In the Dark by Deborah Moggach

In the Dark Reviews

• 
  Nigel

  Not a bad read - in a sense a "coming of age" tale. Set in London during the first World War it focuses on a landlady whose husband has gone to war and who has a teenage son (with all that that entails!!). It also features a local butcher who is very interested in the landlady. The thing about Moggach is the she writes very vivid characters and this book is a good example of that. Can't say the story was riveting and it tended towards predictability but the characters were good.
• 
  Eleanor

  Not as good as "Tulip Fever", but still an enjoyable read.
• 
  Mark

  ’The truth was that nobody took a plain person seriously. The didn’t give them their full attention, there was always somebody else to catch their eye.’
  
  The author captures time and place so effortlessly like all good story tellers, with her attention to detail, in her characterisation, vivid description and a well observed dialogue, appropriate to the age.
  She challenges the reader’s passive acceptance that things will always be as they are and shows that war was a great facilitator of change. The most visible change is in Mrs Eithne Clay, the owner of the grubby guest house, that is home to a variety of odd ball characters. She, herself, is a flighty sort and her dramatic transformation from a morose but hard working widow into a sexually dynamic companion, albeit a very gullible second wife, for the incorrigible local butcher, Neville Turk, is a joy to behold.
  
  It is the absolute random nature of war that brings the unexpected rushing to the fore, and ushers in the dynamics of change that threatens to unseat and unhinge and unsettle…and it does all three in this lively, well paced novel.
  
  And into ordinary lives of ordinary people there comes the element of uncertainty and in flash everything is different. Fear of imminent death concentrates the mind and life is suddenly run at a fast and furious pace where everything is in fast forward mode…grab the moment...seize the opportunity as life is a fleeting moment....and it is a new and unavoidable reality that we must accept and make the best of…
  
  ‘Let’s just say that war strips a man down to his essentials.’
  
  So war, in all its aspects, is a great opportunity for some while for others it is a brutal calamity.
• 
  Anna

  I loved this! Reads like a good PBS Masterpiece series from the UK. A story about a London family directly affected by the Great War and its aftermath. A nice easy story with moving ending -- good summer beach reading.
• 
  Susan

  This novel is the anecdote to the contrived plot and one-dimensional characters of Hanna's Nightingale. Like Nightingale, there is a war time setting with women managing while most able-bodied men are enlisted or have been killed in battle. But the story lacks Nightingale's plot inconsistencies and weirdly modern anachronisms. The characters are well defined and memorable. I was concerned for Winnie and Ralph in particular. Wonderful plot twists.
• 
  Lady Drinkwell

  A wonderful read about a lodging house during the first world war. Lots of great period detail, rather steamy at times.. even shocking.. when what goes on "in the dark" is described.. with many vivid characters. Although it all takes place in England the effect of the War on the various characters movingly depicts the horror of that time.
• 
  Arieke Oolders

  Ik heb het boek gelezen met wat tegenzin. Het verhaal begon mij al snel te vervelen. De personages waren voor mij niet zo springlevend, beetje vlak. Ik had er meer van verwacht.
• 
  Patriciagoodwin

  An excellent read. The characters are truly alive & realistic. The feel of London life during WW1 was superb. And really this is the novel together with surprises that appear throughout. I will definitely look out for other fiction from this author.
• 
  Olivia

  Although it seems a rather simple story as a whole, there was so much that I loved about this book.
  
  1) The character studies
  The Butcher (Neville) profits on the scarcity and desperation that the war has caused throughout London. He reaps the benefits of being among the only men left by seizing on others' misfortune and loneliness. He has affairs with the widows and women, buys up all the property he can, and runs a black market food supply operation.
  I loved Winnie's story, her simple love of her horses, her obsession with being a good maid, the fling with Alwyne... She was the most likable female character in the novel.
  We also see what PSTD would have looked like after WWI through one of the characters. It is something I always hear about nowadays in America after the recent wars. It is appalling really, how much the government relies on these men to fight for our way of life, and then abandons them when they return as very broken men. It hadn't really occurred to me that this has always been the case after any war and in any country. And 100 years ago before advancements in the study of psychology it would have been much more difficult to suffer from PTSD without being ridiculed by society. This becomes very vivid by the end of the story.
  
  2) The role of animals
  The stories of the horses as a mode of transportation, and as tools in war, were extremely heart breaking. When I think of WWI I would never think of horses, and yet they lived it too, and suffered, and died, and were mistreated. It was appalling some of the passages of fallen horses in the streets, and other ways they were used in this era. And it made me realize how large the cost of war truly is. Because we are not the only ones that suffer. We as humans create these wars for various reasons, bias, and political agendas, and yet we take the helpless and innocent along with us. We destroy not only ourselves, but animals too. What a sad and violent thing a human war machine is. It made my heart ache thinking of the lives of these horses.
  Another animal we see from beginning to end is the family dog, who has a bit of a personality all his own, and offers a constant, and a comfort to those whose lives are so dramatically altered by the turn of events around them
  
  3) Technology
  How fascinating this was! I loved seeing the changes in the house, the installation of plumbing, a telephone and electricity. Of course, we all know that at some point these upgrades to daily life happened, but I have never really wondered what it must have felt like to actually live through such changes. I really loved this small aspect of the story.
  
  So in summation, there is really nothing negative I have to say about this novel. I suppose I wanted a more definitive ending in regards to "what next", but it was an enjoyable read. I think I will have to pick up another one of her books.
• 
  Shonna Froebel

  This tale set in Southwark during World War II, is of a teenage boy and his mother, running a rooming house. The father has been killed in the war, and the two are struggling to make ends meet, especially after the rationing begins. The maid, Winnie, is from the country, and acts like an older sister to the boy, Ralph. The local butcher, Neville Turk, is attracted to the mother and woos her by "helping out", sending her nice cuts of meat, and arranging delivery of coal when they run low. This strategy works, and as he marries Eithne and moves into the house, he begins making changes, starting with the addition of electricity. Ralph rebels by becoming a vegetarian and befriends one of the tenants, who is blind. Winnie also befriends Alwyne, reading to him in the evening. As the war continues, Turk continues his plans for the property and shows little regard for others' feelings. Ralph continues his transition to adulthood and Alwyne turns out to be aware of more than others think. An interesting story, told with subtlety and humour.
• 
  Katie

  Moggach has written a wonderfully researched and compelling World War I novel that barely ventures outside the confines of South London. Eithne Clay runs a boarding house full of doomed and damaged people. While her husband is at the front, she is assisted by her son, Ralph, and their maid, Winnie. Through this misfit group of people, Moggach tells the story of the homefront - of deprivation, uncertainty, tragedy, and the human cost of war, even for those far from the action. Her characters are well-developed and the story moves along at a good pace. I became invested in the characters and loved the ending. A really good read.
• 
  Lori Anderson

  I love Deborah Moggach's books, and was delighted to find this one is historical fiction. Set in World War I, the story revolves around one of Moggach's favorite themes -- how people living in a hotel relate to each other, the secrets they hide, and the surprises they reveal. I read it in one night and was a disaster of exhaustion the next day -- but it was well worth it.
  
  Highly recommend.
• 
  Sue

  What we do to survive, how we mould the world to be as we want it to be, how we judge people and put them into boxes then get upset when they show their individualness. A unique take on life at the end of the war and how different people cope with war inflicted stresses.
• 
  Marsha Klein

  I found the story line compelling, but was disappointed in the (for me) unsatisfying ending.
• 
  David

  This book certainly has atmosphere. The crumbling South London boarding house with a curious mixture of lodgers. Set in the middle of WW1, the hardships at home are vividly portrayed. At the centre is Eithne Clay and her 16 year old son Ralph. His father is a casualty of the war and he misses him terribly. Less so his mother and her relationship with Mr Turk, the dreadful butcher, effects the household in different ways. I thought that Winnie, the ugly housekeeper, was a wonderful character, her beautiful mistress less so. An enjoyable, if not happy, story that pitches us headlong into wartime London.
• 
  Rachel

  "1916. Pretty Eithne Clay runs a ramshackle South London boarding house with the help of her teenage son, Ralph, and their maid, Winnie. Struggling to keep herself, her lodgers, and her son going as every day life vanishes in the face of war, Eithne's world is transformed by the arrival of Mr Turk, the virile, carnal, carnivorous local butcher who falls passionately in love with her. As the house bursts to life with the electricity - metaphorical and real - he brings, dark secrets come to light."
  
  This was an enjoyable read with some fascinating characters.
• 
  Lorreine Kennedy

  This is the first of Deborah’s books I’ve read- even though I’ve obviously seen the Exotic hotel a few times (and love it). First up, what a lovely quirky and easy read! I think I may have got this via kindle unlimited, which makes me feel even better. I didn’t really know much about the book, but I found the period of the book and the characters thoroughly engaging. At times I laughed and thought it was a comedy. Ralph (the heroines son) irritated me on a number of occasions. All in all, I loved the book and will read another of hers.... enjoy!
• 
  Laurean Wilson Reynolds

  I read In the Dark because I loved Tulip Fever and wanted to read another Deborah Moggach book. So glad I did! Brilliant, enthralling, emotionally touching, exquisitely layered historical fiction. Reminiscent of Sarah Waters, The Paying Guests. The loving character, Winnie, servant of all jobs, will not be forgotten. Highly recommend.
• 
  Linda Burnham

  On the surface a sensual domestic drama, played out in a boarding house run by a Great War widow, Moggach skillfully blends in details of the trauma of the war for those on the home front and especially for the soldiers on the front line. A very satisfying read.
• 
  Jo-Anne Barker

  I loved 'Tulip Fever' and this is one of the many books I have from this author. Her writing is so real. This book gives an insight into how people suffered during the war period while still going about their daily lives.
• 
  Ina Gottlieb

  Enjoyed it start to finish. Good writer!