Flatlands

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This is a sad tale set in the middle of the 20th Century that’s distanced now so as to be a historical novel. A beautiful book about how connections and kindness, no matter how brief, can make a difference in someone's life. She has previously published in the UK three acclaimed novels and numerous collections of poetry, and was commissioned to create London's largest public art poem at Waterloo. From the stuffy train we could see gangs of women in the fields dressed in old sun bonnets and aprons, weeding rows of potatoes and stacking bundles of hay.

Based loosely on The Snow Goose by Gallic and set around Peter Scott’s lighthouse in Lincolnshire, it tells the story of an unlikely friendship between Freda and Philip, during WW2.

I didn't see how the message of that daily, thoughtful, caring/caregiving love was reflected in her life.

As they do so, Philip introduces Freda to the wonders of the natural world and its enduring power to heal. As she waited for that to happen literally and figuratively, she met Philip, ten years older and a broken man who connected deeply to nature and to the land. Does an excellent job of conjuring the consolations that can be found from withdrawing into nature, where the changing of the seasons and the routines of the wildlife offer their own companionship… Hubbard’s Lincolnshire Fens are imagined in all their bleakness and beauty. I've read that Sue Hubbard-a poet, novelist, and art critic- is revered by top critics and authors in the UK and has been likened to Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, and William Trevor.Sue Hubbard is revered by her peers and her talent has been compared to that of Colm Toibin, William Trevor and Anne Enright. It’s a novel of reminiscence that drifts back and forth between time zones and the two main protagonists, Freda and Philip . The story is told by means of flashbacks and present time stories, told by the narrator as she becomes elderly and lives in an old peoples home. In this novel Philip is an isolate who has lost his faith in God, has had a nervous breakdown and is a conscientious objector. Freda, meanwhile, is a London evacuee of about 12, taken in by an abusive family in the English Fens.