Kate’s War

As Kate Murphy, a twenty-year-old woman living on the outskirts of London with her family, begins to contemplate leaving home and launching herself into a singing career, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declares war has begun with Germany. Although she recognizes the enormity of the moment and stands on the side of her country fighting for its freedom from German invasion, Kate’s personal disappointment is profound. Her older sister, Clare, has managed to begin her life with a husband and a move to the United States. Even younger brother, Ryan, at fourteen, seems to be able to make his dream of leaving home a reality when he presses to leave London with a wave of child evacuees. Kate, instead, seems unable to free herself from feeling duty-bound to spend war time with her parents, and in particular unwilling to stand up to her anxious mother and claim her independence.

In addition to duty and the war holding her back, Kate also wrestles with memories of a failed love relationship and a stage fright that causes hiccups so severe they threaten her ability to perform. She recalls the nickname her sister gave her when she was six—Caterpillar—because she’d brought home a caterpillar to watch its transformation into a butterfly. All these years later, she can only lament that she “…wasn’t a butterfly. Not free, like Clare.”

As Kate struggles ahead amid war, her life begins to entwine with the lives of new friends and mentors, all of whom enrich her days and and bring insight to her life. Lydia, who arranges musical events, and Barry, a violinist, encourage her to press on with her desire to sing, with Barry even recommending a speech therapist who might help her overcome her crippling nerves. The work she does with Mr. Conway helps her understand that what has been holding her back is herself, not bad luck. “I’ve been at war with myself all these years,” she thinks, realizing that the life she wants has been within reach all along. All she needed to do was make something of what she was given rather than measure herself against what others had. With more confidence, Kate begins to sing once again in public and continues to teach music in a local school. A brief meeting with a German immigrant mother introduces her to a musically talented young Jewish girl whose destiny she will be able to shape.

Linda Stewart Henley’s very readable novel is grounded in the historical fact of the time. As well as referencing the day-to-day personal sacrifices of the average family, such as growing victory gardens and rationing goods, Henley also works in fascinating details about Operation Pied Piper, the Mass-Observation diaries project, and the code breaking efforts happening at Bletchley Park. The details are woven into Kate’s story so expertly that the reader is drawn into caring about this one family’s particular world in wartime.

Henley saves the most poignant piece of history for the very last part of the novel. Kate, knowing she must help young Hannah Bell out of England to safety in the US, joins the Children’s Overseas Reception Board as an escort who will travel with at-risk children on the SS Volendam. History tells us the ship was torpedoed by the Germans and a daring full scale rescue to a second ship had to be made. Instead of continuing on to freedom, however, the ship full of evacuees is returned to England.

The book ends rather abruptly as Kate recounts these exploits to her friend, Sybil. This is only 1940, very early in the war, and I found myself wishing that Kate might have reflected more on the fates of children like Hannah as they went back to uncertainty in England. Instead, the thoughts are for her own future and all that is unknown for the fate of the country. It’s a minor quibble, though, in the arc of an otherwise complex and compelling story. Fans of historical fiction, especially wartime historicals, will find a rich tale in Kate’s War.