A bit less rambling than the first in the series, not sure whether that’s a good thing or not now! I quite like the fact that the story switches endlessly from the point of view of one character to another; and I also quite like how the three teenage girls, Louise, Polly & Clary got their own chapters so they had more than a page or two to develop; but I’m not sure the two went together that well and I missed some of the minor characters from the first book. And there’s not really a storyline, which is no bad thing either. We are just watching the lives develop through the war and it’s interesting, a collection of interesting bits. Some are very insightful. The bit where everyone knows one of the characters is dying of cancer, including the character herself, but everyone thinks it is best kept to themselves is very well done. I’ll be reading more of this series soon.