'A LEARNING Curve' is the latest offering from the pen of Bridestowe authoress Joan Calmady-Hamlyn.

Apart from her trilogy of the House of Thorns — which followed the lives of the Thorn and Carloss families from the mid 19th century to the 1970s — many of the author's works are set around the period of the second world war. A Learning Curve is no exception.

The story follows former U-boat Kapitan-Leutnant Leopald Andreas, Freiherr von Lehan, who joined the German navy in 1940 as a young officer and in the confusion of war, was falsely accused of ordering the shooting of survivors on a life raft.

He returns from captivity ten years later, only to find his home is to be turned into an hotel by an American businessman.

To adapt to this new situation, Baron von Lehan finds himself thus embarking on 'A Learning Curve' which sees him learn his trade from the bottom — or indeed, cellar — up, from scullion in the kitchens of a French chateau/hotel to a managing post at the London Dryden Hotel in the West End.

His education is 'completed' at former country manor house on Dartmoor where he finds out what he wants to do - 'and with whom he wants to do it.'

Perhaps one of the intriguing aspects of this book is the reaction of the British characters to a German working in England so soon after the war — something the writer sensitively weaves into her plot.

This is an easily digestible piece of fiction that will find favour with not only those familiar with this particular authoress but also those discovering her work and style for the first time.

A Learning Curve by Joan Calmady-Hamlyn is published by Pen Press and costs £7.99. ISBN 978 1 907172 57 1.

JOHN HUTCHINS