The Vicar's Wife

I have just finished reading The Vicar's Wife by Katharine Swartz.  A new auhor to me so I wasn't sure what to expect.   I was completely taken in by the stories of the two main characters Alice and Jane.  Alice was a young bride when she moved to the small Cumbrian village with her husband a vicar.

Jane was an American living in New York with her British husband and 3 children.  Jane led a hectic life running a charity and jugling family life.  After 16 years living in New York Jane's husband wanted to relocate to a small Cumbrian village and so they bought the vicarage where Alice once lived.

I was completely enthralled reading the two narratives, Jane in the present and Alice in the 1930s and the early war years. 

When decorating Jane came across a shopping list which intrigued her and made her want to know more about the person who wrote it and who had lived in the vicarage before Jane and her family bought it.

I loved reading about the family's trials and tribulations as they tried to make a new life in their new home and also the life that Alice had lived.  

A great read that really captured my imagination.