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Small Bomb At Dimperley by Lissa Evans
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Small Bomb At Dimperley

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Narrator Lucy Briers

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Length 8 hours 27 minutes
Language English
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Discover the heartwarming, witty, and poignant new historical novel about changing (sometimes reluctantly) with the times set in the aftermath of WW2, perfect for fans of Maggie O'Farrell and Rachel Joyce.

It's 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home.

But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever.

And worst of all - following the death of his heroic older brother - Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place. To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave.

But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own…

Funny, sharp and touching, Small Bomb at Dimperley is both a love story and a bittersweet portrait of an era of profound loss, and renewal.

'Generous, touching and romantic' Clare Chambers

'Incredibly assured and affecting... the perfect novel to be read in such dark times’ Graham Norton

'Wodehouse meets Barbara Pym… Funny, poignant, perfect' Daisy Goodwin

©2024 Lissa Evans (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Lissa Evans has written books for both adults and children, including the bestselling Old Baggage, Their Finest Hour and a Half (filmed as Their Finest), Small Change for Stuart and Wed Wabbit, both shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and Small Bomb at Dimperley.

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Limited-time offer

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Reviews

An irresistible novel which combines a crumbling once-grand house, bumbling aristos clinging to the pre-war past, and the magnificent Zena Baxter, one of my all-time favourite heroines. This is Lissa Evans at the peak of her mighty powers Funny poignant, perfect period detail…it’s as if Barbara Pym and Evelyn Waugh had a secret love-child…Heaven! A glorious read. I laughed many times rejoicing in the wit, cleverness and humanity This is better than Wodehouse, in my humble opinion, because it's believable as well as funny … Lissa Evans is a great comic writer and her portrait of an aristocratic family trying to cling to its privileges in the unforgiving aftermath of WW2 is all the funnier for being generous, touching and romantic rather than mean I loved this. Brilliantly funny, moving and joyous. Also, there’s a perfect moment – when one character moves from liking someone to love Expand reviews
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