The Secret Guests - B.W. Black

As part of Germany’s attempt to destroy British war industry during World War II, German bombers dropped thousands of bombs on London and the country’s other key industrial and port cities. The concentrated bombing campaign that began in 1940 and ended in 1941 would ultimately see the destruction of more than one million homes and 20,000 civilian deaths in London alone. Roughly ten percent of those killed during the London Blitz were children despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of children were evacuated from the city. B.W. Black’s The Secret Guests wonders what it would have been like if the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret had been among those children sent to safer ground.

In this alternate history of events, not only are Elizabeth and Margaret evacuated from London, they are sent to Ireland - where they face a different kind of danger - rather than to a country like Canada where they would have been completely safe. The problem, of course, is that getting the girls safely to Canada is much more dangerous than getting them to “neutral” Ireland. Even as World War II progresses, the 1919-1921 Irish War of Independence (resulting in the creation of Northern Ireland and all of the problems to come from that partition) is still very much a factor in the relationship between Ireland and Britain. That Ireland has declared herself neutral in the war between Germany and Britain does not necessarily mean that the majority of the country’s citizens are secretly rooting for Britain to prevail. No, for their own political purposes, there are plenty in Ireland who would love to get their hands on the young princesses – and they are willing to kill to get them.

B.W. Black (John Banville)

Elizabeth (age 14) and Margaret (age 10) arrive at the remote estate belonging to the Duke of Edenmore not knowing what to expect. By the time of their arrival, the girls have learned to answer to the names Emily and Mary but they are a little taken aback by the physical state of the large old house in which the Duke lives alone with his staff of servants. Joining the girls is newly minted British secret agent Celia Nashe, who is on her very first assignment, and a young Irish cop, Detective Garda Strafford. Before long, the girls and their protectors have resigned themselves to a routine of horseback riding, reading whatever is on hand or available in the village’s small library, quiet meals together, early bedtimes, and general solitude. The only one of them able to maintain much of a spark is young Margaret – who spies on everyone constantly and has a better grasp of what is really going on around her than any of the adults there.

But boredom breeds complacency, and in this case, complacency breeds danger.

Bottom Line: B.W. Black (pseudonym for Irish novelist John Banville) offers something here a bit different from the spate of World War II fiction of the past few months. Interestingly, the bulk of The Secret Guests is spent exploring everyday life on the estate and how the royal princesses settle into the dullness of their new world as they learn more about those secluded there with them. Black presents Elizabeth and Margaret as children already clearly exhibiting the personalities that would later define them as adults. Elizabeth is seen as aloof and proper; Margaret as impetuous and adventuress. As such, Margaret, the youngest person in the story, is often its driving force.

Review Copy provided by Henry Holt and Company