‘If only these walls could speak’ is often said about old buildings that have an ‘interesting’ history. The silk house is just such a home. Built in the 1760s for the apparently wealthy silk merchant Patrick Hollander and his wife Caroline, the book tells us of the Hollander household, and in particular, their maid Rowan Caswell. It also moves to the present day, where the building is now part of an exclusive boarding school. Thea Rust is starting her first term as a history teacher, and finds herself unsettled by the old building. On researching the house, she discovers that Rowan Caswell was accused of witchcraft, as so many women were if they knew how to use herbs to make medicine and help people. It was a dangerous time for ‘wise women’.

Nunn cleverly entwines these two narratives, and the reader sees echos of the house’s previous life impacting on the present. As Thea researches the history of Silk House, she begins to uncover a wrong that needs to be made right, so the ghosts of the past can be at peace.

The Silk House successfully combines history, mystery and ghost story to create a novel that is both unnerving and thoroughly entertaining.

During the Burma Campaign of the Second World War, a special unit was created: the Women’s Auxiliary Service (Burma) affectionally referred to as the Wasbies. These women, who were recruited from England, India and Australia served alongside the soldiers, running a mobile canteen that provided the soldiers with much needed tea, meals and supplies, always with a smile. They endured the same arduous conditions as the soldiers, often operating under enemy fire. They were the closest to the frontline of any servicewomen in the entire war (paraphrasing the Author’s Note). As Nunn says, ‘they are the forgotten women of the forgotten war’.

Five women join the Wasbies, looking for adventure and a way to contribute in a meaningful way to the war effort. Although they come from very different backgrounds, Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy soon became the firmest of friends - more like sisters as they support each other through the most gruelling of conditions.

Fast forward to 1999 in London where we meet Olivia who is an assistant to an art dealer. She is sent to meet with Beatrix, an elderly widow who wishes to sell a sought-after piece of Japanese art, a netsuke that has been missing since it was stolen from an Oxford museum in 1976. Could this be the same netsuke or is it a replica? When Beatrix is invited to a New Year’s Eve party hosted by Plum in Ireland, she asks Olivia to join her. Bea hasn’t seen her friends since the end of the war, and memories are stirred and secrets are revealed after fifty years of silence.

Women from all walks of life were transformed by their war experiences, making them realise that they could be much more than ‘just a wife’. As Joy admits, “Is it terrible to admit that I’m not even sure sometimes that I want it to be over? I’ve no idea what I’ll do after this. I love being part of something here, not as a daughter or a wife, but as me.”

Nunn cleverly reveals what happened to the women in Burma, and the relevance of the precious fox-girl netsuke. It’s clear that Nunn has done her research, but it is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story. I found The Last Reunion an engrossing read, with characters who display courage and determination in the face of appalling conditions, always supporting each other. Her descriptions of the men who survived the Burma Railway and the POW camps are particularly moving. They may have come home, but they were never the same again.

This is another great historic novel from Kayte Nunn - highly recommended.

In 1949 a sixteen year old girl finds herself pregnant after falling for a man who transpires to be married with a family. Her Catholic family are horrified and she is sent to Fairmile on Orcades Island near Seattle, a ‘home’ for ‘fallen women’ run by Catholic nuns. Conditions at Fairmile are nightmarish, as the girls are punished for the smallest misbehaviour (made to kneel on nettles in the freezing chapel for hours is an example of one punishment). The girls are given new names so they will never be able to find each other after they leave the home.

In 2013 Frankie, comes home to the island to start her new job as deputy sheriff and help her mother Diana as she puts the finishing touches to her restoration of The Fairmile Inn, a boutique hotel. When work on the garden is halted by the discovery of a tiny skeleton, and an elderly nun is discovered murdered in a nursing home, Frankie can’t stop herself from helping with the investigation, even though she hasn’t starting her new role yet.

Between 1945 and 1973 one and a half million babies were given up for adoption in the US. More often than not, young mothers were given no choice but to surrender their babies. There was no support from either their families or society in general. Churches played a major role in forcing these girls to surrender their babies to Christian couples who were married but unable to have their own children.

As women’s reproductive rights are again under threat, particularly in America, this novel is a timely reminder of the lasting trauma that can result from women not having access to birth control, sex eduction and safe abortion. It may be fiction, but it reflects a dark history that we never want to see repeated.