Having heard an interview with the author I thought this was a story worth following up. I appreciated the insights into various facets of living through the war both in England and with the Malta bombardment but the story as a whole didn't quite gel. There seemed to be moments of clarity in the story telling but then it seemed like the whole part about the disenfranchised children Mary took under her wing just got left aside or forgotten. Ultimately I felt that there was an effort to tell too many stories in one.