Book No. 88 of 2020
Morning Gift’s historical setting—it starts with Hitler’s annexation of Austria and the protagonist is a Jewish refugee in London—is a little more “real” than some of Ibbotson’s other books. In addition to the Nazis’ background presence, several upper-class English characters express their views on Jewish people, refugees, and immigrants (namely, that there are too many of them and they are threats to English culture—oh xenophobia, you never change, do you).
That being said, Morning Gift is characteristically charming, and its “villains” are more subtle than the ones in Ibbotson’s other books. (One of the characters is a very dedicated concert pianist and oof I felt DRAGGED.) I was also delighted at the heroine’s fairly forward-thinking (but still baggage-laden) views on sex. The developments of the latter part of the book are also genuinely surprising—given that Ibbotson works with a clear formula (as well as the story’s resemblance to A Company of Swans), and that she sets up the expectation for the story to go one way, I fully thought I knew where the book was going!