The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson: book review

The Summer Before the War (2016) is set in Rye in East Sussex on the English coast in 1914.

Hugh Grange is on the verge of becoming primary assistant surgeon to Sir Alex Ramsey and being in love with his daughter Lucy. He is staying with his aunt Agatha Kent, uncle John (a senior official in the Foreign Office) and cousin Daniel, an aspiring poet, in the idyllic seaside town of Rye for his summer holidays.

Beatrice Nash arrives in Rye as the new Latin Master in the local school after the death of her father left her penniless. She is studious, but also progressive and good-looking. And she is boarding in Agatha’s house. Not everyone is happy about a young woman working, making her own living, being independent, and on her own – it just isn’t ‘proper’ and ‘respectable.’ Besides, they have heard that she does ‘frivolous pursuits’ such as writing and poetry.

As war is imminent, Sir Ramsey has asked Hugh to accompany him to France as part of the Army Medical Corps. Daniel has enlisted too, just as his poetry is published and praised. Before the men of the village go to war, the village holds a farewell ball, a dance. Both Lucy and Beatrice are at the ball.

However, Beatrice’s progressive attitudes are annoying some people and the limits of progress are tested. The war too tests people’s resolve and attitudes. Hugh works relentlessly as a surgeon near the front lines. Some men returned to England, others didn’t. Some women didn’t wait for their loved ones to return, others did.

This is an entertaining read, aimed at highlighting the role of war poetry, and the public reactions to the lines of verse at the time of war. The love story overtakes the war poetry theme, and I would have preferred a stronger emphasis on the war poet and the war surgeon.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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