This is the story of one woman and one house over the course of one hundred years. Like so many country houses, the time after the First World War was very difficult and sometimes led to the complete collapse of a way of life. That and death duties effectively crippled the families. The protagonist in Tall Chimneys is a woman trying to avoid this almost inevitable collapse and what we are reading is her memoir.

This book immediately appealed to me as it's right up my street. I love books where houses are as much of a character as any person and I like books that give some social history. However, I'll be honest here and say I wasn't sure I was going to like it when I started it. I wasn't sure I could engage with the characters, it started off with rather a strange, unsettling storyline and I had a bit of trouble getting into it.

But the more I read the more engrossed I became in the life of Evelyn Talbot who has an unbreakable connection with her family home. As the youngest child she has no real right to it but yet she is the one who is indelibly bound to stay there. I loved Evelyn. She's so strong and yet so naive in her remote country home away from all that is modern and changing the world in the 1930s and '40s.

And yet, Tall Chimneys does have the world outside brought to it as the abdication crisis in 1936, the Second World War, rationing and more all have their impact on Evelyn and the house. The inclusion of these important events really added to the social history feel of the story.

Evelyn was born in 1910 and the story comes to a close in 2010 but the whole of that time is not covered as I was initially expecting. But it does cover the most eventful years in her life. It reminded me a bit of Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster in that it takes in the life of a woman with all its trials and tribulations, sometimes mundane and sometimes amazing.

Tall Chimneys is not a book to be rushed. At 417 pages it's quite detailed and involved and I was sad when it came to an end. I found myself thinking about it afterwards, still caught up with the lives of these characters and the house that, whilst increasingly rundown, still captured my imagination and made me wish I could visit it in real life. The descriptions of it were such that I could absolutely imagine how it looked, in its own valley, the kitchen that Evelyn spent most of her time in, and the gatehouse which was so important to her.

Allie Cresswell's writing is so descriptive, so moving, so involving. She writes a wonderful love story and a truly rotten villain. It's a sweeping epic of a book and I ended up loving it. ( )

Set amidst the moors of Yorkshire, spanning a hundred years, this is the story of Tall Chimneys and its inhabitants told through the eyes of Evelyn, daughter of the house.

I enjoy books which have a house as a character and this is a good example of such. It definitely didn't disappoint! Tall Chimneys seemed to have a life of its own. The descriptions are very vivid and so easy to picture in my mind. The writing is very lyrical, it's beautifully crafted. Evelyn is such a strong character, too. She did remind me of a cross between the princess in the tower in a fairytale and a praying mantis! Beware any handsome man who comes her way! Her trials and tribulations are amazing. I felt her loneliness and isolation, having nowhere to run to other than the gatehouse where she found a form of peace and comfort . There is a great villain in the form of Sylvester Ratton, Evelyn’s brother’s sidekick. I cringed every time he appeared!

I very much enjoyed this engaging family saga and was totally absorbed and captivated by Evelyn's life. A lovely read. ( )