What do you think?
Rate this book
Bombshell
“Well that’s it. We're at war! We're at war with the blasted Hun! I hope you're happy now, Clara!”
It was the standard First World War tragedy. A young dad is killed at Ypres and never meets his newborn son. To history student Rosie Kirby, her ancestors’ story was text book.
But when she inherits an old box of papers after a funeral, she discovers that all is not quite what it seems.
Her great-great-grandmother, Clara Thornton - a young girl employed in the underbelly of Scarborough's Grand Hotel at the outbreak of war - has left behind a puzzle.
Rosie's quest to find the truth unlocks Clara's world - a world full of underground palaces, seaside picture houses, funicular cliff railways and charabanc rides - but also a world full of tragedies far worse and far more complex than she could ever have imagined.
Bombshell does not tell the story of the brave soldiers fighting on the Western Front. It tells the rare story of those the war left behind and the people who were left to pick up the pieces from the horrors that ricocheted across Europe.
It is also the story of a town - a town whose very heart was ripped out by a political conflict in foreign-surrounding places and alongside rivers most people had never heard of. In August 1914, the Yorkshire coastal town of Scarborough had just celebrated its most successful Bank Holiday for years. Holiday makers had poured off the steam trains, laden down with hat boxes and parasols, basking in the incredible heatwave. But all that was about to change. Scarborough would never be the same again.
Bombshell is not just a 160,000-word homage to the lesser-known voices of the First World War, it is also a tribute to the lost wonders of the British seaside resort.
It was the standard First World War tragedy. A young dad is killed at Ypres and never meets his newborn son. To history student Rosie Kirby, her ancestors’ story was text book.
But when she inherits an old box of papers after a funeral, she discovers that all is not quite what it seems.
Her great-great-grandmother, Clara Thornton - a young girl employed in the underbelly of Scarborough's Grand Hotel at the outbreak of war - has left behind a puzzle.
Rosie's quest to find the truth unlocks Clara's world - a world full of underground palaces, seaside picture houses, funicular cliff railways and charabanc rides - but also a world full of tragedies far worse and far more complex than she could ever have imagined.
Bombshell does not tell the story of the brave soldiers fighting on the Western Front. It tells the rare story of those the war left behind and the people who were left to pick up the pieces from the horrors that ricocheted across Europe.
It is also the story of a town - a town whose very heart was ripped out by a political conflict in foreign-surrounding places and alongside rivers most people had never heard of. In August 1914, the Yorkshire coastal town of Scarborough had just celebrated its most successful Bank Holiday for years. Holiday makers had poured off the steam trains, laden down with hat boxes and parasols, basking in the incredible heatwave. But all that was about to change. Scarborough would never be the same again.
Bombshell is not just a 160,000-word homage to the lesser-known voices of the First World War, it is also a tribute to the lost wonders of the British seaside resort.
532 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 17, 2013
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.