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The ‘deeply moving’ novella (Manchester Evening News), from the author of There Was a Time.
Frank White’s powerful first novel was originally published in 1964. Against a strongly evoked backdrop of Manchester at the time of the Second World War, it is a compelling story of a family torn apart. It makes a fascinating companion piece to the author’s new novel – written more than fifty years later! – about a Lincolnshire village living in the shadow of the war, There Was A Time.
Freddy is thirteen years old in 1939, when the close comfort of his family life is breached by his father being called up to the Army. His mother is emotionally unable to cope with the separation, and becomes withdrawn and depressed. When Freddy’s beloved morse code set, which his father built, is broken, it is almost as if all lines of communication have failed. Then the father of one of Freddy’s friends offers to repair the morse code set.
Has the boy brought healing or tragedy into the family home?
A Morse Code Set is a short, intense novel by a writer with an acute eye and ear for family relationships and a superb sense of storytelling.
Frank White’s powerful first novel was originally published in 1964. Against a strongly evoked backdrop of Manchester at the time of the Second World War, it is a compelling story of a family torn apart. It makes a fascinating companion piece to the author’s new novel – written more than fifty years later! – about a Lincolnshire village living in the shadow of the war, There Was A Time.
Freddy is thirteen years old in 1939, when the close comfort of his family life is breached by his father being called up to the Army. His mother is emotionally unable to cope with the separation, and becomes withdrawn and depressed. When Freddy’s beloved morse code set, which his father built, is broken, it is almost as if all lines of communication have failed. Then the father of one of Freddy’s friends offers to repair the morse code set.
Has the boy brought healing or tragedy into the family home?
A Morse Code Set is a short, intense novel by a writer with an acute eye and ear for family relationships and a superb sense of storytelling.
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Reviews
A deeply moving novel . . . Written with strength and conviction, it is sincere and devastatingly authentic.
A vivid and disturbing description . . . his unhappy story is very well written.
A compelling story . . . Frank White has a new light to throw on moral corruption.
Told through a small son, A Morse Code Set concerns the break-up of a marriage as a result of war . . . fluent and well-built. This is a writer to watch.
The author is equal to the almost Greek tragedy which overtakes the household. In his quietly accurate way he can write movingly.