Book Review: Skylarks and Swallows

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

When The World Was Ours

Hilary Mackay’s books

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?

The Skylarks’ War

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

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