January book club - Crooked Heart

Started my copy of The Crooked Heart yesterday. It's going to be good, but won't have much time to read today. Look forward to getting home tonight, and reading more. Thank you Gransnet for my copy

Thanks for my copy, have just started it, hope I can read it in time to comment !

Just finished this book in one afternoon's reading. Enjoyed the book and agree that it leaves you empathising with all the characters even the ones you find flawed at first, but I am curious about the title.....

Thank you for my copy of The Crooked Heart. I'm enjoying reading it - great fun getting to know all the characters.

Finished my copy of " Crooked Heart", it was an easy read book, nothing taxing... just a pleasant read. Thank you.

I missed out on applying for this month's book - does anyone know when the February one will be listed and where should I look for it? Many thanks!

I received my copy on Christmas Eve which made a wonderful present. I have just finished reading it and have enjoyed it. I would really like to know what happens to Noel and Vee after the war, a sequel perhaps?

This is an unusual book. I enjoyed it and even found myself accepting the dishonesties of some of the characters. As mbody says, a sequel would be good to find out what happens next, not only to Noel and Vee but also Donald and his girlfriend.

A witty and amusing read which is very touching at times. Although set in wartime Britain it does not dwell on the undoubted horror of those days and brings dark comedy to them. A very easy read told in a lively style from a writer new to me but whose previous work I plan to read. Thanks to Gransnet for my copy and bringing Ms Evans' work to my notice.
Question: The biographical note in Crooked Heart says you have a life-long obsession with the home front. Could you say what fascinates you about that period?

Just finished reading this at first I felt the characters were mismatched but the relationship blossomed in a tender way. both funny and sad in parts a lovely read over the holiday period and easy to read straight through without losing interest. Thank you for the book.

I never received a copy of this book. (Disappointed).

Could anyone, once they have finished with their copy, maybe pass it on to me. I would pay postage. Thanks in anticipation.

Reply to DavidH22

I've been obsessed by the home front ever since reading a book called 'How We Lived Then', when I was 13 (it's by Norman Longmate, and is still in print). What really fascinates me in is the idea of ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times: trying - despite bombs, rationing, queues and shift-work - to get on with cooking decent meals, finding a hat to wear at a wedding, filling a child's stocking at Christmas or going out to see a film. Life was makeshift, tiring and uncertain, but people adapted with tremendous speed, and often managed to react the most awful circumstances with a certain wry humour...

Thanks for this book - very enjoyable and gave vivid insight of coping in the blackout, having to stay in air raid shelters, and the plight of evacuees not knowing who they were goung to be living with. The relationship between boy and foster mother was fascinating as it unfolded, esoecially with the fraudulent collections to provide them with an income. I'll look out for more from this author.

Thanks so much for this book.im half way thro and am really enjoying its quirkiness!

Thank you for this lovely book. I read it really quickly as it gripped me from the start. I've never read anything else by Lissa Evans but I will look for more now.
Such a heart warming story although no-one in this book was perfect- some were very far from it. Most of them were on the make for some reason but I'm sure that during the war it was this way for a lot of people- times were hard.
I'd love to know if Lissa based some of these scams on things she had heard actually happened or just imagined them. Especially the lad who took medicals for men who wanted to avoid the call-up - that must have been based on truth.
I loved the letter writing Gran too- I can well believe that happened quite a lot!
Perfect first read of the year! I'll do it with my Reading Group this year.

Hoping get into this book today has resting up due to virus!?

I really loved this wee book it was touching, funny, scandalous & exciting. The main characters are a right pair of chancers and it is hard to know at times who has the upper hand, the poor wee evacuee or his foster mum , who has only taken him in for financial reasons. It was nice to read a book about the war which focused on civilian life and the rigours of rationing etc. Highly recommended. Many thanks for the copy!

I finished last night at 4am. (That says it all!) I LOVED this book. I am keeping it to pass on to a friend. The story was wonderful. I'm so glad it ended the way it did. I'm going to spend my Christmas Waterstone voucher on another of the author's books.

I've just finished this lovely book and really enjoyed it. DH has now started reading it. I will look out for more by the author. Thanks for sending me a copy.

Thanks for sending me a copy of Crooked Heart, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this poignant story which made me smile and feel sad at the same time. Hope I'm not too late to ask the author some questions.

WARNING SPOILER ALERT - don't read my questions if you haven't finished reading the book would hate to spoil the ending.

1. Do you plan to write any more stories featuring characters from this book? Aileen Gifford and Mattie sounded a right hoot and I'd like to read more about they exploits during the suffragette movement. If you have no plans for a sequel then why didn't you add another chapter to the book telling us what Noel/Vee and Donald/Hilde were up to three/four years after the war ended? Did Vee eventually make it all legal and above board and stop living a lie.

2. Why did you place Noel back in a similar situation to the one he was in at the beginning of the story - living in a house with only an old woman for company and having to withhold the true from the outside world.

3. Why didn't you create more of a rapport between Noel and Mr Clare the bookshop owner? Was the reason because Noel had limited interaction with male role models growing up or because they were from different social classes.

4. Did you have any qualms about having Vee take on the identity of a dead person?

5. Have you had any first hand experience of dementia in your family/friends as I thought this was portrayed very well in the book.

Just had to put everything on hold and finish this book. Not what I expected from the title, but I absolutely loved it. Yes the characters are flawed but there is something endearing in them and I loved the way the relationship between Noel and Vera developed. The book surprised me in lots of ways and I really couldn't wait to get back to reading it. I loved the detail of wartime living. Having heard my mum's many stories about growing up in the war, I felt Lissa created a very believable setting and I definitely want to read her other Home Front book. Thanks Gransnet for introducing me to another great writer. And I love the idea of making a glad moment cake, why wait for a birthday!

Evans presents the reader with a bit of a moral dilemma in this novel. The two principle characters are far better than most of the others and their relationship is one that develops during the course of the story, going to a place that neither would have thought possible at the beginning.

In a sense they are not fully formed people and only become so, individually and as a pair, once they meet up and put their 'talents' together. However, where they are successful, but only in the short term, is not exactly legal. In fact, if it wasn't that the Blitz was just about to start (prompting the evacuation of Noel from the centre of London and his subsequent billeting with Vera) and the attention of the authorities being diverted elsewhere, there's very little likelihood that they would have been able to get to the end of the story without a meeting with the judicial system.

But they're not the only ones who are dabbling in illegality. War provides a great opportunity for some people to strike it rich, from the arms manufacturer getting his fill from the trough to the little con men (and women and boys) at the bottom. As with all cases of corruption (even the kind that's considered 'legal') it breeds a feeling of 'what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander'.

Even in the favourable times of the war they aren't necessarily going to benefit. Others are more mean and avaricious than they are and what was seen as a nest egg gets used to save an equally immoral conman who, through his own arrogance and stupidity, put himself in a dangerous situation. An ungrateful and deserting mother makes St Albans not a welcoming place to stay (if it ever was) and our duo of heroes find their place in London, where an unrecognised inheritance makes life easier than at first thought, though why the need to resurrect the dead I don't know.

Evans bangs the militant suffragette drum by introducing two women (although by the time of WWII a little bit doolally), one who formed Noel and the other who brings back memories of the first, both of whom had medals of honour from the conflict with the authorities. Although Noel is obviously an intelligent young lad he hadn't imbibed the skill of analysis from all his reading as he trots out the mantra of parliamentary cretinism when he criticises Vera for not voting. The Suffragettes should have also fought for something to vote for rather than just the opportunity of marking a cross on a piece of paper – even the most illiterate can do than.

By the end of the novel they are both 'settled' in the way you can be during a war; the Blitz has come to an end and the tide will soon turn (with the sacrifice and efforts of the Soviet Union) but we can see that Vera is already thinking up other scams. Will there be a second book in this series?

Hi Lissa,
I, like others here, really think there could be a sequel to crooked heart.
I loved how you described the heartfelt feelings of Noel as he pined in a very low key way for Mattie. It was very touching how he carried on with her little sayings and witticisms as a way of keeping her alive.
Did you have a Mattie character in your life that you have missed, but who perhaps you have kept 'Alive' through the book ?
Good luck with your writing and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next !

Brilliant book really enjoyed it and will be passing it on to my mother-in-law.
I'm going to see if I can get any other of Lissa's books.

May I ask what Lissa's next project is going to be?