Review of Judith Barrow\'s sequel to Pattern of Shadows – Changing Patterns

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18014357-changing-patterns\” style=\”float: left; padding-right: 20px\”><img alt="Changing Patterns" border="0" src="https://djgho45yw78yg.cloudfront.net/assets/nocover/111×148.png\” /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18014357-changing-patterns\”>Changing Patterns by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3295663.Judith_Barrow\”>Judith Barrow

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/736019127\”>4 of 5 stars

Judith Barrow is the mistress of the family saga.  Having read Pattern of Shadows I was keen to find out what happened to the complex characters set up by the previous book.  It was a richly satisfying experience to have all the loose ends tied up in \’Changing Patterns\’.  Love abounds but there is no soppy romanticism. This is real love, warts and all, amongst working class families.  There are no grown ups, no-one knows all the answers to the dramas that confront them. Everyone finds their own way through betrayals, terror and abduction.  Everyone is believable in this gritty, down to earth story. Recommended reading if you want to become totally involved in lives you can relate to.
Judith also excels in the atmosphere of the period after the second world war.  Rationing still competes with money for currency, the lavatories are still outdoors with scratcy Izal toilet paper; babies are exchanged without social workers filling in a ream of forms, tin baths still have scum around their edges and you can smell the cigarette smoke and the drains.  Through it all the compassionate humanity of people struggling to cope shines through and this is ultimately an extremely uplifting story with a feel good finale full of hope and optimism for a different, brighter future which beautifully encapsulates the fifties.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10518353-alex-martin\”>View all my reviews