ALL THE NICE GIRLS
Joan Bakewell, £12.99
978-18440-86009
In 1936, as a result of an idea formulated by Lord Sandon – a member of the Education Committee of the London County Council – to interest his sons, the British Ship Adoption Society (BSAS) was founded and only a year later, some 400,000 children were involved in the scheme, with more than 1500 letters and 200 parcels a month passing through the BSAS offices in the heart of London’s shipping world.
Just before the outbreak of WW2, co-operation between BSAS and the Seafarers Education Service established the Merchant Navy Comforts Service and the Sea War Library, raising over £2m (equivalent to more than £40m today) to benefit merchant seamen during the war years. Encouraging the association of schools with ships and those that manned them, pupils visited their adopted ships and ship’s personnel visited the schools in turn during their leave periods – and this month’s book takes the BSAS as its starting point. Bringing together seemingly disparate people in a saga that ranges from 1942 – a time when the merchant convoys were suffering so badly - to 2003 when the secrets of the past are uncovered, this is essentially a romance, but as it’s written by the ever-intelligent Joan Bakewell (her first novel) it doesn’t descend into Mills & Boon sentimentality. The wartime era is captured and the themes played out: the awkwardness of couples meeting after long periods away from one another, both coping as best they can in trying circumstances; the pain of loss – of the living as well as the dead; the exuberance and hope of youth, as well as the battles at sea (given added veracity having been advised upon by no lesser authority than Richard Woodman).
The story begins in Ashworth Grammar School for Girls with the headmistress keen to broaden the horizons of her charges – in the manner of Miss Jean Brodie – but bringing them (and herself) into contact with the officers of the ss Treverran has far-reaching consequences that she could not have envisaged at the outset. So far, so Mary Wesley (or any other writer of WW2 sagas) but by introducing a counter-point narrative – which contrasts modern attitudes with those of 60 years ago – the novel steps up a gear and both eras are handled well. The denouement, when the two strands meet, is inevitable, but the story moves a-pace and would probably make a satisfying movie.
And the BSAS itself? Having evolved into Sealines and then webships, the idea still continues with the soon-to-be-launched Careers at Sea Ambassadors, sending seafarers – young and old – into schools to try and counter some of the lack of knowledge about life at sea.