The Morning Gift was a long awaited treat that I have hungrily eyed since I finished The Secret Countess (also by Ibbotson) years ago. And it did not fail to pull me in and enchant me in prewar London. The characters, as they do in a good book, took on their own lives. At first the writing was a bit formal, a large vocabulary, and a focus on a plethora of characters that at times could present themselves in a confusing mass. But nonetheless I felt the pain of the characters as equally as if it was my own, I felt their happiness. And at the end it brought tears to my eyes. In the end I deeply enjoyed the book, glad to have heard the stories of not just one or two people, but all who had been involved. The Morning Gift is definitely an enjoyable and delightful book and I look forward to reading other enchanting works by Ibbotson.