A lovely book full of characters that you can relate to, well written and easy to read
( )

The Moon Field is a historical novel set during World War I, portraying the impact of the war on two young women and one man in a Lake District village. Kitty Ashwell is the postmaster’s daughter and works at the Post Office with her parents and other staff including postman George Farrell. He is smitten with beautiful, upper class Violet, but Violet was hoping to get engaged to Edmund who has gone off to fight.

The story includes accounts of work at the village post office, which I found quite interesting, of the fighting as George soon enlists, and of how events affect the characters.

This was an enjoyable enough read but quite predictable . ( )

The main character in this book is George Farrell, a postman who signs up to go and fight in the First World War. He is smitten with Violet, the daughter at the local Manor House but when he finds out she is smitten with someone else George makes the rash decision to go to war. He leaves behind his family and his good friend, Kitty.

The book is in three parts: the first is civilian life and sign up; the second is Flanders and fighting; and the third is dealing with life back home. I did find the first part quite difficult to engage with, and I suppose it's like a lot of war novels, you know that it's building up to the action part of it. Whilst I thought this was a well-written book, it didn't really draw me in as much as I would have liked and I never had that much empathy for the characters. Despite the subject matter, I didn't come away with much of a feeling for the horror of war, or how the men dealt with life after their fighting days were over. Nevertheless, I do think it will appeal to a lot of people and will be a good read for the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI in 2014. ( )