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A review by zefrog
Rule Britannia by Daphne du Maurier
2.0
It's the 1980s, there is a coalition government and, following a referendum, the UK has left Europe. As the story begins, US troops take up position in a small Cornish village. The UK on the brink of bankruptcy has formed a union with the US, and more widely with the main English-speaking nations. It's called USUK ("you suck"?!) and very quickly it turns out that the UK is being invaded, destined to become a sort of historical leisure park.
The main characters of the book, seen mostly through the eyes of a 20 year old woman, Emma, live in a big house in said Cornish village. Madame (known to Emma, her granddaughter, as Mad) is a retired famous actress, possibly modelled on Josephine Baker, who's adopted a brood of 6 boys. Together they, more or less unwittingly, foment the start of a rebellion.
This is a very strange book. It reads like a more grown-up, and slightly disappointing version of a Famous Five adventure, though it is never very clear where it is going and it seems to peter out rather suddenly and unconvincingly at the end.
With the obvious Brexity undertones, I was expecting something a little more political and meaningful, if I'm honest. It is moderately entertaining but the reader doesn't much out of it. This last novel (published in 1972) is possibly not Du Maurier's best...
The main characters of the book, seen mostly through the eyes of a 20 year old woman, Emma, live in a big house in said Cornish village. Madame (known to Emma, her granddaughter, as Mad) is a retired famous actress, possibly modelled on Josephine Baker, who's adopted a brood of 6 boys. Together they, more or less unwittingly, foment the start of a rebellion.
This is a very strange book. It reads like a more grown-up, and slightly disappointing version of a Famous Five adventure, though it is never very clear where it is going and it seems to peter out rather suddenly and unconvincingly at the end.
With the obvious Brexity undertones, I was expecting something a little more political and meaningful, if I'm honest. It is moderately entertaining but the reader doesn't much out of it. This last novel (published in 1972) is possibly not Du Maurier's best...