The Voice from the Garden: Pamela Hambro and the Tale of Two Families Before and After the Great War

In 1900 few people could have imagined that their world would change so drastically in such a short time. The shell-shocked society that emerged from the Great War was at once less unequal and more demanding, more hopeful and yet less certain, than the old. The Voice from the Garden opens a window onto these two worlds through Pamela and her families. The daughter of a doomed union between trade and title, Pamela was born into the Cobbold brewing family of Suffolk and married into the famous merchant banking dynasty, the Hambros. Wealthy the families may have been, but money is no protection against the loss caused by war or the frailties of human nature. From an extraordinary period of social and economic change, here are fascinating characters, mystery, adultery, despair and hope. It is a unique tale, at the heart of which lies the love story of Pamela and Charles. Long-listed for the 2013 New Angle Prize for Literature (www.ipswichinstitute.org.uk/NAP.html). The New Angle Prize for Literature is awarded biennially for a recently published work of literary merit associated with or inspired by East Anglia. The judges described the book as A meticulous and captivating reconstruction of the life of Pamela Hambro - of the East Anglian Cobbold family - and the impact of the First World War on her life. At the story’s heart lies her enduring love for her husband Charles, of the Hambro banking dynasty.