Review: The Forgotten Village by Lorna Cook

Over the Bank Holiday weekend I thoroughly enjoyed reading Lorna Cook’s novel The Forgotten Village. The book is set in the village of Tyneham in Dorset, which was requisitioned during the Second World War and the villagers were evicted, never to return, and has a dual timeline.

One story plays out during the last days of Tyneham as the villagers prepare to move out and Lady Veronica looks to seize her only chance to escape from her violent and brutal husband, Sir Bertie — only to be thwarted at the last minute by the arrival of Bertie’s brother. In the present, newly-single Melissa and handsome celebrity historian Guy meet for the first time on a visit to the forgotten village, find a photograph of the old days and set out to track down the story behind it.

The concept — dual timeline, lost village, past secret unearthed in the present — isn’t original but I did find Lorna Cook’s telling of her tale appealing. The older story had everything. There was drama, there was passion, there was betrayal, there was death, all playing out against the background of war and a sense of impending doom.

The present day story couldn’t hope to match it, and for me the book suffered a little from that, as Melissa and Guy’s tribulations seemed very frivolous compared to those that had gone before. I’m afraid I didn’t really engage with either of them in the way I did with the hapless Lady Veronica and I tended to race through the modern scenes to focus on the compelling story in the past.

The book bills itself as: “the most gripping, heartwrenching page-turner of summer 2019” and I felt that it was overselling itself a little. The way one story overshadowed the other made it feel a little unbalanced: I would have liked a little more action — and drama — in the present. Melissa’s relationship problems passed with little more than a shouting match and a lot of internal agonising while Guy’s (I can’t give detail without spoilers) mostly played out off the page.

So in short, I think I would have liked an added dimension, but I did enjoy the story of Tyneham in the 1940s, so much so that I think it would have made a terrific novel in its own right, with the opportunity for a little more development of the characters involved. That apart, it was most definitely an enjoyable read, well-written and nicely set.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.