'The Garden House', Ruth Tomalin's previous novel, pictured life between the wars on a country estate in the Forest of Bere, through the eyes of a boy, Ralph, and his guardian, Aunt Lizard. In 'The Spring House' we meet Ralph and Lizard early in 1941. Living in a tiny cottage on the Sussex coast, Ralph and Lizard face the tragedies and challenges of wartime with other country dwellers. Poised again for Hitler's expected invasion, the land workers...