The Chestnut Tree

It is the summer of 1939, and the residents of the idyllic fishing village of Bexham are preparing for war. Beautiful Judy Melton, daughter of a naval war hero, the social butterfly Meggie Gore-Stewart, seemingly demure Mathilda Eastcott, and Rusty Todd, the tomboy daughter of the owner of the local boatyard, are all determined to play an active role while their husbands and brothers, fathers and lovers are away fighting. But knitting socks and dodging bombs are not what they have in mind. However, it is not just the young women who are determined to find new roles for themselves - so are their mothers. In this manner the little Sussex port, facing as it does the coastline of Nazi-invaded France, finds its closely sewn social fabric beginning to unstitch, inch by inch. The women of Bexham meet under the chestnut tree on the green to look back on a landscape that has changed irrevocably, and which they have helped to alter. None of them is the same as before, and yet, as the men return from war, they are expected to slip back into their simple roles of mother, daughter, grandmother. Only the chestnut tree continues to flourish in the accepted fashion, becoming the uniting symbol of all that has passed forever.Biographie de l'auteurCharlotte Bingham comes from a literary family - her father sold a story to H. G. Wells when he was only seventeen - and Charlotte wrote her autobiography, CORONET AMONG THE WEEDS, at the age of nineteen. Since then, she has written comedy and drama series, films and plays for both England and America with her husband, the actor and playwright Terence Brady. Her published novels include the highly acclaimed bestsellers SUMMERTIME, THE SEASON, THE BLUE NOTE, THE LOVE KNOT, THE KISSING GARDEN, LOVE SONG, TO HEAR A NIGHTINGALE, THE BUSINESS, IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW, STARDU