All the Sweet Promises

I am a big fan of this era my grandmother having lived just outside London during the Blitz. The book is about three young girls who join the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) during World War II. They serve on a submarine depot ship in Scotland. They are each from very different backgrounds but the war brings them together and they develop a close friendship which lasts beyond the war years. The book charts each girls life in the service as well as their personal lives during the war. Elgin is a great writer who is able to bring you into the time period so that you can truly appreciate everything that this generation went through during World War II. I loved this book!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and had great difficulty putting it down once I had begun. Elgin totlally engrosed me with her sympathetic approach.The story is of three girls from very different but plausible backgrounds, who by chance, end up meeting on a railway station on their way to their 'ship' in Scotland during World War II. It tells of their exploits and love stories as the war progresses. Whilst this was an era I was not alive in it felt extreamly real and the factual references were so accurate they amased me. Being the daughter of a World War II telegraphist also stationed in Scotland it made real many of the things the girls were involved in. Obviously Elgin was using her first hand knowlede to great effect. These girls became my friends whilst I read andI had to go on to read another of Elgin's masterpieces .