2006-12-08 Enjoyable story about WW2 and its build up

"The Little Ship" is about The Rose Of England, a tiny ex-fishing boat owned by two brothers who sail it on a small river near their home - until the evacuation from Dunkirk when the ship plays its part.

The story focuses on six people - Lizzie, her cousins Matt and Guy, a Viennese Jewish girl who comes to live with Lizzie called Anna and Otto, a young German man whose father is part of the Nazi organisation and who enrols his son in an English school in order for him to spy. We follow the lives of the young English people as they grow up in the 6 years before the war and we also follow Anna's experience of coming to England to avoid the looming problems in Europe and yet not really understanding it at such a young age.

What I particularly liked about this book was the way that Anna and Otto's view of England is shown. Initially neither of them fit in as they can't understand all the idiosyncrasies of England and its inhabitants but over time they begin to understand the people with whom they interact and to feel more at home. Otto ends up fighting the war on the opposite side from the other characters in this story and yet when he meets up with Guy and Anna in France the legacy of the time he has spent with them in England affects his behaviour.

Margaret Mayhew doesn't really delve that deeply into people's emotions and characters - she gives us fairly broad brush strokes of what makes these people tick. However her evocation of the general feelings at the time, both German and English, are very well drawn and the book is an easy and interesting read.