As a child I devoured historical fiction
I loved and still do love
Carrie’s War
The Silver Sword
I Am David
The Machine Gunners
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
I still love historical fiction
And have recently adored
The Silent Stars Go By
And
The Skylarks’ War and The Swallows’ Flight
Remind me of the very best of all of those books
They are nostalgic
Heartwarming
Inspiring
Emotive reads
They have characters you feel so connected to
Invested in
You never want the story to end
You always want to know what next?
What happens to these people
These children
Now?
Introduces us to Clarry, her brother Peter and their cousin Rupert
We learn of their summers in Cornwall
Their school lives
And how things change for them all
As the First World War looms
The relationships between the children are incredibly well told
We learn so much through them about life at the Front
And what life was like for those at home during The Great War
I was so sad when I reached the end of this book
And so very happy when I was sent The Swallows’ Flight to review
To find the characters I adored laid out on the page before me
All grown up
Throughout the first book I so wanted Rupert and Clarry to not be cousins
And to be in love
They had such a special relationship that was so well told
It was just the most wonderful feeling for me as a reader
To find my wish come true in Swallows
Clarry and Rupert were not cousins at all
And in this second book were in love
It felt just perfect to me
It has been brilliant following the Skylarks characters as adults
Getting to know their children
And seeing them all grow together through the Second World War
But The Swallows’ Flight is not the story of Rupert, Clarry and Peter
It is very much the story of Erik and Hans in Germany
Along with Ruby and Kate in England
They grow up in worlds that would never usually meet
But war tumbles them together
This is a beautiful story of family and friendship
Set against the build up to the second world war
And through the war years
Erik and Hans we see grow from young boys
Caring for baby birds
To fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe
The stories of the German and English children are so cleverly entwined
I am struggling to find the words
To describe how much I have loved reading these two books
How invested I became in the families in these stories
I did not want them to end
These stories show the impact of war on families and children
They show that no one really wins a war
We all lose
But for us all there is always good
There is always light
There is always hope