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Rather in the lurch: Small Bomb at Dimperley, by Lissa Evans, reviewed

In 1945, a dilapidated Tudor manor risks being demolished – unless an impoverished evacuee with a gift for organisation can galvanise its despairing owner

31 August 2024

9:00 AM

31 August 2024

9:00 AM

Small Bomb at Dimperley Lissa Evans

Doubleday, pp.320, 18.99

Stories and films set in stately homes continue to fascinate us, and Lissa Evans’s latest novel is likely to increase our appetite. It is 1945, and Dimperley Manor, the large, dilapidated home of the Vere-Thissetts near Aylesbury, has been almost emptied of its wartime evacuees. Only the widowed Zena Baxter (who adores Dimperley) and her small daughter remain, and the place has become a millstone round the neck of the heir, Valentine.

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