A Brief Affair

Stunning and evocative...utterly beguiling - Rosamund Lupton for The English Girl

Gripping and heart-warming; you won't want to put it down - Irish Tatler for The English Girl

A wonderful, wonderful book! Margaret Leroy does an amazing job of showing us the Nazi takeover of Austria through the eyes of an engaging, bright and brave seventeen-year-old English girl. I lost three nights of sleep, unable to put this superbly written book aside and turn out the light - Diane Chamberlain for The English Girl

Margaret Leroy captures, brilliantly, a spirit of place and time in her recreation of the beauty, deception and coming darkness of pre-war Vienna, and what it means to be young, in love, and very far from home. I loved it. - Elizabeth Speller for The English Girl

I loved everything about this wonderful, shocking, heartbreaking book: the brilliantly drawn characters, the heartrending story, and the utterly gorgeous writing. I was spellbound from start to finish. No other novel has brought home the horror and the pathos of life in London during the Blitz and the lives that somehow bravely had to go on. The detail is extraordinary and I really felt that I was there, living through the challenges alongside Livia. A Brief Affair is an absolute must read, a real triumph and convincing on every level. - Dinah Jeffries

In A Brief Affair, Margaret Leroy chronicles the fortunes of Livia, a widow struggling to survive the Blitz with her two young children. Livia's haunting past, perilous present and uncertain future make her truly unforgettable. Written with precision and grace, A Brief Affair is one of the most vivid and compelling portraits of war torn London I've read. Brilliant! - Pam Jenoff

A Brief Affair immediately pulls you in to the world of London at the height of the Blitz through the eyes of newly-widowed Livia, an amateur photographer, who is coping with two young children and all the stresses of nightly bombing raids. She is also suffering from her own guilt about the childhood loss of a sister, which undermines her confidence at every turn. In the end, helping others helps her to find herself. But this bald account makes it sound too plain a tale - in fact Margaret Leroy's writing brings a wonderfully new-minted feel to the telling, just as Livia's camera lens focuses on the world in a changed light. She has a great turn of phrase, a wonderful way with metaphor, a compelling command of character. I just loved her descriptions; the details of ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances which make you feel right there in the terrifying streets or the claustrophobic shelters, and found myself reading far too late into the night to find out what happened. What a great read. - Liz Trenow