Elizabeth Buchan – The Big Town Read

The Big Town Read is a firm favourite at Marlborough LitFest, where the audience discusses a specified book with the author. This year our choice is I Can’t Begin To Tell You by Elizabeth Buchan, reviewed as ‘nerve-jinglingly engrossing’ by the Sunday Times. It is also a World Book Night title.

Elizabeth Buchan – I Can’t Begin to Tell You coverAs with many of her books a family is at the centre of this tale. The setting is Nazi-occupied Denmark, and the family’s divided loyalties mirror the dilemmas facing the whole nation.

The main protagonist is British-born Kay who is lured into the world of resistance and The SOE (Special Operations Executive) while her Danish husband feels the need to cooperate with the Nazis to protect his estate and lifestyle. Kay’s decision is momentous, putting her marriage, family and her own life into jeopardy. A battle between war and love and a test of which is the stronger.

Elizabeth Buchan began her career at Penguin Books and became a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time. Her novels include the prizewinning Consider the Lily and Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman.