Avenue at War Part III

Jim like many other Londoners is homeless and has to find temporary accommodation until he and Edith can marry, though they will get some compensation later on for the loss of their houses. His daughters Fetch and Carry the younger twins are now seriously involved with the 2 Americans, Mitch and Orrie, who have gone into Normandy. The girls decide to leave London and get jobs in an American social club in Oxford and go there to live until their young men come home. Judy and Esme have bought a farm in Devon, since he has decided that he was never really meant to be a writer, and is taking up farming and setting up a riding school..but he can still do a little writing on the side. Judy becomes pregnant and leaves her job in the services to start her new life. Mitch and Orrie take part in the invasion. They are transport drivers but the invasion has its problems and they are releived to get ashore safely and live to fight another day. THey plan to set up a used car business in the US, when the war is over. Meanwhile Archie is doing his sentence and planning to lead a more sensible life after he gets out of Prison. He knows it was his drinking and the pressure of trying to defraud the income tax, that led him to the disastrous escapade which caused someone's death and he is genuinely sorry... Elaine visits him and tells him that she has an American boyfriend but that he does not seem to be that interested in her physically, and Archie reminds her that marriages to low libido men or gay men can work out.. and if Woolston is a generous rich man, she should take him. However, Elaine has a row with her beau over his being willing to overlook an attack by some American soldiers, on a young black soldier who was with a white local girl. She gets uneasy and when Archie is released she goes to meet him. He tells her that as Maria, his wife is Catholic, he may not ever get a divorce, but that he feels they have a good relationship, and after all their affair is already known. The odds are that people will overlook them living together, or they can cover it up. She moves in with him and having sold up his shops, he has some cash to start up in the property business. Archie then contacts JIm and Edith who are due to get married and tells them that he wants to give them his house on the Avenue as a wedding present.. as they are now close to retirement and they like living in the Avenue. He and Elaine are moving further out of town. Jim feels touched by Archie's wanting to show him friendship at last. He and Edith marry in January 1945, and move into the house. Harold has been in hospital for a long time, and is not out when they get married. He stays in for another operation to try to get his broken leg better, and tells Jim that he'll go into lodgings when he gets out, as he will never remarry. Edith suggests that he comes to share their house, but when the war ends, and he is walking better, he takes a flat in another house nearby, not wanting to intrude on the married couple. He has 2 ladies living in the house and they help out during the cold winter after the war... The girl twins marry their Americans and move to the US, where they enjoy life as war brides, and where life is a lot more comfortable than it is back home. Jim realises that he himself has changed a lot over the years, he is now freinds with a Tory like Harold, and he is no longer sure that the Labour movement is going to save the world. But he has over the years also become more tolerant, gotten a good relationship with his children, whom he tended to ignore years ago, and believes in the ordinary people of the Avenue, who helped to win the War. The two novels cover the social changes of the 20s 30s and 40s, and issues like the increased freedom for women to get jobs, easier divorce, and the political trends like fascism and communism. Jim and Harold can never agree about Soviet Russia but they both are grateful for American help, even if they disagree with the Americans on some issues. The American soldiers are liked by most of the women while some of the men think of them as over paid, over sexed and over here.. And Elaine is shocked at the casual racism of some of them. The 2 books are warm and pleasant reads, which cover a surprising amount of ground.