Women on the verge: when the ‘home fires’ burn out
Northern Irish author and journalist, Elizabeth Day, won the 2012 Betty Trask Award for her debut novel, Scissors, Paper, Stone. Her latest, Home Fires, opens in 1920, with young Elsa unable to understand why her mother has brought her to a Westminster Abbey commemoration of the men who died during WWI. Her father, Horace, who fought in France, is not with them. When Elsa and her mother return home, Elsa is sent to her father’s study to ask if he would like tea.
From his violent reaction to her, we understand that Elsa’s father is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
