The book is very character driven, from the growth in confidence and blossoming of Vee and Noel, to the various lodgers and unexpected visitors, through to the re-emergence, of well loved characters (both real and remembered) from the preceding books. The day after that, all the children disappeared, as if London had shrugged and the small people had fallen off the edge.’ As the story begins, it’s 1928. Mattie is in her late 50s, and while she may not think of herself as old, it’s clear that others around her do. (I found this poignant and ironic at the same time as I’m older than Mattie but don’t see myself that way at all. It’s true that “old” starts at least 15 years past one’s own age) Overall I thought this was a beautifully written, absorbing book which held my attention the whole way through. It isn’t a fast paced book but this gives the reader plenty of opportunities to savour the interesting plot and to get to know the characters. It’s a lovely story which accurately portrays what life was like during the war, with some quite dark humour at times as people try to deal with an impossible situation. I can’t wait to read more from this series. Matilda Simpkin, Mattie to her friends is all the things I have described and more. She is a lady of a certain age, who having been a militant activist within the Suffragette movement has now reached a stage in life where she finds she is of no use, she has no purpose. She is simply seen by others as Old Baggage.

When Mattie is no more, Noel finds himself evacuated to St Albans. He is billeted with Vera Sedge, her elderly mute mother and her lazy, fat son Donald. Once again, Noel finds himself living in a strange household, with very strange people. This family is so far away from anything that he knows, yet in Vera, he finds an unlikely friend. Both wily-minded, they work together to beat the system, and despite the troubles they encounter along the way, their unorthodox means of making a living bring them together and they become a family. That was lovely to watch; two completely different characters, who don’t entirely understand each other but who realise they can help each other and instinctively do just that. It worked so well because those two characters were flawed and so very, very believable, and because Lissa Evans wrote of them with wit, with empathy and without a hint of sentimentality. Evans is funny, too, with Noel’s burgeoning relationship with a young girl next door a highlight: “He re-read the Christmas card he’d received from Genevieve Lumb, which she had signed with five Xs. He remained a little troubled by the message, which mentioned that she was spending Christmas ‘with my cousins Andrew, Lloyd and Alistair. Alistair had just won the South of England under-16s long-jump trophy, although, as you know, I don’t care much about sports’.” Old Baggage is a funny and bittersweet portrait of a woman who has never, never given up the fight.It’s been a few years since I read Lissa Evans’ excellent novel “Crooked Heart”, but I remember loving her vivid characters and witty writing style. So when I heard that her new novel is a prequel to this earlier book I become intensely curious. “Crooked Heart” opened with a poignant description of Mattie, an aging intellectual who was very active in the Suffragette movement, before describing the journey her ward Noel takes out of London to escape the The Blitz in 1940. “Old Baggage” tells Mattie’s story prior to when the boy Noel came to live with her and depicts Britain at an interesting stage of its political history.

I have read and loved two books by Lisa’s Evans, Crooked Heart and Old Baggage, and V for Victory is the stunning follow-up to these two books. You can read it on its own, but it’s so special to read it after the other two because of the richly drawn characters. The ending was certainly surprising, but satisfying that Mattie and Florrie reconciled and Mattie was able to help Ida out both economically and with her child. I am reading Crooked Heart now, for which this book is a prequel, so I already know what Mattie does next.I think it was mostly convincing, but don't know much about the time period. History focuses on the World Wars, roaring twenties and the Great Depression, but 1928 seemed an uneventful year compared to those before and after, When she finds herself under the watch of the police again after a street robbery, she soon finds a new way of feeling involved in the world and inspiring a new generation of young girls to be educated and feel inspired to think more of themselves as she starts a Girls Club on Hampstead Heath, teaching them a variety of skills. But upon discovering a wooden club in an old bag, she wonders perhaps if there is still not more to do and can you still be idealistic and principled ten years after the main event. Old Baggage, can mean different things to different people. It can be used as a description of some older lady, past her prime and of no use to anyone or society. It can be the baggage we bring from the past into the present. It can be actual tangible items, it can be thoughts, emotions and feelings. It can simply be an old bag with treasures inside that has sat unopened for a long time. There are lots of recently published books that are set during World War II, it would be easy to say that the subject has been done to death, and then, just when you don't expect it, you come across a story like Crooked Heart. This is a story that will pull the heartstrings with it's central character of Noel and his temporary mother Vera. Two characters who are original, and quirky and completely fabulous creations. Their story is like no other, it's charming and witty and will make you smile.

Evans has created such tangible characters in Vee and Noel. I like them both very much, but I must admit that my heart belongs to Noel. He's clever and kind, a teenager now, but inside he's still the boy without parents. That need to know propels one of the plot lines in this latest. There are other characters, each with their own plotlines as well - Winnie the local air raid warden, her twin sister turned author, and the myriad lodgers. And slowly but surely, the disparate threads start to weave themselves together. The wartime setting is also a character in Crooked Heart. The rationing, the attitudes, the bombings and more all shape, direct and change the course of each and every character. There are a number of other important characters we get to meet along the way - from Florrie 'The Flea' who lives with Mattie and is a dear friend and a calming influence on her friend, to Ida who is a young girl whose family expect very little from her other than to cook for her brothers at home, and they tease her when she shows an interest in wanting more out of life and for herself.

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It seemed pretty convincing to me. I liked the fact Evans didn't try to hard to include historical details, but it felt right for the time and place. I know Hampstead and the health, and I don't think it's probably changed that much over the years.

I fell in love with Noel. Noel is a witty, charismatic boy with uncanny intelligence. The wisdom lent him by his godmother before she past has left him with a problem solving nature. He uses his first encounters with strangers to observe without interruption. This leaves people to think he may be slow or something. Noel is anything but slow! Vera, or Vee, is a bit hard to take at first. Once I learned her story it made sense that she would not welcome a strange child into her world. The two of them together is really magic. We get to learn a lot about Donald in this story as well. By venturing into places he shouldn’t, Donald gets himself into a whole mess of trouble. Noel is a ten-year-old boy who has lived with his Godmother Mattie for most of his life. We don't know why he lived with her and not his parents, but she has moulded him into a tiny shadow of herself. Mattie was a suffragette, she didn't agree with school, or with war and Noel has had a most unusual childhood. The story begins with Mattie's demise into senile dementia, and Noel does his best to cover up for her, but it's clear that he can't carry on for much longer. If Old Baggage was more companion to Crooked Heart than sequel, V for Victory unites the two stories. The characters of Heart are now living in the house which was so much the focus of Baggage. Mattie may be no longer physically present but even the reader can feel she is still very much there in spirit. Indeed, there are traces of sadness throughout the book for those absent friends from previous books. When a certain someone does make a reappearance, I got genuinely teary. But again, this is not a sad book. It is full of love. It's about finding people who will love you fiercely and never give up. And reading this final chapter to the tale conjures up the same feeling of satisfaction as when one slots the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle into place. At first, this seemed to be a simple story about someone whose glory days were long behind them – and that same person’s inability to cope with that fact. But it’s not nearly that simple. Old Baggage didn’t charm me as much as it did several bloggers whose opinions I’ve come to value over the years. I thought the dramatic turning point in the narrative took too long to materialise and the fall out was rushed. But it got me thinking about all the women like Mattie who were once at the forefront of campaigns for change and now feel forgotten. What will happen to all the female campaigners of today, people who are leading the charge against forced marriages and genital mutilation or advocating for the right to abortion and education (to name just a few issues). Will their efforts be similarly overlooked by the generations that follow?Because while Mattie may be an old baggage, there are also a couple of nasty pieces of baggage who are deliberately, or not so deliberately, undermining her efforts. And her sense of self is what suffers along the way.