Impossible to Forget by Imogen Clark

"For a moment they sat, each in quiet contemplation. Maggie thought about Angie and the way she had continued to touch and guide their lives long after she had left them, impossible to forget."

             -from the novel

In 2018, three long-time friends and one woman little known to any of them, come before a solicitor to hear the last wishes of their very good friend, Angie. Maggie, Leon and Tiger met at uni (University of York) and have stayed close for decades. None of the three know why Hope Maxwell is there, too. Angie has left behind a letter charging each of them with guiding and protecting her 18-year-old daughter, Romany. 

The story begins in 1985 when Angie and the other three meet at college. Each friend has a distinctive personality, all likeable in some way. There are Angie, the free spirit and chief of the little clan; Maggie, the studious, aspiring lawyer; Leon, the shy traditionalist; and Tiger, the handsome world traveler. They wonder: why has Angie assigned them this task? What was she thinking? Was it only about nurturing Romany or would the arrangement benefit them, too? And how does Hope fit into this plan? The reader doesn't find out until many chapters in. It takes even longer for the "3 musketeers" to figure it out. 

The "Britishness" was fun for me, with expressions like..."the doorbell rang bang on nine o'clock," "head of sixth form" and "you never seemed to want to know anything...so I just kept schtum." 

Impossible to Forget was different from most of the novels I have read recently. I enjoyed it and have rated it a 4.