This was a blast from the past. I've actually been to Greenham - a few years later than Bridget and co (I'm a little younger), but still. A lot of this rang true, though I wasn't there for long.Fifteen-year-old Bridget - no friends, deeply uncomfortable in her own body, feeling strongly that nobody at home understands her - finds a new world opening up when she forges a parental note to accompany her teacher and others to Greenham. A dirty, muddy, often dangerous new world, granted, but one she takes to with alacrity.
After all, what's home got to offer? Her father Ray, busy building a fallout shelter in the downstairs loo, regards the Greenham women with contempt. Her dinner lady mother Janet, beset by domestic duties, is viewed by her daughter as boring and stupid. Little brother Paul is just there.
Bridget's actions, though, will detonate a bomb under her family life, bringing secrets into the open and changing lives irrevocably.
The narrative follows not only Bridget's story, but those of several other women who spend time at the camp. None of these characters are really there because of the missiles, which is not to say they don't care. Bridget is seeking independence and identity, community and belonging. Art teacher Annabel is seeking a lover. Middle-class mother of five Kate, wanting a safe world for her children to grow up in, is perhaps most driven by the cause, but is also seeking a life beyond domesticity. Janet - well, Janet is first seeking her daughter, and later exploring her own horizons.
While Ray's story is a sad one and should certainly provoke our sympathy, I'm not entirely sure it belongs here (and the ending is perhaps a little too rose-tinted).
A great read, which will resonate with those who lived through the era and inform those who didn't.
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