Small Bomb at Dimperley | Lissa Evans
REVIEWED BY LINDA HILL
At the end of World War Two, 23-year-old Valentine Vere-Thissett returns home to find his ancestral home of Dimperley falling apart and filled with dependent relatives demanding he takes responsibility for setting everything right…
Small Bomb At Dimperley: book review & synopsis
Small Bomb at Dimperley is absolutely delightful. Lissa Evans captures the end of an era with perception, tenderness and a sharp wit that makes the reader laugh aloud. Her eye for detail, the absurd and for human nature is total perfection.
The setting of Dimperley is so colourfully created that there’s a filmic quality. This ensures the reader can see into every corner of the house and behind every overgrown shrub in the surrounding gardens. It’s like being placed right in the area. The prose is effortless to read, often poetic and yet clear and precise, which illustrates its sublime quality and the craft and skill of the author.
Most of the plot is gentle and realistic so that it feels as if the story is about the actual lives of real people. It has dramatic moments that, in contrast, are all the more impactful. But most of the action is made up of those aspects of life that affect us all – bringing up children, small squabbles and rivalries, the maintaining of public appearance, family dynamics and doing the right thing. It’s these warmly and humorously illustrated moments that make the narrative so engaging and heart-warming.
Nostalgic and real
The characters are fantastic, encompassing all strata of society from unmarried mothers, through tradespeople to minor aristocracy. Valentine’s diffidence belies a courageous streak stronger than he imagines whilst the indomitable Lady Irene Vere-Thissett has a softer side she’d prefer to keep hidden.
I loved the effortless way Valentine’s obvious dyslexia and Ceddy’s limitations are a natural part of the story. Zena is the competent lynchpin who draws the whole action together so that it’s impossible not to want the very best for her.
Through Felix, Lissa Evans explores the distortion of memory with a lightness of touch that is pitch perfect. Killed in action, he is the reason why Valentine finds himself in charge at Dimperley.
With a nostalgic sense of time and society, fantastic people and stories of love, war and second chances, Small Bomb at Dimperley is an authentic, beautifully written and thoroughly entertaining story that makes the reader laugh aloud whilst creating an occasional lump in the throat. It’s just glorious and a real joy to read.
Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans is out now (Doubleday, HB, £18.99) and available from Amazon.
Read more fiction reviews by Linda Hill including The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers, Scandalous Women by Gill Paul, Island In The Sun by Katie Fforde, The Trap by Ava Glass, Look In The Mirror by Catherine Steadman and I Died On a Tuesday by Jane Corry.
