The Voice from the Garden: Pamela Hambro and the Tale of Two Families Before and After the Great War

In 1900 few people could have imagined that their world would change so drastically in such a short time. The shell-shocked society that emerged from the Great War was at once less unequal and more demanding, more hopeful and yet less certain, than the old. The Voice from the Garden opens a window onto these two worlds through Pamela and her families. The daughter of a doomed union between trade and title, Pamela was born into the Cobbold brewing family of Suffolk and married into the famous merchant banking dynasty, the Hambros. Wealthy the families may have been, but money is no protection against the loss caused by war or the frailties of human nature. From an extraordinary period of social and economic change, here are fascinating characters, mystery, adultery, despair and hope. It is a unique tale, at the heart of which lies the love story of Pamela and Charles. Long-listed for the 2013 New Angle Prize for Literature (www.ipswichinstitute.org.uk/NAP.html). The New Angle Prize for Literature is awarded biennially for a recently published work of literary merit associated with or inspired by East Anglia. The judges described the book as "A meticulous and captivating reconstruction of the life of Pamela Hambro - of the East Anglian Cobbold family - and the impact of the First World War on her life. At the story's heart lies her enduring love for her husband Charles, of the Hambro banking dynasty."

Table of Contents:
Prologue 11 Family Trees 14 1 The Watershed: 1917 2 New Century, New Life: Pamela 3 Water, Water, Everywhere: the Cobbolds 4 The Murrays 5 The Calm Before the Storm 6 The Sterner Conflict: the Hambros and Others Prepare 7 Families at War 8 From Darkness to Light, 1917 - 18 9 Early Days 10 The Young Lovers 11 Travels by Road and Space 12 Nearly There 13 Religions 178 14 The Newly Weds 15 Bright New World 16 Discontent at Home and Away 17 Three Young Lions 18 The Adulterers 19 A Prince Made of Butter 20 The End of an Era 21 Uncertainty 22 Definite Ends 23 Up and Down 24 Sex and Death 25 Another Storm Gathering 26 The Country Erupts 27 The Hunter and the Hunted 28 Om Mani Padme Hum Epilogue Sources 7

About the Author :
Jane Dismore started writing features for well-known women's magazines while she was teaching English Literature to A-level in secondary schools. A complete change of lifestyle saw her running private yachts in the Mediterranean for four years, which led to her writing travel articles - often undertaken between negotiating protection money with local mafia chiefs and trying to avoid floating mines off the coast of Albania. While teaching Spanish students and the British Army in Gibraltar, Jane had a regular radio slot, presenting her features on the British Forces Broadcasting Service. Inspired by a barrister friend she decided to become a solicitor, and after returning to England, remarrying and wondering if she had gone quite mad, she re-qualified. Jane now practises as an employment law specialist in a Hertfordshire law firm, of which she is a Director, and for three years was the 'legal eagle' on a local radio station. She writes whenever she can and has continued to have articles published, including in The Times. Happiest when digging something up, whether from under the ground or from old documents, she is particularly interested in biography. The Voice from the Garden is her first book.

Review :
"A meticulous and captivating reconstruction of the life of Pamela Hambro - of the East Anglian Cobbold family - and the impact of the First World War on her life. At the story's heart lies her enduring love for her husband Charles, of the Hambro banking dynasty." - New Angle Prize for Literature 2013