THE LAST TELEGRAM - ARTFUL READERS - FEBRUARY REVIEW

My February book for the Artful Reader's Club was 

The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow,

read on my Kindle for 99p - a bargain for such a good book.

----oOo----

And for a bit of relevant history, this is the actual telegram that my mother received in 1942 when my father's ship was sunk in WW2 (but with the personal details blanked out).

  

NEGATIVES FOR 'THE LAST TELEGRAM':

• Um ..... um ........ um ...... um ..... can't think of any negatives

POSITIVES:

• I loved every page of this book, informative, emotional and true to life, well-paced, with believable characters, and very well written
• The WW2 background is about events I lived through, which gave it a special resonance for me, though the war is not the main focus.
• I learnt things I never knew, or things I hadn't realised or given thought to previously, so it kept my interest going all the way through
• Reduced to basics it's about silk, silk manufacture, love, prejudice against those who are 'different', and, I realised at the end, about how WW2 gave women the opportunity to move towards greater emancipation
• The silken thread that holds the story together is love of many kinds, including the tenderest of love stories whose quality pervades the whole of the book
• No romping, steamy sex passages, just a beautifully crafted story that rings true on every page
• As the end of the book approached the tears flowed fairly regularly, not really because the events were sad, but because of the tenderness with which the story is told
• I often find the conclusion of a book disappointing, but The Last Telegram sustained its quality right to the very last page, and the author's comments at the end were just as interesting
• Husband enjoyed it just as much
• I gained so much from reading it, and I hope you are encouraged to add it to your Wish List.

ARTWORK:

Such a full book that I wondered how I would find one image that picked out the central focus of the story for me.

As I finished the last page, this image jumped into my mind and I just drew it straight away.

I had to resist frequent temptations to 'improve' it 

because it just felt 'right' to me.

Pitt Artist's Pen and Inktense Pencils

Jez