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Never Forget You

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Never Forget You

By: Jamila Gavin
Narrated by: Tor Leijten
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Summary

A stunning and heartbreaking new novel from Jamila Gavin MBE, the bestselling and award-winning author of Coram Boy and The Wheel of Surya.

England, 1937.

Gwen, Noor, Dodo and Vera are four very different teenage girls, with something in common. Their parents are all abroad, leaving them in their English boarding school, where they soon form an intense friendship. The four friends think that no matter what, they will always have each other. Then the war comes.

The girls find themselves flung to different corners of the war, from the flying planes in the Air Transport Auxiliary to going undercover in the French Resistance. Each journey brings danger and uncertainty as each of them wonders if they can make it through – and what will be left of the world. But at the same time, this is what shows them who they really are – and against this impossible backdrop, they find new connections and the possibility of love.

Will the four friends ever see each other again? And when the war is over, who will be left to tell the story?

A heartbreaking and gripping story of hope, fear and unbreakable friendship, for readers of Code Name Verity and When the World Was Ours.

©2022 Jamila Gavin Fiction Friendship War
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Critic reviews

The Times Children’s Book of the Year 2022

One of the Daily Mail’s best children’s books of 2022

“Jamila Gavin is one of our greatest writers” – S.F. Said

“If there are any prizes left for children’s books by the end of the year . . . then this thoughtful, engrossing new novel from Jamila Gavin should clean up . . . Gavin draws her characters with such care and detail that we root with all our might for each one as they use their free will to choose their own futures. Never Forget You is a novel to remember” – The Times

“We never lose our sense of engagement with the many characters and events, and quotations add to the rich debate about whether war is justified. An exceptionally well-told and compelling account of friendship, courage and love” – The Sunday Times

“Based on the true story of a World War II British agent in France, this thrilling novel follows four very different teenage girls thrown together at boarding school in 1937. As fascism rises in Germany, each girl makes life-changing decisions about her role in the conflict as the romantic dreams and hopes of adolescence are crushed by hatred and violence. Unmissable.” Daily Mail

All stars
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The reader has a nice voice, reads dramatically, does accents well enough, but has been so lazy about pronunciation. Inculcated becomes incalculated (whatever that means), intimated becomes intimidated, shtetl is shetl, yarmulke is mispronounced, ditto French words, etc etc. Look it up if you don’t know how to pronounce it. If it doesn’t make sense, check that you’ve got the word right. And someone should be checking.

Entertaining book, infuriating reader

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The book is amazing and one I will recommend to young readers. I like the reader’s voice but such a shame she didn’t pronounce some words correctly.

Absolutely beautiful story

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Jamila Gavin is amazing – born in 1941, she has written about fifty books for children and young adults, many of them absolute classic stories such as Coram Boy. And now there is Never Forget You.

Gwen, Nor, Dodo and Vera have formed a firm group friendship at the English boarding school, bonded by their shared experience of having parents living abroad. Their bond is so close that of course it will last for ever - won’t it? But this is 1937 and as they finish their school days, the threatened war finally arrives across Europe endangering themselves and their families.

Gavin is brilliant and creating totally real characters and a meticulously detailed and accurate background. What makes her so satisfying is her rugged approach to the reality of t war: the London Blitz, the devastating treatment of the Jewish people in Europe, the theories of the belief in the Aryan race, interrogation under torture:. Themes such as these are viscerally and dramatically created whilst inside the girls’ young minds they struggle with concepts of duty, betrayal, love, fear of death and loss, loyalty, bereavement, and violence. The story shies away from none of these tough topics, showing too the intensely moving endurance, hope and courage of those living through those years.

I’m surprised that it is recommended for readers of 11+ and 12+ . I think many readers this young could be really distressed by quite a lot of the content, would find many of the concepts beyond them and find some of the language too challenging. It will no doubt be used in schools as part of WW2 learning topics – but I would have thought for Years 8 or 9.

The narrator has a very pleasant voice and she reads the French well, as in the touchingly plangent Never forget You refrain in French. But she makes far too many mispronunciations of words – the one I found most puzzling was her word “Pee-Kay”. Is she saying ‘picquet’? But that makes no sense in the context. Then I realise she means ‘pique’ (which should be pronounced ‘peek’). It’s a shame that there are these glaring errors in an otherwise professional narration.

A story you won't forget

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