Victor Pemberton
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The Silent War  
A moving and poignant account of a young girl overcoming handicap during World War Two
The Silent War
Sunday Collins is less than happy with her lot in life in bomb-blasted north London, working in the sweaty, steamy laundry round the corner from her home in a stark Holloway council flat known as ‘the buildings’ where she has been brought up by May Collins, a Salvation Army Officer who found her on the Sally Army steps along with her bossy sister Louie. Sunday lives for Saturday nights, when she makes the most of her Betty Grable looks at the Athenaeum Dance Hall. But Sunday’s recklessly lived life is changed dramatically when, one summer morning in 1944, the laundry receives a direct hit from one of Hitler’s V-1s, and she finds she is suddenly, and, she has to accept, permanently, deaf…
 

"It was several minutes before any logical thoughts formed in her mind. Yes, she was Sunday Collins all right. But she wasn’t seven years old. She was seventeen, a young woman, a beautiful young woman, with all her life ahead of her. But who were these people peering down at her, dabbing the sweat from her forehead, smiling sweetly, sympathetically. Why couldn’t she hear what they were saying to her? A nurse. A man in a white jacket. A doctor? Hospital? This was a hospital? And then she remembered. Slowly she remembered. The Bagwash. The sound of the flying bomb. The explosion. The screams. The silence…"
© Victor Pemberton 2004

‘Victor Pemberton is fast becoming a hugely successful popular novelist. His fourth London saga is a warm and wise evocation of a community at war and of a rebellious girl’s battle to come to terms with a sudden and devastating change in her life.’
World Books, November 1996

‘A great tale about a young woman’s wartime struggle’
Womans Realm, 26 November 1996

‘I bought ‘The Silent War’ by Victor Pemberton for the only fact that it was set during the war and I am glad that I did. Mr Pemberton is a great writer, who is able to make the reader feel like they are truly in North London during the war. Overall, ‘The Silent War’ is a really great book that shouldn’t be overlooked.’
Beth New, an Amazon online reviewer from Land O’Lakes, FL, United States

 
 
 © Victor Pemberton 2004 - 2008 top