Book review: Absolutely & Forever by Rose Tremain

By Philippa Tracy

In this short novel about first love, growing up and relationships, Rose Tremain’s 17th, she brilliantly recreates an England of the 1950s and 1960s. It is an England that she grew up in and one that I recognise. An England that is full of beauty and freedom in parts, as well as thwarted dreams and stifling oppression. Marianne, the protagonist and narrator, is taught to be thankful of the beauty of England at school and realises when she enters the world of work, as...