‘Trumpet Morning’ by Maureen Peters

Published by Soundings Audio Books.

ISBN 1-84559-493-2 (6 Cassettes)

Read by Anne Cater

This is a delightful book, heartwarming and poignant, and beautifully read by Anne Cater with great precision and variety. It is not, however, a crime story, indeed, far from it. Nonetheless, it can be warmly recommended to Mystery Women readers.

The story is set in the island of Anglesey, furthest Wales (and to the Welsh known as Mona) in the period just before and during the first year or so of World War II. It is told through the voice of Nell Petrie, a young girl just coming into her teens. She is effectively an orphan since after her mother’s death her father left her in the care of his parents. Ellie’s grandfather Taid is a farmer and a lay preacher, fiery and fixed in his convictions, religious and otherwise, and set on dominating his family. Grandmother Nain is warm and motherly, yet being also part-gypsy has a wild streak different from and yet matching her husband’s blazing certainties not to mention the ability to cast spells and to foretell the future. And she is well able to out-manoeuvre Taid’s excesses so as to keep the family together.

Also living at the farm are two of Nell’s uncles, staid bachelor Ben and the youthful Guito, her two aunts, the long-engaged Marged and flirtatious Kathy, and Taid’s sister Ellen to whom something dreadful once almost happened as a result of which she has sworn off all men forever. Another uncle, Mark, lives nearby with his wife Flora and their son. To this rich mix is added the Petrie’s neighbour, the widow Rhiannon Jones, the beautiful young girl Olive, and Marged’s patient fiancé. When war breaks out matters take a bleaker turn and there is heartache as well as heartsease, but in the end all is resolved and Nell faces her own future with courage and optimism.

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Radmila May