known as a film and TV producer and director, this is an accomplished and moving novel about love; the search for connections and meaning in life; the failure of people to communicate, brought about by a sense of propriety; and the ability of love, when realised, to give both meaning and a vitality to life.

The telling of the tale never crosses the line into sentimentality, a trap into which it would have been easy to fall and which the author appears to have...more

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Jul 17, 2009 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story revolves around the evacuation of children from London to the relative safety of the countryside at the onset of World War II. We follow Anna Sands, an eight year-old, as she leaves her mother, Roberta, to go they know not where. As luck would have it Anna, along with more than eighty other evacuees, is swooped up by the elegant Elizabeth Ashton and bused to her husband's ancestral home, Ashton House.

The blurb on the press release informed me that "nyone who loved L. P. Hartley's The G...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Katherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

There is a sentence toward the end of this book "the grief would not go, but sometimes he cherished it." Oh, there is plenty of grief to go around and each and everyone of the main characters more than cherished it. They allowed it to consume them and turn them into empty, cold husks incapable of interacting normally with anyone outside themselves, even those with whom they are most intimate.

The first of the three protagonists is Anna Sands, an eight year old evacuee from London to the grand Yo...more There is a sentence toward the end of this book "the grief would not go, but sometimes he cherished it." Oh, there is plenty of grief to go around and each and everyone of the main characters more than cherished it. They allowed it to consume them and turn them into empty, cold husks incapable of interacting normally with anyone outside themselves, even those with whom they are most intimate.

The first of the three protagonists is Anna Sands, an eight year old evacuee from London to the grand Yorkshire mansion, Ashton Park. Her story is perhaps the one most difficult to which to give credence. Not wanting to ruin it for those who may read the book, suffice it to say, that, despite some fairly happy times in childhood, she seems not to show the resilience that most children have to trauma. Granted separation from parents and loss of her mother at an early age are pretty traumatic, there seems to have been no saving grace in her reunion with her father, who seems to get pretty short shrift in the story. To the point that his wife's infidelity in London while he fights in Africa is very superficially dealt with. But then, these characters are all superficial.

The other two characters of consequence are the lovely owners of Ashton Park--Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton. His supposed emotional crippling is the result of loss of his siblings at an early age and his physical crippling the result of a bout of polio which leaves him in a wheelchair, though not impotent. His wife, totally a cold fish from the start, who knows why, is crippled by her lack of a child. Hence the opening of the house to other people's children. These two deserve each other but as luck will have it others get caught up in their circle of misery and are damaged or destroyed by the experience.

Two other characters keep showing up intermittently for no apparent reason but the notes at the end tell us that Clifford Norton and his wife, Peter, are the only real personages in the tale. They are distant cousins of the author and "act as an occasional chorus on the wider world beyond Ashton Park." A world in which Hitler invades Poland, Paris falls,the death camps are liberated and later there is a civil war in Greece. None of these things seem to have any impact on these self-absorbed people on their lovely estate in the countryside.

I finished the book hoping that there would be some salvation or awakening in these people--but no, they continue to cherish the new grief that life has brought them. No one dies in this book--life leaks out of them or seeps out of them in the author's euphemous language--but it does seep slowly from the first page until at the end the biggest sorrow is the empty house. Now a museum, with guided tours through lifeless rooms and hallways, filled with ghosts. But, in my opinion, but for the laughing, running children evacuated there for such a short time, the house was always filled with ghosts. Soul less cold creatures --empty of all human feeling.(less)

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Aug 02, 2011 Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Very Thought of You is set during WWII. It is the story of a young girl, Anna Sands, evacuated from London before the bombing started. She is sent to live on a Yorkshire estate that has been turned into a school for children coming from London. A young couple, Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton, open there home to these children and enjoy having the kids around since they have not been able to have any children of their own. While at this school Anna observes the Ashtons and learns things that she...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Hayley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, read-2010

It's 1939 and Hitler is preparing to invade Poland. Thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the Blitz.

Eight year old Anna is relocated to Ashton Park where she meets Thomas and Elizabeth and bares witness to their unravelling marriage.

I was massively disappointed with this book. Rosie Alison has created flat characters that do not move me in any way. I do not believe in their relationships or their feelings and I found them to be rather reckless and ridiculous.

I find it hard t...more

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May 14, 2010 Simon Acland rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a moving book written with great clarity in a pleasantly straightforward style by an traditional omniscient narrator. The centre of the story, if not the central character, is Thomas Ashton, a wheelchair-bound former diplomat around whom spin several female characters and their lovers. All have slightly different views and experiences of love. Most of the action takes place during the Second World War, when Ashton's stately family home in Yorkshire is turned into a boarding school for Lo...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley

The experience of reading The Very Thought of You was, for me, quite uneven. Parts of it had a tender, calm beauty, while other seemed unnecessarily banal. Generally, I enjoyed the sections that detailed the lives of the evacuees. This is an aspect of the affect of WWII that I have rarely read about and it was a pleasure to be able to do so. WWII is the frame of the story, but is largely distant from the tale, which was interesting, too.

The language was at times quite beautiful, although not par...more The experience of reading The Very Thought of You was, for me, quite uneven. Parts of it had a tender, calm beauty, while other seemed unnecessarily banal. Generally, I enjoyed the sections that detailed the lives of the evacuees. This is an aspect of the affect of WWII that I have rarely read about and it was a pleasure to be able to do so. WWII is the frame of the story, but is largely distant from the tale, which was interesting, too.

The language was at times quite beautiful, although not particularly lyrical. It had a simplicity to it that made it feel natural. I would like to share two quotes that I adored. The first is a comment made to Anna when she has stayed up too late reading: "A true lover of books knows no time" (191). Why I love this is likely obvious. The second is an old, sad, lonely man's reflection on his life: "So I may seem like an old wreck to you—but inside I'm still dancing, as they say" (292). This man has been through a lot, most of it awful and only some of that self-made, but he can still feel that overall his life has been a good one. That is some powerful stuff, and it does not come off as some forced message, but as a simple, beautiful truth.

There were two aspects of this novel I did not enjoy. The more minor of the two is something I see as a weakness in the storytelling: the viewpoint, which generally follows Anna or the Ashtons occasionally shifted to the Nortons, friends of the Ashtons. These sections always seemed to come out of nowhere and really did not seem important to the overall narrative. Having finished the book, they seem to have been included to allow more discussion of artists (perhaps Alison is a big fan of the art of that time period) and to allow her to add a scene about the Holocaust. The temptation to include the latter is understandable, but I did not appreciate her hurried attempt to fit it in; in my opinion, the book would have been better off had she remained within her main construct.

More frustrating was that this, like a surprising number of other books I have read, seems to be showing that all marriages result in unhappiness, affairs and, ultimately, divorce. While I imagine this is often true, I find it frustrating when every single main character ends up the same way. I would not call this a glorification of affairs, so much as a de-glorification of matrimony and a Chretien de Troyes-ish sense that true love lies outside of marriage. I'm not saying that every novel should depict wedded bliss, as that would be unrealistic, but not every could cheats (or so I choose to hope).

Regardless of my opinion, The Very Thought of You has received a really great reception, having been considered for the Orange Prize. The book is certainly well written and covers a fairly unique war experience, that of the children left behind and safe, physically anyway. It may not have been precisely my cup of tea, but, if it sounds good to you, please do not let me dissuade you.(less)

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Jan 06, 2011 Kirsty Darbyshire rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle

I'll file this one under "quite good but could have been better".

The majority of the book is set in the second world war and told from multiple viewpoints. The major characters are Anna, an eight year old evacuee send from London to Yorkshire - shades of Carrie's War here for me (can't really remember it, must reread it with Miranda sometime!); Anna's mother, Roberta, who remains in London living a more or less single life without husband or daughter; and Thomas Ashton who runs the temporary co...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Rose rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a hard book to review. I didn't like the story thus the 1 star, but the writing style was really good & I'd give that 4 stars. Reviewing the book as a whole however I can't say I liked it because the story was full of bleak, sad, lost people. Every time I picked the book up to read a chapter I felt like a sad, gray cloud was hovering over me. It's described as a WWII novel but really the war hardly makes an appearance & when it does it seems to be secondary to everyone's misery o...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this novel about the time I decided I needed a paperback for the plane trip to Ireland. I almost never travel with a boom I haven't at least read a chapter or two of before departing, in case I want to throw the book into an airport dumpster before the flight departs. The beginning of this WWII love story intrigued me enough to make the cut. Anna Sands is a young girl evacuated from London and placed in a make-shift school aI got To Be Sung Under Water from the lib...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Marie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: europe, fiction, historical-fiction, war, coming-of-age

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. http://mariesbookgarden.blogspot.com/...

Last year my husband and I watched a short British made-for-TV movie called "Good Night, Mister Tom," and I became interested in the history of English children evacuated to the country during World War II...so this book intrigued me.

It's the story, in part, of Anna, an eight-year-old girl who is evacuated from London and sent to a stately home in Yorkshire in 1939. Wise beyond her years, she soon becomes aware of the adult secrets around her. Thomas and E...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, read-in-2011, world-war-ii

I first came across Rosie Alison's novel The Very Thought of You through Goodreads First Reads. I am fascinated by the World War II era and a fan of historical fiction. It seemed like the perfect book for me.

The book begins with the start of a love letter followed by an excerpt from the Baxter's Guide to the Historic Houses of England (2007). Through this guide, readers are introduced to the history of Ashton Park, a splendid manor that housed children of London during World War II, and the cur...more I first came across Rosie Alison's novel The Very Thought of You through Goodreads First Reads. I am fascinated by the World War II era and a fan of historical fiction. It seemed like the perfect book for me.

The book begins with the start of a love letter followed by an excerpt from the Baxter's Guide to the Historic Houses of England (2007). Through this guide, readers are introduced to the history of Ashton Park, a splendid manor that housed children of London during World War II, and the curious story of an elderly woman who visited the house after it was turned over to the National Trust and made into a tourist attraction. This elderly woman was found on the grounds after closing. She had died, clutching a love letter.

As the story progressed, I learned of young Anna Sands, a precocious and intelligent eight year old girl sent away from London by her mother, Roberta, during World War II. Roberta quickly sought ways to fill the void left behind in the absence of her daughter and husband, who was overseas in the Army. While Anna struggled to acclimate to life at Ashton Park with the other evacuated children, her mother changed jobs and started having affairs.

Young Anna is infatuated with the proprietors of Ashton Park, Thomas and Elizabeth Ashton. Thomas is in a wheelchair after a long bout of polio and Elizabeth is unhappy in their marriage because they can't have children. She lets Thomas think that their infertility is his fault, but Elizabeth knows that it is her. She also has affairs as she tries to find what is missing in her relationship with Thomas. Thomas is resigned to the fact that his wife isn't happy and that she drinks too much, but nothing he does helps the situation. Then, he discovers his attraction to Ruth, one of the teachers at the school set up for the evacuated children at Ashton Park. Soon, she is with child.

As I read, the only thought that kept running through my mind was, "Who was the dead woman clutching the love letter?"

My initial draw to this book was the historical aspect. I was a bit disappointed that the history didn't play more of a part of the narrative. Instead, it served as a backdrop for a rather dysfunctional love story. Besides wondering who the dead woman was, I barely had any thoughts about the book as I read. It was an unassuming book that wasn't really good or really bad. It wasn't until I turned the last page and closed the book that I realized that I just devoured a poignant and tragic novel of love and love lost. It was in that moment that I fell in love with the book.

This review originally appeared on Feeding My Book Addiction: http://feedingmybookaddiction.blogspo...(less)

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