22 Britannia Road

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 25th March 2019.

22 Britannia Road. Amanda Hodgkinson.

The reading group seemed to find many positive things to say about this book: we thought it was a touching story; sad without being pathetic or indulgent; interesting; convincing; and a good representation of a factual situation that had happened to many people. We all liked the characterisation, and those who had visited Poland thought the descriptions of this country were very accurate.

We discussed various issues that arose out of the book – post-traumatic stress; post-war difficulties, especially involving children; displaced lives; Polish people in England during and after World War Two; and the problems faced by orphaned children. We also compared linear narratives and non-linear ones.

We all agreed that this was a sympathetic account of people whose life-path had been removed, and we talked about some of the symbolism in the book – Silvana's name, with its connotation of the woods that she loved so much; Janusz mending everything he could, in an attempt to put his fractured life back together; the removal of the suburban garden and the planting of 40 trees instead, to try and give Sylvia and Aurek back their Polishness and their security instead of trying to appear British.

However, all through our discussions there was a thread of dissatisfaction with the book. Despite it being enjoyable and easy to read (on the whole), comments were that readers 'got nothing from it'; it 'did not engage' the reader; and that it was a powerful subject but not powerfully enough dealt with. We felt that it compared unfavourable with Helen Dunmore's The Siege. In short, and despite many good elements, it has to be said that the group found this book superficial.

This book creates a good idea of what it would have been like to be a post-war immigrant.