Pains from the Past

WAR

Pages: 418 Ratings:

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At the close of the last millennium, Grace Moran is living in a care home, suffering with dementia, and having time to look back on her life.

Grace was born in 1917, in the Suffolk village of Hartley Halt, where her grandfather was the rector at the village church. Her father, Gerald Whittingham, had been invalided out of the army, having been blown up and gassed and was suffering from severe mental issues.

The Second World War was underway and Grace, now a young woman, no longer wanted to stay in this stifled community; she moved to London, where she shared a flat with Mary. Having secured a clerical position working in Churchill’s War Rooms, she returned home one morning, after a night shift, to discover the house had been blown up and so had Mary.

Through the next five years, Grace experienced the horrors, the loves and losses of war, finally meeting Charles Moran on VE Day, 1945. They married two years later, having two children. Married life, for Grace, was not always an easy ride and she was afflicted with many emotional and difficult decisions. And now living in a care home, she has the time to reflect on the past, as well as worrying about her daughter, Robyn, in the present.

John F Wilson was born in North London in 1953, and after attending a local prep school, completed his education at Culford School, near Bury St Edmunds, where his love for sport took first place over academia. Upon leaving school, he joined the family business, elevating to managing director in 1988 and to this day still keeps an eye on company business.

John always wanted to be a novelist, and Pains from the Past is his fourth novel. He has three daughters, two step-daughters and one step-son and lives with his wife in Hertfordshire.