Turn Left at the Daffodils

by Elizabeth Elgin

A stirring Second World War tale of love and loss set in Yorkshire from the author of The Linden Walk and A Scent of Lavender. Set during World War 2, TURN LEFT AT THE DAFFODILS tells two love stories – those of Nan and Carrie. Nan meets Charles, a gauche, young airman at a dance. Despite his stammer and inability to dance, Nan is captivated by her first romance, and takes him under her wing. When Nan learns that Charles is from the landed gentry, she refuses his offer of marriage fearing that their difference in social status will ruin their chances of happiness. But it is the war itself which seems to end any hope for them when Charles is reported missing in action, believed killed, in the skies over Germany. Carrie starts a passionate affair following a chance encounter with Todd Coverdale on a railway platform in Lincoln. When Carrie finds herself alone and pregnant after Todd disappears without explanation, her only option is to leave the ATS and move to Daffy Cottage, the home Todd inherited from his Aunt. Will either woman find happiness after being left alone at a time of war, loneliness and difficult decisions?

Genres: Fiction

640 pages, Paperback

First published February 5, 2007

Reviews

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

Constant repetition and uninteresting characters made this a bit of a slog. As this was her last book I felt I should read it, but it can't compare to her earlier works.

[Jacula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last book that my dear friend Betty had published before her death in 2005. Betty was a WWII Wren and met her future hubby in a submarine depot. Her novels were set in her home county of Yorkshire and drew on her own experience and, of course, her wonderful imagination. The books are warm and truthful just like Betty herself was.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Listened to the audio version of this.
The description was not quite accurate. Carrie never became pregnant, I wonder why it states that? There were actually 3 girls this book centered on. I did read that the author passed away before this book was finished, so perhaps it was not written as the author intended.
The book was quite long and a lot of depth was put into what it was like living in England during WWII. Specifically, what it was like to be in the ATS.
Carrie was meant to be the main character I think, but it was Nan's story that stole the show.
Carrie is engaged to be married and she did everything she could to avoid this wedding, including joining the army. She allowed her mother, fiance', and her fiance's mother to completely run her life. She had no backbone at all and even when she realized that she was in love with another (She meets up with Todd, her teenage crush in the last 1/4 of the book) she still does not end things. I wanted to slap her silly.

[Sandra Schug · Rating 5 out of 5]

love all Elizabeth's books

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in England, 1941, 3 young women join the ATS. This book is mostly fluff, but I honestly enjoyed it. Yes, there is a lot of romance in here - enough that would make a person start to believe that it was a "romantic" time period in which to live, despite the fears, bombings, and rationing. What I truly wish I could do, is ask my husband's mother (long deceased now, before I came on the scene, sadly) what it REALLY was like to be a young woman during WWII in England. Maybe in Heaven I'll get the chance to question her about it :-) If you love the time period, and can tolerate a fair bit of romance, you'll like the book. Only problem I had was the constant description and mention of buying tea, drinking tea, boiling water for tea, putting saccharin in tea, filling a pot with tea..... etc etc etc. TOO much about tea!!!! Oh well. :-)

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found parts of this book poorly written and hard to follow. I think the author may have died before she had a chance to finish editing. I also kind of lost patience with Carrie for continuing her engagement to Jeffrey when it was evident to her that theirs was not a good relationship. I also thought that Carrie was quite mean-spirited towards her mother at the end. In spite of the flaws, however, I liked this book. It’s only my second book by Elizabeth Elgin, and I want to read more. This was her final book.

[Kelly Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, the characters are real, believable and likeable. I felt like I was there with them. As much as I loved the ending I would still loved to have continued their story.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the story about three women who meet in the Army during the war. Its about their lives and prospective fiances and how they help each other out.

[Carol Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it

[Sheila Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book although it made the war sound a little romantic which is far from the reality.

[Rose]

I liked this perhaps more than I should have, because I felt a little bit like I was caught up in a trashy and deeply predictable romance story that seemed more respectable because of its historical nature, but I still liked it. Having said that, it suffers from repetitiveness and would have benefited from being slimmed-down; there's only so many times the reader can tolerate Carrie musing about her fiance's lack of lovemaking skills and how the couple need to discuss this. I also felt the characterisation suffered from a lack of subtlety that made it hard to perceive the characters as real or credible (this is especially true for Geoffery and Carrie's mother).

These flaws make more sense now that I know that Elizabeth Elgin died before completing the book, but better editing would have compensated in part for the revisions Elgin was not able to make.

One strange aspect is the blurbs, which are just plain wrong. On the audiobook I had, the story is described as set in Yorkshire (no, Lincolnshire), and that Evie is awaiting Nan and Carrie when they arrive at Heronfleet (no, they all arrive together). Stranger still is the description on Amazon.co.uk: it accurately summarises Nan's part in the story, but describes Carrie's as:

"Meanwhile, Carrie starts a passionate affair following a chance encounter with Todd Coverdale on a railway platform in Lincoln. When Carrie finds herself, alone and pregnant after Todd disappears without explanation, her only option is to leave the ATS and move to Daffy Cottage, the home Todd inherited from his Aunt."

This is bizarre - it's absolutely nothing like the story. I'm at a loss to understand it!

[Kathleen Hagen]

Turn Left at the Daffodils, by Elizabeth Elgin, produced by Isis Audio, narrated by Patricia Gallimore, and downloaded from audible.com.

This is a WW II story about three women who join the transport division of the army to perform as drivers, message encoders, and other things as well. They each have their own reasons for joining. It’s 1941 and England has already been at war for two years. Evie’s husband, Bob, is overseas. She won’t see him for some time, so she joins to do her bit for the war effort. Nan is an orphan whose step-mother wants her to take over care for a small half-brother. She doesn’t want to live her life that way, so joins the army transport unit to gain some freedom. Carrie has lived her life under her mother’s thumb. Her mother and her fiance’s mother have plotted and planned throughout their lives for them to get married. Carrie isn’t at all sure she wants to get married to Jeffrey, especially when she remembers a boyhood friend, Todd. Carrie joins also to gain some freedom and independence. The three women live together and share each other’s woes and joys. All three end up finding love. A comfort read but with lots of information about the hard times of war in England with rationing and victory gardens. Patricia Gallimore is a very good narrator of British books. She does male voices very well, sounding somewhat like Barbara Rosenblatt, whom I also love as a narrator.

[N.J. Layouni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although M's Elgin wrote one of my favourite books, I have to say this one really disappointed me. It was pure...meh. I did finish the book but it didn't set my world on fire. I found it difficult to give a damn about any of the main characters. In fact, I can't even remember their names and I only finished reading a couple of days ago.

The one character I do remember is Chas, boyfriend of the Liverpudlian MC. He was one of the crew on a Lancaster bomber. Memorable because of his stammer and because I was trying to anticipate the moment his plane would go down. And it did, btw. No more spoilers, but it was all very predictable, imo.

Too much detail of the banal, and not enough of the important stuff, imo.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got to the point where I picked this book up any spare second I had, I wanted to find out how the lives of these 3 girls were going to turn out. There were a couple of twists, one more predictable than the other but it didn't matter. Really enjoyable book :0)

[Lin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too fluffy and light for my liking. Three girls serving in the army during WW2 should be a winner. But this book could have taken place at any other time and I think only its length (630 pages) saved it from being classed with Mills and Boons.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable story, set in WW11, about three girls in the ATS, lovely characters, a plausible plot, well written. Not too much angst (unlike the previous novel I read), but not airy fairy either! Its a fine balance which a good author gets right and poorer ones don't.