Tomaree

by Debbie Robson

Tomaree is a World War II love story set in Australia. In 1942 Peggy Ashburn meets an American soldier, First Lieutenant Tom Lockwood, who is based at the Shoal Bay Country Club, Port Stephens. The attraction between them is immediate and intense and the couple enlist the help of Peggy's neighbour, Sarah Linden, to act as go-between. By 1972 when Peggy arrives back home from the US for the funeral of her estranged mother, her marriage is in tatters and she has a lot of soul-searching ahead of her. When she begins to go through her mother's house she discovers not only a letter that has been lost for thirty years but that her mother kept an incredible secret from her.

Genres: Romance, Historical Fiction

242 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2008

About the author

I was born in the Mater Hospital in Sydney and grew up on the Northern Beaches. I now live in Lake Macquarie. As a writer and reader I am fascinated by the first 60 years of the last century and very excited that my novella, The Hermitage, set in 1937 has been published in 2023.
My poems, micro, flash and stories have been published internationally, online and in print. Tomaree, my first novel, is a WWII love story and my second novel is Crossing Paths: the Bookcrossing Novel, inspired by the website of the same name. I am currently working on my trilogy entitled Paris Next Week, set in Sydney and Paris during the 1920s. I also write about an angel who drives a taxi cab in Sydney.
I blog on writing and researching historical fiction at debbierobson.net occasionally and review regularly here on Goodreads.

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an absolutely delightful book!

Peggy Ashburn lived with her mother in Port Stephens, NSW, in 1942, when the second world war was in full swing. She met Tom Lockwood, an American soldier who was stationed at Port Stephens when she was seventeen years old, and there was an immediate attraction between the two of them.

Thirty years later Peggy Lockwood has returned home to Nelson Bay from America after she was notified of her mother’s death. She was devastated, as she hadn’t seen her mother in five years, and they hadn’t been close…Peggy’s mother had been a brittle and harsh mother, occasionally loving but overpowering in her desire to keep Peggy by her side. Peggy had of course rebelled as a youngster, and she was completely unable to understand her mother’s attitude over the years.

Over the ensuing month, Peggy began the heart-rending task of going through her mother’s belongings. She had a lovely friend in Joan, who had been a friend of her mother’s and who comforted and helped her with cups of tea and biscuits. The puzzles of her mother’s past, of her father’s death and the photos of a happy couple which she had never seen before; these things started to become clearer, the further she ventured into the past. But she couldn’t imagine her mother as that happy young woman in the photos…

This gentle romantic drama was told between the past and the present, as we got to know a young Peggy and her love of a young man, the tragedies of the past and the present, and the healing that comes with knowledge.

I particularly enjoyed the setting of this book, as I know all the areas, even the street mentioned in Mayfield (my daughter lives there!) So I felt that I was completely involved, could picture everything vividly.

I would highly recommend this wonderful book.

[Angela S Walton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The year is 1942, and situated on the east coast of Australia in Port Stephens lies the Tomaree peninsula. It is in Tomaree where seventeen year old Peggy Ashburn shares a house with an overly protective mother who has shown her daughter little affection. Peggy meets and falls in love with dashing American serviceman, First Lieutenant Tom Lockwood, who is stationed at Port Stephens indefinitely. When he is introduced to Mrs Ashburn for the first time, despair and surprise encompass her at the very mention of his name. Tom and Peggy keep the lines of communication open with love letters and secret rendezvous via Sarah Lindon who is like a second mother to Peggy. After Peggy turns eighteen, she marries Tom before moving to America.

When Peggy returns to Tomaree for her mother’s funeral in 1972, it is without Tom with whom she has become estranged. After going through her mother’s belongings Peggy comes across a photograph of her mother pictured happily with a strange man; a secret past she knew nothing about. Peggy rediscovers a forgotten love letter from Tom that she hid in the cavity of the wall of her childhood home thirty years earlier, away from the prying eyes of her mother. After reading it, she is reminded of her love for Tom, a love that should have lasted a lifetime. What went wrong? Peggy soon finds an ally in Joan, her mother’s close friend and neighbour who helps Peggy try to understand her mother in a different light. In order for Peggy to fix the problems in her personal life, she must begin by unravelling her mother’s mysterious past.

What can I say about this remarkable novel that is in demand at my local library that I had to go on the waiting list to read it? I can happily say that the wait was worth it and I was happy to receive the book that was visibly worn by the exchange of readers. The story travels back and forth from younger to older Peggy with ease, from two completely different timelines. I fell in love with the novel that is filled with romance and tragedy including that of the Second World War and the families that endured it. I would have liked to have read a little more on Sarah Lindon, whose character I simply adored, however, I do understand why she needed her place and time in the novel itself. Sometimes we just grow into attachment with certain characters.

The extensive research that the author had undertaken was the perfect backdrop for a fictitious storyline, it fit extremely well. There is a section in the book where Peggy travels to Swansea, which I must admit is a place that fills me with nostalgia because of my late mother-in-law’s stories of growing up there. Overall, Tomaree is an easy and enjoyable novel to get lost in time to. I enjoyed the education. Well done Debbie, for combining your prowess as a historian with your passion for storytelling.

[L F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomaree is a book of many things hiding under an obscure title. This book wears many hats. It is a book of many discoveries of the present, past and future. The author has done detailed research so the novel pulls us close in to the novel and sets us right down into the story. It tells us of an Australian war bride who falls in love with an American G.I. during World War II. Military base has been established to protect the coast north of Sydney which is within easy striking distance of Japanese troops. But this is not a story of war, But of relationships. A story of mother and daughters, dating couples and husbands and wives. The story of love within these relationships. The war is the canvas on which the story is told and suspense is the vehicle on which it is propelled. The theory of mindfulness, seems to be the lesson of the book. Because it reminds us to live in the moment. For that is all any of us really have in our lives. Moment..........to moment.

[Debbie Robson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not since A Town Like Alice has Australian Fiction dealt with a one on one World War II romance. The GI war bride phenomenon involving approximately 15,000 Australian girls is a forgotten part of our history but is now explored in Tomaree from the perspective of both a young girl and the same woman 30 years older returning to Australia after the death of her mother.

[Traci Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this book was a literal step back into a simpler time and place. I got completely lost in the authentic details of scenery, conversation, and current events. In particular, the author ensures that every mention of World War II-era military protocol, duties, uniforms, and equipment is accurate. The amount of research that went into this book is phenomenal!

I enjoyed the way that the chapters alternated between the past and the present. The technique pointed up one of the main themes of the book, which is that the past shapes everything about us, for better or for worse. All of the main characters are faced with the hard truth that we must sometimes take a step back and aggressively heal our past before we can live as a whole person in the present.

Yes, Tomaree is a romance, but it’s much more than that. It addresses many kinds of relationships. It’s about broken people supporting other broken people through ever-evolving associations. It’s about salvaging existing relationships and beginning new relationships against the odds.

The book is pleasantly suspenseful. I could hardly wait to get to the end and see if some of the main characters resolved their differences!

Some of my favorite quotes are: “Sometimes you have to look back to work out where you are going.”, and “Oh, it was an easy thing to do: assign thoughts and feelings to other people that are in fact your own, to read someone’s emotional map upside down. “ These are my favorite quotes because they describe the two main themes of the book.

[Sally906 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peggy Lockwood returns to Nelson Bay in NSW after living overseas for 30 years. Her mother has died and it is up to Peggy to pack her whole life away. As she tidies things up she slowly learns about her mothers past and the bearing it had on her own life. As she digs into the issues in her mother’s past, Peggy is also working out the present day issues she has with her husband back in the USA.

A very gentle read, a wonderful sense of place as I know the Nelson Bay area very well having spent many a summer at the nearby Fingal Bay. Was a little slow to start with, but once I got into it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I was aware of the influx of American military personnel into the area during WWII – but got a much great insight into the impact on the local community. Very well portrayed.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having to go back to her parent's house when her mother dies, Peggy finds several unexpected secrets while going through the things of her mother. The book goes back and forth between World War II when Peggy fell in love with a soldier and the 1970s when she was forced to go back home. This sensitive romantic drama offers insight into Newcastle and its surrounding regions during World War II and the early 1970s - I had the luck to be able to read the book with postcards and a map of the regions, easier to picture the places and giving it a special touch.

Found this book to be a very nice read, special to read about how people can get to know themselves and other persons just by reliving the present through remembering past experiences.
I liked it a lot, it gives more than you expect, not the most common love story you would expect.
The description of places in Australia makes you want to visit there.
Hoping one day to read more books of the same writer, it's a very promising book and nicely written!

[Robyn Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peggy was born and lived in Nelson Bay, NSW Australia. During WWII Americans took over the whole area to defend Australia. The Bay is a beautiful place, just like she tells in the story. She meets an American serviceman and eventually goes to USA with him, where she spends most of her life. Her domineering mother has always been a problem to her but she finds out the reason why when Peggy leaves USA and returns to Nelson Bay. The book is called Tomaree after the huge hill that juts out into the Pacific Ocean.

4 Feb 2019.....After a visit to Nelson Bay on the weekend I decided to read Tomaree for the second time. Just as good the second read.

[Sharon Robards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is set in my own backyard, so it was wonderful to see what the town I live in was like back during the WW2. Told in dual time periods, this is a gentle story told vividly of first love, parental love, and enduring love and how the past not only impacts the present but also how hindsight and full knowledge of our past can provide answers often hid in our memory.

I thought this was a lovely story with some wonderful poignant moments.

[Catsalive · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice story from a gentler time, despite the Wars. It reminds me of books I've read actually written in the same period this covered. The book has a slow, gentle rythm to it, much like the area it's set in, with occasional moments of fierceness. I enjoyed Peggy's discovery of her self and her family.

[Redfox5 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book started quiet slow. It wasn't until the last quater of the book that I really started to get into it and warm towards the charcters. I was getting fairly impatient with Peggy not picking up the phone to talk to Tom. I did really like the ending tho, thought it was really sweet.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story. The characters were believable & it was well researched.

[Mark Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the kind of book I would normally read, but I enjoyed this as it was set in an area I grew up in, which made the story more meaningful.

[Jennifer]

Didn't actually finish this book.

[Catherine Meyrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomaree begins in 1972 with Peggy Lockwood returning to Nelson Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales where she had grown up. In 1943 Peggy had married an American naval Lieutenant, Tom Lockwood, who was stationed at Nelson Bay and, as a war bride, Peggy had moved to the United States following the war. Peggy has returned because her mother, Helen Ashburn, has died and Peggy needs to set her mother’s affairs in order and sort through her belongings. Peggy has also left her husband after finding him in bed with his secretary. Peggy’s story is told in the first person.

There is other strand to the story, beginning in 1942, which follows seventeen year old Peggy Ashburn and Tom Lockwood from their first meeting. The attraction between them was immediate and an intense relationship develops quickly under the threat of a war drawing closer to Australia. By the time the story starts the Japanese had bombed Darwin and were in New Guinea and the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands was underway. Peggy’s relationship with her mother is prickly; Helen Ashburn is often harsh and angry at Peggy yet at the same time overprotective. This strand of the story is told in the third person and from the points of view of both Peggy and, to a lesser extent, Tom.

As Peggy sorts through her mother’s belonging, she find letters and photos which make her realize that there was so much that she did not know about her mother, secrets which may explain her treatment of Peggy and her attitude to life. Peggy also discovers Tom’s first letter to her which brings back, with painful immediacy, the depth and beauty of their relationship in its early days and causes her to reevaluate the way she has lived her life with Tom. The chapters alternate between 1972 and 1942 with the 1942 story moving forward towards Peggy’s eventual marriage while, in essence, the 1972 story works backwards as the older Peggy delves into the past trying to understand her mother.

The 1942 narrative is well researched and accurately captures the sensibilities of the time, and the story of Peggy and Tom’s love is gently developed yet with an intensity that lingered after I had finished the book. I found the 1972 narrative far stronger though, with the mystery of Peggy’s mother’s life at its heart; towards the end it almost became a page turner as I wanted to know why Helen Ashburn was as she was and what burdens of sorrow and experience she carried. The main characters are well drawn and believable although I would have liked to get a better sense of Tom as an older man. Tom’s point of view is not given in the latter section and we don’t get to fully understand why he turned to his secretary. We have what he says but not what he thinks, unlike at the start of his relationship with Peggy.

Robson’s prose is unobtrusive yet she is able to bring the beauty of the natural environment vividly to life such as in the moment when Peggy and Tom first meet in a sea of blossoming Christmas bushes. Overall, Tomaree is a gently told story of the way the past has an effect on the present, and how the uncovering of secrets can lead to understanding and re-evaluation of the present. A perfect Sunday read.