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This Lovely City
A Historical Fiction Novel by Louise Hare
Subgenres:
- Windrush Generation,
- Love Story,
- Coming-of-Age
This book is for you if you're into...
- Windrush generation stories set in postwar London
- Jazz-infused atmospheres with love and suspicion in the air
- Crime plots where outsiders become suspects
From Little Stack
Part love story, part coming-of-age and part crime novel, this fictional story is inspired by the Windrush generation and their battle for acceptance and equality. There are two memorable Black characters in this story - immigrant Lawrie Matthews and Evie Coleridge, the mixed race girl next door he’s in love with. Their happiness is shattered when Lawrie finds the body of a baby girl and then finds himself the prime suspect in her death. Lawrie is a kind, honest and loveable character, who I absolutely adored, while Evie is a sweet and innocent young lady who longs to break free of her overbearing mother. She’s the only mixed race person in the area, which leaves her feeling like she doesn’t fit in anywhere.
This book had it all: great characters, a tense storyline, and it taught me so much about a time in British history that I knew little about.
An atmospheric and utterly compelling debut novel about a Jamaican immigrant living in postwar London, This Lovely City shows that new arrivals have always been the prime suspects — but that even in the face of anger and fear, there is always hope.
London, 1950. With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England's call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he's rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door.
Playing in Soho's jazz clubs by night and pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home — and it's alive with possibility. Until one morning, while crossing a misty common, he makes a terrible discovery.
As the local community rallies, fingers of blame point at those who were recently welcomed with open arms. And before long, London's newest arrivals become the prime suspects in a tragedy that threatens to tear the city apart.
Immersive, poignant, and utterly compelling, Louise Hare's debut examines the complexities of love and belonging, and teaches us that even in the face of anger and fear, there is always hope.
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