DEAR EVELYN

(And Other Stories £10, 320 pp) BRITISH-CANADIAN author Kathy Page cites her father as the co-author of this, her eighth novel: it was not only inspired by his wartime letters to her mother, but draws directly on them.

However, we begin several decades before, with the birth of baby Harry into a working-class South-London family. Diligent and determined, he lands a scholarship to a prestigious school and is instilled with a life-long love of verse. Then one day he meets proud, fiery Evelyn, a girl who shares his passion for reading.

Little do they know it’s the start of a relationship that will last 70 years. Page’s novel often reads like dramatised social history, with Harry and Evelyn facing the trials and privations of World War II — the book’s strongest section — and later steadily climbing the class and property ladders.

Though a familiar tale, it’s sharply drawn and told with an alertness to cliche, though I longed for a twist, and the pacing becomes uneven. Nevertheless, the concluding scenes, while sadly inevitable, are quietly devastating.