I enjoy Meg Henderson's tales always enjoyable reading ( )

I love a good war tale. War is inextricably infused with passion, hope and loss. I had high hopes, dare I even say expectations, of finding these elements woven together in Daisy's War. By the middle of the novel I was puzzled at the author's style of writing. At the end the only word I can apply to it is 'flat'. I think this is mainly because the book suffers from a lot of telling, rather than showing, which is the cliche of sloppy writing; it's a cliche for a reason.

Daisy, the angry young WAAF, suffers some great losses, losses that could easily be described as tragedy. She chooses to keep this information to herself, however, carrying on at work like the staunch girl she pretends to be. I suspect it was the author's intent to further a picture of Daisy against the world (a common theme), yet it fails.

When Daisy finally reveals the truth, and extent, of her loss to her surrogate family I shared no emotion with her - there was none to share. In fact, at the end of her confiding I had a mental picture of Daisy brushing some crumbs from her skirt and saying 'Shall we have another cup of tea? Chipper!'

Over and over the reader is informed, ever so matter of factly, of the events and feelings that Daisy experiences (sometimes more than once). The author managed a great job of describing the culture of wartime Britain, but that's really all it is: description. While I'm sure it wasn't the intent to alienate the reader from the character, there is no way to access Daisy herself, and she truly is the remote persona the author created.