Constance and Me (The Diamond Path): Jo Buchanan Hay

Dear. It was always Dear. Never Darling, or Sweetheart, or any of those little pet names used by old marrieds. Just Dear. … Perhaps she called him Dear to make up for the fact that he wasn’t, not any longer.

Constance and Me is about the Gardiners, a close-knit London family in the 1920s and 30s. When war begins the womenfolk evacuate to the country. The book relates their wartime experiences and new lives in a remote village as they sustain each other in uncertain times.

By 1945 a dreadful mistake has been made. All the family except Constance return home, and the story now focuses on the new village schoolmarm and the consequences of her mistake.

Interspersed throughout the narrative are the later visits of Con’s niece Joyce, the narrator, who gradually finds out what this mistake was, and how similar in many ways she is to her beloved aunt.

Did Auntie cry for my single parenthood, thought Joyce, or for her own childlessness? Could she have borne married life more easily with a baby? Perish the thought. But whose baby anyway?

Constance and Me has been likened by reviewers to Little Women, Larkrise to Candleford, and even to Cider with Rosie. If you enjoy family sagas, tales of village schoolmarms, wartime exploits, romantic aspirations, stories of perseverance and faith in the face of difficulties and despair, and who don’t need a traditional happy ending in order to appreciate the joy of a life well lived, then Constance and Me is for you!

How and why did Constance end up in such a sad situation? Will she ever be free? Should her loving family have done more? And what does it all mean for her niece?
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