The Engima Game by Elizabeth Wein

The Enigma Game is another wonderful story by young adult author Elizabeth Wein whose superb writing captures life in northern Scotland during World War II.

The story's narrative weaves between the following three characters. Nineteen-year-old  Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart leads 648 Squadron B-Flight which includes the Madeira and Pimms sections. The 648 squadron fly Bristol Blenheims on low-level bombing raids targeting German ships in the North Sea. Before his next mission, Stuart confronts his Wing Commander, Talbot Cromwell, who was recently moved to Shetland as the Battle of Britain ended. Cromwell is use to commanding a squadron of new Spitfire fighters, fast and agile. He wants the 648 Squadron to fly at twenty thousand feet which means hitting any target at that height is almost impossible. When Stuart argues with Cromwell about his battle tactics, he is accused of lacking "moral fiber", a euphemism for cowardice. Cromwell doesn't want them flying low because they are targeted by the German's anti-aircraft guns.

In fact Stuart's squadron suffers more losses that night as he leads them on a mission over the North Sea. In his plane, is his navigator  twenty-one-year-old David Silvermont and their gunner and wireless operator, Colin Oldham. When their plane is attacked by a German Messerschmitt 110 over the North Sea, Stuart manages to dive down to sea level. But Colin is killed when the gunner's turret is hit. Back at base, Stuart is angry and determined, even if that means cheating to beat the Germans.

Fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair finds herself alone in London. Her parents had moved to England from Jamaica when she was twelve-years-old. They'd left Kingston, Jamaica because her mother "was afraid of the workers' strikes and Caribbean riots".

Louisa's parents were killed in the same week the previous month. Her mother Caroline, a white Englishwoman was killed when the front of the bus she was in fell into a crater when the Balham tube station was bombed. Her father Lenford, a Black Jamaican and a merchant seaman, was killed three days after her mother died, when his ship was torpedoed. 

Now alone in their flat at 88 Gibraltar Road, Louisa knows she has to find work otherwise she will end up living in an air-raid shelter. Going back to Jamaica isn't an option because it would mean a life of hardship. After no success applying for various jobs, Louisa discovers Nancy Campbell's notice in the newspaper, seeking someone to look after her elderly Aunt Jane. Nancy's Aunt Jane is currently living in Rushen Camp, an alien detainment camp, on the Isle of Man. She is German and is a former opera singer who married a Scotsman many years ago. Now alone at eighty-two and recovering from a broken hip, Jane whose real name is Johanna von Arnim is coming to stay at Nancy's home, a pub, the Limehouse located next to the Royal Air Force base at Windyedge.

So Louisa accepts the position and travels to Liverpool and then by ferry to the Isle of Man. There she meets Johanna von Arnim, a feisty old lady who turns out to be a rule breaker like her mother. Wearing Frau von Arnim's furs, they travel back to Liverpool and using Frau's English name of Jane Warner get the train to Stonehaven where they wait for their ride to the Limehouse.

That someone is volunteer Ellen McEwen, a driver for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) assigned to the RAF aerodrome in Windyedge. No one except Jamie Stuart knows that Ellen is a "Traveller" - a gypsy. Ellen billets at the Limehouse. Driving the Hillman Minx van, Ellen meets Louisa and Aunt Jane at the bus shelter on the Aberdeen road. She is surprised to see that Louisa is a black girl. As they approach the Limehouse, they see a plane approaching. Louisa is convinced the plane is German and it turns out she's correct.

After dropping off Louisa and Nancy at the Limehouse, Ellen races over to the RAF aerodrome. There Sergeant Norbert Ferguson, standing outside the guard's hut at the aerodrome tells her that a German has just landed on the airfield. Ellen sees that the aircraft is a Messerschmitt 109 fighter with its Luftwaffe markings covered up. In the operations building, standing just inside the radio room is the German pilot brandishing a black pistol. He quickly takes Ellen hostage while the radio operator explains that the pilot has a recognized code name of Odysseus and was expected by British Intelligence. The German pilot was to meet with Robert Ethan of the War Office. However that hasn't happened so he's to wait until the morning and if Ethan doesn't arrive, he's to leave.  Ellen drives the pilot to the Limehouse, where Louisa, Aunt Jane and Nancy Campbell are shocked to see her walk in with a German pilot.

Meanwhile Jamie and the Pimms Section of the 648 Squadron return to their base after intercepting transmissions between two Messerschmitt 109 fighters and then encountering one who leaves. Back at the base, Jamie learns  that they encountered a German plane that Intelligence was expecting. But Jamie believes that the Luftwaffe plane they'd run into was hunting for the traitor Intelligence was expecting. He also learns that the 648 Squadron will be sent back to the RAF aerodrome at Windyedge.

At the Limehouse, tension is high with the presence of the German pilot whose name they learn, is Felix Baer. He plays Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture which Louisa recognizes. When Louisa stands next to him, he knocks open the wooden box which he'd placed on the piano and she sees it contains a strange typewriter-like device labelled ENIGMA. Aunt Jane who speaks German, explains how Louisa's parents have been killed in the war. Eventually German pilot asks to take Jane's gramophone upstairs to this room, playing her records well into the night.

The next morning the German pilot leaves, having missed his British contact who arrives late. But before doing so, he places a coin into a crack in the black oak beam that formed part of the fireplace and are part of the wishing tree. After searching the Limehouse, Ethan leaves disappointed. However, later that morning Louisa makes an amazing discovery. First the coin that Felix Baer placed in the wishing tree is no coin but a small enamel disk that Louisa knows is from the typewriter- like instrument in Baer's wooden box. Then while in Room Four where Baer spent the night, Louisa discovers that the gas fireplace has been tampered with. When she removes the fireplace panels, she discovers that Baer has left the wooden box with a cipher machine named Enigma. This machine, as Aunt Jane explains, is able to create and translate code. Louisa is also able to find leaflets Baer hid, that provide instructions and dial settings for the next three months. Not knowing who to tell, they first hide the cipher machine and then eventually pass the information on to Jaime Beaufort-Stuart.

The Enigma offers the British pilots a fighting chance against the Germans but it also places the RAF Windyedge and the Limehouse at great risk when the Germans suspect they have one of their cipher machines. This sets up up a game of cat and mouse that might have deadly consequences.

Discussion

The Enigma Game is an exciting and well-written novel. Elizabeth Wein is a master storyteller, who captures her readers' attention almost immediately with a heart-pounding air battle over the North Sea between the RAF and the Luftwaffe. Wein employs three characters to narrate her story, beginning with Flight Lieutenant James G. Beaufort-Stuart who is the son of a Scottish laird. Picking up the story is fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair who is British-Jamaican, and Ellen McEwen who is a "traveller" the name given to Scottish Romani or gypsies. 

The strength of this novel is its engaging story line and the realistic and believable characters created by Wein. Set in 1940-early 1941 Scotland as the Battle of Britain is waning, The Enigma Game centers on the cipher machine, known as Enigma which has been stolen by a member of the German resistance and brought to Scotland. Its discovery by a young English girl results in the Enigma being used to help the bomber squadron assigned to the local RAF aerodrome get the upper hand on the Germans.

The role of the Enigma machine in helping the Allies during World War II has long been recognized. Developed by Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer at the end of World War I, the Enigma was used by Nazi Germany to send coded messages during World War II. However, in the 1930's, Polish mathematicians and code breakers were able to solve the mystery of Enigma and learn how to decode messages. In 1933, the Polish were able to build a replica Enigma machine based on intelligence the French secured. In 1939, lacking the resources to continue their work on modified Engima machines, the Polish began working with the British Intelligence. With war on the horizon, the Polish scientists were secreted out of Poland along with their Engima machines in 1939. The Germans continued to believe Enigma was secure and used it to send many messages.

The British did not obtain an Enigma machine until 1941 so the events in The Enigma Game are a bit out of the real timeline. Nevertheless, centering the story around Engima, offered Wein the opportunity to build a truly engaging main plot through the narratives of the three main characters. Perhaps the most poignant and heart-rending is that of Jamie Beaufort-Stuart and his 648 bomber squadron. Wein very much captures the danger, the sacrifice and the courage of the pilots as they fly missions against  the better equipped German airforce. These qualities are demonstrated by each of the pilots in Jamie's Pimms section when they are sent to bomb Stavanger, a Norwegian aerodrome being built by the Germans. The resulting catastrophe vividly portrays the very real risks these brave, young men encountered. As Wein shows, many airmen did not survive very long under such terrible battle conditions. 

The novel also highlights the effects of war, not just on those engaged in battle but on the civilian population as well, through the character of Louisa who is orphaned when both her parents are killed within days of each other, and through the food shortages that are experienced by those living in Scotland.

One character central to the main plot, Felix Baer, a German pilot who is a member of the German resistance, is based on the real-life defection of a three-man crew flying a German bomber, a Junkers 88 from Denmark to Aberdeen, Scotland in 1943. The crew did not bring an Enigma machine with them, but Wein used this as the basis for Baer's actions in the novel.  

The diverse cast of characters allows Wein to highlight some of the racial and ethnic issues that existed at this time in Britain and in America. Louisa is of mixed Jamaican and British heritage and she encounters racial prejudice throughout the novel because of her darker skin colour. When she arrives at the Limehouse, Nancy Campbell is shocked to see that she is black and stares at her. Louisa offers to leave but Jane Warner refuses to allow this. The guard on the base is more concerned with Louisa than he is with the German soldier, and Intelligence officer, Robert Ethan makes a racially discriminatory remark to Louisa telling her, "Well, perhaps the hoo-doo will help you to feel at home, Louisa." in reference to the coins in the wishing tree above the pub. When Louisa and Jane Warner take the bus into Stonehaven to visit the library, Louisa experiences more discrimination. While on the bus, a young boy believes Louisa is a German and therefore the enemy simply because of her dark skin. Filled with anger, Louisa thinks, "I thought about the little boy on the bus, who'd taken one look at me and decided I must be the enemy, just because he'd never seen anyone who looked like me before."

Ellen McEwen is a "traveller" or a gypsy. Her family are known to Jamie Beaufort-Stuart whom she considers an "old friend" because her mother and father camped on his grandfather's land. Ellen is careful to keep her heritage hidden as she knows this will be a source of trouble. She is careful not to use "traveller" words or do things that are considered common to gypsies and thus reveal who she really is. Ellen is careful around Nan and everyone she meets. "I lived in fear Nan would twig what I was and we'd have a bitter fight over whether I should leaver her house. I didn't think she'd prefer me to raise a tent in her garden, but I wasn't ready to find out."  

Although Ellen is able to hide what makes her different, Louisa is not. When Chip Wingate, a Texan, refers to Louisa as a "little darkie", Ellen at first hears this as "filthy tinker", and understand exactly how this makes Louisa feel. However, she doesn't nothing to defend her new friend, leaving that to Jamie and his friend Silver. When a brawl is instigated in the Limehouse after some racial slurs, Ellen stands up an reveals that she is a traveller. Later Ellen explains to Louisa that being called a tinker is the equivalent of Louisa being called a darkie. These experiences, along with many others strengthen the bond of friendship between the two girls.

The Enigma Game is such a well written novel, with an engaging cover that certainly encourages readers to crack the spine. But readers would have benefited from a map of England, Scotland and Norway as well a Cast of Characters located at the front of the novel. A glossary at the back containing some of the unusual words and slang used throughout the story might also be helpful for younger readers. Wein does include a detailed note about her writing of the novel at the back in a section titled, Author's Declaration of Accountability and offers an excellent section on Further Readings.

The Enigma Game is yet another excellent addition to Elizabeth Wein's group of World War II novels, this time taking a minor character, Jamie Beaufort-Stuart from Code Name Verity and telling his story. Highly recommended!

Book Details:

The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
New York: Hyperion     2020
437 pp.

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean

Where The World Ends is a fictional account of a real life event that occurred in the St. Kilda archipelago, located in the Atlantic Ocean, northwest of Scotland.

The island of Hirta which is the home for the twelve characters in the novel,  is the main island in the archipelago. Hirta was populated by very small number of inhabitants until 1930, when the remaining population was evacuated to mainland Scotland.

In 1727, a group of nine boys and men were set on Stac an Armin also known as Warrior Stac to hunt the birds and eggs, the main staple in their diet. They became stranded on the stac for nine months when a smallpox epidemic on Hirta devastated the community there. Very little is known about this event which was recorded in the diary of a Christian missionary. This provided McCaughrean with the opportunity to imagine what being marooned on a rugged stac in the stormy Atlantic for nine months without any hope of rescue might be like.

The story is told from the point of view of Quilliam who is part of the fowling party that includes Domhnall Don, Mr. Farriss, Mr. Cane, Murdo, Kenneth, Calum, Lachlan, John, Euan, Niall and Davie. To get ashore, everyone has to  jump from the boat onto the craggy stac. It was Calum's father who brought them to the stac and it will be up to him to return in three weeks time to bring them back.

Their first stop is Lower Bothy, a dark, dank, stinking cave where they temporarily stow their gear of ropes, fowling nets, cooking pot, egg baskets, bundles and boots. The next task is to kill the King Gannet, the lookout bird, who guards the Overhand and warns the other gannets of danger. Whoever kills that first lookout bird earns the title of King Gannet for their time on the stac. Quill succeeds in this task and earns himself the title. The fowlers then move from the Lower Bothy to Midway Bothy. This cave is no more comfortable then the lower cave but it allows them to descend on ropes and harvest the birds in this area.

They harvest storm petrels for their oil and meat, gugas (gannet chicks) for their meat, as well as puffins and other birds. The feathers are plucked by the younger boys and stuffed into sacks. Eighty cleits, "little towers built of rocks" are used to store the dead birds, acting like smokehouses to dry out the carcasses.

Two months before the fowlers left for Warrior Stac, the boat arrived from Harris, carrying Murdina Galloway, the niece of Mr. Fariss, the school master. With Murdina and the boat that brought her, came a bundle of clothes belonging to Old Iain who had died, tossed onto the shore by the skipper, Mr. Gilmour. That bundle of clothing was stored in the schoolroom to be shared out amongst the islanders. Murdina brought sentences, songs and laughter to Hirta. And Quilliam was entranced by her and her mainland ways. On Warrior Stac she occupies Quilliam's thoughts frequently.

Shortly after the fowling party left for the stac, the Reverend Buchan, a missionary on Hirta was slated to return to the mainland, along with Murdina. Quilliam believes it unlikely he will ever see Murdina again.

Stac an Armin

The next three weeks are spent gathering birds' eggs, wicking petrels (the oily birds are used like candles, burning down to their feet) and hunting birds. Four weeks pass, then three more. Finally Callum asks the question everyone is thinking, "Why do they not come?" Every possible reason is discussed; the weather, the tides, a problem with the boat. Euan, one of the younger boys faints and then prophesies that all on Hirta have gone up to heaven. Because of this,  many in the band of fowlers believe that God has decided to end the world and that they have been left behind on the island. However, Mr. Fariss and Mr. Don believe that they should try to build a raft and cross to Boreray so as to make a signal to Hirta for help. Quilliam, overwhelmed by the conversation, leaves the Bothy and to distract the younger boys who are also upset, helps them set afire one of the cleits containing gugas and puffins. Although they burn,  the signal goes out and there is no rescue.

As the weeks pass, Quilliam and the other fowlers must now face the prospect of a long winter, possible starvation and death. As tension mounts between Col Cane who has set himself up as a minister of God and the rest of the party, the struggle to stay alive grows more desperate with each passing week. Has the world truly ended? How will they survive the winter?

Discussion

Told from the point of view of protagonist Quilliam McKinnon, Where The World Ends is a story of extreme survival. Eleven inhabitants of Hirta are set on a rocky outcrop in the middle of the sea to harvest birds for their community over a period of three weeks. But when the boat does not return for them, they must find a way to survive through the harsh winter. Every aspect of their being will be tested; physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. It is a tale of inner strength, resiliency, and courage.

McGaughrean immediately creates the setting and atmosphere for her story through her descriptive narrative. The stac is described in imposing terms. "Warrior Stac grows bigger the closer you get. You would swear it was pushing its way upwards -- a rock whale pitching its whole bulk into the sky, covered in barnacles, aiming to swallow the moon...Warrior Stac is so big and so dark that all the fowl of the air since Creation haven't been able to stain it. It looms there, as black and fearful as one horn of the Devil himself. And it teems with birds." Quill doesn't want to think ill of the stac. "It was not a living thing, only a slab of rock in a big, cold ocean at the edge of the world." It is evident from the beginning, that even in the warm summer months, survival on the stac will be a formidable challenge.

Map of St. Kilda showing the location of Stac an Armin

When the boat fails to return for them, it soon becomes evident to the group that they are marooned, likely for the winter and possibly permanently. The incredible challenge of staying alive through the winter is ably portrayed by McGaughrean. They have plenty of food in the form of birds and eggs, although they must deal with the rain and cold. So initially, the most significant challenge the men and boys face is psychological; the realization that for some unknown reason, no one is coming to take them back to Hirta. Each character deals with this realization in their own way. Murdo wants to partition off areas of the island so each can have his own area to hunt and store birds. Mr. Fariss contemplates suicide but is talked out of it by Quilliam. Mr. Don makes a practical plan to build a raft out of driftwood so they can sail to Boreray where they will have a much better chance of surviving the winter. Col Cane takes refuge in rigid religious belief.

From the beginning, Col Cane appoints himself as a "Minister", controlling the group by playing on their fears. Quilliam does his best to counter these fears but is largely unsuccessful. For example, when Quilliam tells the younger boys a story that draws on mythology to distract them from their dark thoughts, Cane decides he is a pagan who is to be shunned. Cane dictates Sundays as days of prayer and ordering the fowlers to "confess" not only their own sins but the sins of others too! As winter approaches, Cane's beliefs and demands become more extreme as he orders the group to stop fowling and stay in the Bothy to pray and sing hymns. Quilliam sees the folly in this; they will run out of food if they stop harvesting birds. "It was insane. The birds would be gone soon. The party must keep fowling for as long as possible. Their were cleits needed mending." Eventually Quilliam is banished by the increasingly unstable Col Cane. This sets Cane up as the main source of conflict in the novel.

Although not much is known about the people living on Hirta before the 1800s, online research indicates that the islanders did not take much to Christianity in the 1700's and that Alexander Buchan, the missionary mentioned in the novel, was largely unsuccessful in his efforts to evangelize them. They still clung to their Druid beliefs as much as to the new religion of Christianity. McCaughrean captures the mixture of Christian and pagan beliefs that these men might have had in the 1700's. Col Cane seems able to use his distorted views of God and death to gain considerable control over the marooned fowlers. Although the fowlers would have been practical men, focused entirely on staying alive into the spring when they could hope for rescue by a passing ship, they would have also searched for omens. They young boys, often Euan remind them to do so.

McCaughrean has crafted a dark tale that might be more appropriate for older readers. Quilliam and Murdo talk about never having the chance to be with a woman, one character attempts suicide but is saved by Quilliam, another dies a gruesome death and various characters suffer serious injuries. There is also the situation of John who turns out to be a girl of fourteen, whom the older boys determine should be married off to one of them. McCaughrean's descriptions of the state of the fowlers as winter ends leave little to her readers' imaginations. "They sneezed incessantly and their skin crawled with parasites. Itchy, scabby and sore, their flesh cracked open at the least cause, like crabs whose backs split as they outgrow them." And there is the matter of Kenneth's toes....

Despite the harrowing, gloomy storyline, the novel has a surprisingly sweet ending for the main character, Quilliam, who survives by frequently imagining his love, Murdina by his side. After their rescue, that dream becomes a reality in a chapter narrated by Murdina.

Overall, Where The World Ends is an interesting but dark fictional account of a real life event that happened almost three hundred years ago. This is a remarkable survival story with many themes to be explored. McCaughrean includes a map of the setting, an Afterword, and a set of drawings of the various birds the fowlers would have found on the stac.

Readers can get a good sense of the novel's setting from this article on the BBC about the isolated island of Hirta and its unique people.

Stac an Armin image: Bob Jones [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)] from geograph.org.uk

Map credit: Eric Gaba (Sting - fr:Sting) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]


Book Details:

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean
London: Usborne Publishing    2018
330 pp.

In Another Time by Caroline Leech

Seventeen-year-old Margaret (Maisie) McCall wanted to take control of her life. She was too young to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force or the Auxiliary Territorial Service but she was able to volunteer for the Women's Timber Corps. The WTC was formed to obtain wood from Scotland's forests. The German blockade in the Atlantic and the enlisting of the foresters has meant both a shortage of wood and lumberjacks.

Maisie is now two weeks into her six weeks of WTC training as a lumberjill at Sandford Lodge under the direction of Miss Cradditch. The training isn't easy: Maisie has blistered and bloody palms from wielding four-and-a-half-pound axes, six pound axes, crosscut saws, hauling chains and cant hooks. Her feet are blistered and her shoulders ache. Maisie's friend Dorothy (Dot) Thompson, shorter and slighter, is struggling to master the forestry skills Mr. McRobbie is teaching them.

That evening, Maisie, Dot and the other WTC recruits attend a dance at the Brechin Town Hall. The evening becomes more interesting with the arrival of a group of men, whom the women believe are American service men. Maisie receives an awkward invitation to dance from a handsome, dark-haired man named John Lindsay. John notices Maisie's wounded hands and tells her to use pig fat to heal the blisters, showing her his own scars. Their attempt to dance is disastrous, with John stumbling and stepping on Maisie and eventually rushing out the door, leaving Maisie embarrassed and the center of jokes by the lumberjills.

During their final chopping lesson with Mr. McRobbie, Maisie finally finds her rhythim, but her friend Dot struggles on. Even learning to drive seems beyond Dot, who scares their instructor, Mr. Taylor. To finish out their training, Maisie and Dot and the other recruits visit Mitchell's Sawmill in Tannadice to learn how to feed large tree trunks into the table and routing saws. Their day is marred however when one of the women, Lillian is badly cut by a saw. Dot discovers her calling when she calmly administers first aid to Lillian, who is taken to hospital.

When their training is complete, the new lumberjills receive their assignments. Helen and Phyllis are posted in Perthshire, Mary, Mairi and Cynthia are sent to Ad camp near Grantown-on-Spey, while Dot and Maisie are sent to the WTC camp at Auchterblair, Carrbridge, Inverness-Shire. Before she leaves for the camp, Maisie decides to send a postcard to her family, letting them know about her posting. Maisie's parents were not happy that she'd signed up for the WTC. Her mother was upset that she'd chosen not to finish her schooling and her father was very angry, viewing Maisie as abandoning them. Only Maisie's younger sister Beth, almost sixteen, had been supportive, wanting to walk her to the bus stop.

 At Auchterblair, while out on a walk to calm herself after a mean-spirited letter from her father, Maisie has a surprise encounter with John Lindsay. Maisie discovers John sitting by an abandoned croft, smoking a cigarette. He reveals to her that he is not American but a Canadian with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit at Cambridge. It turns out that John McCrae, author of the poem In Flanders Field is John's uncle and who he is named after. Like his famous uncle, John writes poetry, some of which he shares with Maisie, lending her his uncle's book of poems.

Maisie and the other lumberjills along with the NOFU's travel to Inverness for a dance, stopping at the La Scala Cinema to view a newsreel of the Women's Timber Corps that was filmed by Pathe News. The dance at the Caledonian Hotel Ballroom turns into a disaster when Violet gets drunk. She confronts John Lindsay mocking him for not dancing. Horrified at what has happened, Maisie confronts John outside the dance hall. He reveals to her that he is missing part of his right leg and that he was reluctant to tell her earlier because he felt she would view him differently and treat him as though he only cares for himself.

Maisie tells John that this does not change how she feels about him, but when she intervenes in a fight between John and a drunken sailor, he becomes enraged, telling her he doesn't need a woman to protect him. As the days pass, Maisie struggles to work through her own conflicted feelings over John. Does she really think differently about John, does she treat him as though he can't do anything for himself?  When John and his friend Elliott are injured in a terrible forestry accident, Maisie and John are forced to confront these issues and either resolve them or forever lose each other.

Discussion

In Another Time is a historical fiction novel set in the Inverness area of northern Scotland during World War II. The main character in the novel is Maisie McCall, a young Scottish woman who joins the Women's Timber Corps against her family's wishes. Maisie falls in love with John Lindsay, a young Canadian man who is a member of the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit working in Scotland. Although the two are definitely attracted to one another and there are tender moments, their relationship is often fraught with misunderstanding and difficulties. Maisie comes to learn this is because John is recovering from devastating physical and psychological wounds acquired during the evacuation of Dunkirk and because he blames himself for the death of his two best friends, Walter Clarkson and Lofty McGinnis who saved his life. The tension between the two of them and how they manage to come to an understanding, forms the main story line.

A subplot involves Maisie's strained relationship with her mother and father, leading her to leave home prematurely to join the lumberjills.  The climax of the story, which sees John and another lumberjack seriously injured in a forestry accident, sets Maisie on the path to resolving this conflict when her mother travels to the hospital, demonstrating that she really does care for Maisie. At this point her mother explains how events in the past led to the current problems in their family and the two women come to an understanding.

With John however, the process takes longer. He gradually opens up to Maisie after the accident, explaining how he lost his leg, but also revealing the guilt he has over what he believes is the certain fate of his two friends.  It is only when he seeks help in dealing with his war trauma, that he is able to move forward, forgive himself and be able to open his heart to Maisie.

The setting of the novel, within the Women's Timber Corps, offers readers a chance to learn about a little known and only recently recognized contribution to the British/Canadian war effort. The Women's Timber Corps was formed to replace the foresters who had enlisted in the British army. Almost five thousand women joined the WTC doing tasks such as felling trees, snedding, driving tractors and trucks, working sawmills and living in very basic accommodations. Their war contribution was not fully recognized until recently: they never marched in parades nor were there separate wreaths acknowledging their effort. But in 2007 that changed with the installation of the Women's Timber Corps Memorial at the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre near Aberfoyle in the Queen Elizabeth Forest Park.

Leech's Author's Note at the back of the novel is detailed, offering some supplementary information on several historical aspects of her story including the Women's Timber Corps, the NOFU, Pathe News, some information about the Halifax 100 - a group of Canadian soldiers who were at Dunkirk, and the evacuation of Dunkirk. Leech notes that "As a historical novelist, I place my fictional characters in a world of historical fact. My stories are not so much what did happen but what could have happened in a particular time and place." Leech does include a lesbian relationship in the novel. While it's obvious that same sex relationships have existed throughout history, they were not openly tolerated and in 1940's Scotland, such relationships were illegal. People who had these attitudes and relationships would likely have been more circumspect than is portrayed in the novel. 

Maisie is a solid lead character, showing determination, grit, and courage. She stands up to her parents who want her to remain at home, to Violet Dunlavy who bullies the other lumberjills and to John Lindsay whose self-pity and inner struggles to overcome his guilt threaten to overwhelm Maisie. John Lindsay is a character filled with conflict: he has guilt over surviving Dunkirk, and struggles to live up to his uncle, John McCrae - the legendary poet and physician-surgeon's reputation. He must deal with both being an amputee and suffering from post-traumatic stress, all the while working as a lumberjack - a feat that would seem very difficult indeed given the state of prosthetics in the 1940's. In true romantic novel fashion, John, who finds he can't live without Maisie,  ends up getting himself well enough to propose to Maisie and they return to Canada to live happily ever after. Given all of John's deep-rooted problems, it seems not very realistic, but many battle weary soldiers managed to live a good life in the post-war years. In the this way, In Another Time ends on a hopeful note.

In Another Time is a story about friendship, loss, redemption and first love.  Author Caroline Leech is the author of another historical fiction novel, Wait For Me.

Book Details:

In Another Time by Caroline Leech
New York: HarperTeen    2018
361 pp.

The Man Who Loved Libraries by Andrew Larsen

The Man Who Loved Libraries is about an American philanthropist who built 2,500 libraries all over the world, but mostly in the United States and Canada. Andrew Carnegie, a self-made millionaire was a staunch believer in free libraries and the value of free education. Carnegie built over 2,500 libraries throughout the world; the first one in his hometown of Dunfermline, Scotland. He spent $2,556,600 building one hundred eleven libraries in Ontario Canada and an additional fourteen libraries throughout Canada. The first Carnegie library in the province of Ontario was opened in Chatham on September 14, 1903. Many of these libraries in Ontario are still functioning today and a list with accompanying pictures can be found on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website. Ontario received the greater number of Carnegie libraries due to its larger population and the recognition of the importance of libraries in the province. The architectural style of the Carnegie libraries varied from Beaux-Arts to Italian Renaissance, Baroque, Classical Revival and Spanish Colonial.

Andrew Carnegie was born in 1835 in Dunfermlime, Scotland, the son of a weaver. However, increasing industrialization meant he could no longer support his family with his trade so they emigrated to the United States in 1848. In the United States, Andrew had to work to help support his family. He was a very enterprising young man. Because his formal education had ended, Andrew turned to the personal library of  his employer, Colonel James Anderson to learn. Eventually Andrew worked his way up in the business world and soon became wealthy. In 1901, Carnegie sold his Carnegie Steel Company for the astounding sum of $500,000,000! From this point on, he devoted himself to philanthropy which included not only the building of free libraries but also the support of academic endeavours too. Carnegie was a firm believer of self-improvement through learning.

Larsen's picture book tells Andrew Carnegie's story from when he was growing up in Dunfermline, Scotland to his life in the United States. Readers will learn how libraries played a significant role in Carnegie's life and how he was determined to help others in the way he had been helped.  Carnegie's story is told in a simple, forthright manner. The back of the book contains a two page spread on Andrew Carnegie's Legacy. The Man Who Loved Libraries is illustrated with the colourful artwork of Katty Maurey.


Book Details:

The Man Who Loved Libraries: The Story of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Larson
Toronto: Owlkid Books Inc.       2017

Wait For Me by Caroline Leech

Set in Aberlady, East Lothian Scotland Wait For Me is a tender story about forbidden love during the closing days of World War II.

Almost eighteen-year-old Lorna Anderson lives on Craigielaw farm with her father. Her mother died when Lorna was very young. Since then, Mrs. McMurdough (Mrs. Mack) comes daily to cook, clean and care for the Anderson family.  With her brothers, John Jo and Sandy away at war, Lorna and her father are helped on the farm by Nellie who came two years ago from the Women's Land Arm.

In early February of 1945, a truck bearing German POWs from the Gosford Prisoners of War camp pulls into the farm. One of the prisoners, a tall skinny young man is dropped off to work on the Anderson farm. He is introduced to Lorna who is shocked to see that the left side of his face has been badly burned and scarred. "...from his left temple to his chin across his cheek and down the left side of his throat, the pale skin had been burned away, leaving raw red scarring, tight and shiny. The flesh was puckered into the knotted remnants of an earlobe, and his left eye was stretched out of shape, round elongating to oval."

Lorna races to school to write her exam and can't wait to tell her best friend, Iris Robertson. After the exam Lorna's teacher, Mrs. Murray suggests to Lorna that she should consider university but with the war continuing, Lorna feels she cannot leave her father. After school Lorna tries to convince Iris to reconsider her blossoming romance with William Urquhart, who is the son of the parish minister and Aberlady School's head boy but Iris insists that William is clever and "very moral". Iris believes that Lorna's dislike for her beau is a sign of jealousy.  Lorna tells Iris about the badly disfigured young German soldier who is working on their farm. Iris seems to feel the German soldier deserved his injuries which greatly upsets Lorna.

The next day the German POW arrives back at the farm. After slowly and loudly introducing herself, Lorna is surprised to discover that he speaks English. He tells her his name is Paul Vogel and wishes Lorna a good day. Paul explains to Lorna that his aunt was an English lady who taught him English during his holidays on his uncle's farm. When Lorna tells Paul that people are not happy about Germans working on local farms and that there are Nazis at the camp, he brusquely reminds her that not all Germans are Nazis. Later on Mrs. Mack reminds Lorna that Paul, like all young men, was doing what his country asked of him.

As the days pass Lorna begins to experience increasingly conflicting feelings about Paul. Although she's upset at his presence on the farm, she also watches out for him. With the start of lambing season, Lorna helps her father as Nellie is unable to cope with the birthing. Paul stays in the lambing shed to feed those lambs abandoned by their mothers caring tenderly for them. But after her remark about the Nazis, Paul is curt and distant with Lorna, making her feel upset. Needing more help on the farm. Lorna's father is granted permission to have Paul stay overnight on the farm. They arrange a place for Paul to sleep in the hayloft in the barn and Lorna takes his evening meal to him in the barn.

One evening Paul explains to Lorna about his family. She reminds him of his younger sister Lilli who lives in Desden with his mother. Paul describes the beauty of Desden to Lorna, with its churches, art galleries and many parks. He also tells her how his father, a clockmaker, was forced into the Wehrmacht, the German army in late 1939 and was dead by April of 1940. When he turned sixteen, Paul began to apprentice as a clockmaker, but when he turned eighteen, he too was forced into the Wehrmacht.

As Lorna comes to know Paul, she is faced with the reality that he is a nice man and one whom she could be friends with or even more. But is that even possible in a time of war? And what does that mean for herself and her family? For Lorna, falling in love with an enemy soldier may mean losing all that she holds dear.

Discussion

Wait For Me is a beautifully crafted story about love in the time of war. In her debut novel, Leech deftly weaves her story about a young woman's prejudices and assumptions that are gradually conquered when she encounters the humanity of a German prisoner of war. As her view transforms from mistrust to friendship and finally to love, she struggles with her own inner conflicts and the prejudices of those around her.

The story opens in February of 1945, in what would be the closing months of World War II. Like most British, Lorna views all Germans as the enemy; cruel and dangerous.  The nearby base has been made into a prisoner of war camp housing German POW soldiers who are to work on local farms. When she first sees Paul Vogel, she believes he's sneering at her. "Then his gaze fell to her school uniform and woolen stockings, her milk-and-muck-spattered shoes. The right, undamaged side of his face rose in a sneer. Or was it a smile? No, definitely a sneer."

Although she doesn't trust Paul, when Iris suggests that he may have deserved his terrible wound, Lorna is horrified. "Iris! Just because someone's a German doesn't mean he deserves to be hurt so badly."  Iris suggests that Lorna should be pleased that he's been badly hurt, but Lorna is confused about how she should feel. "Well, yes...no...maybe...I mean, yes, but when you've got a real one standing right in front of you and the damage to his face is so terrible, well, it's ...different. Somehow."

The next day, Lorna notices that Paul seems forlorn and she feels "... almost sorry for him." Looking more closely at Paul, she notices, "...the tug at the right side of his mouth was there again. That same sneer. Except, today, it did look more like he was trying to smile. Tentative, perhaps, but still, it lightened his face..." And when she actually speaks to him, she notices even more, "...the smile was back, drawing Lorna's attention away from the burns. Its curve led her from his mouth up to his eyes, which sparkled." Lorna feels guilty; "Surely noticing an enemy's sparkle was tantamount to treason. She was betraying John Jo and Sandy and Gregor..." 

Lorna is concerned about Paul understanding the sergeant's insults but when she returns Paul's wave minutes later she admonishes herself. "Stop! He shouldn't be this friendly. She couldn't be this friendly. He was a German, after all." Paul's friendly actions don't fit with Lorna's view of Germans who are the enemy. Mrs. Mack tries to explain that Paul is simply doing what his country asked of him in a time of war. Lorna decides, "the prisoner had seemed quite nice, and not particularly threatening...Yes, he was quite nice really. For a German."

One day after Paul mentions his sister,  Lorna's questions lead him to tell her how the war affected his family and life.  Lorna identifies with Paul's situation, recognizing that just as she worries about her brothers, he worries about his mother and sister in Dresden. But as Lorna opens up to Paul about her brothers, once again she experiences intense conflict. "What had she been thinking, trusting this stranger, this enemy, with her precious memories.?" Yet she continues to be drawn to Paul both physically and emotionally. Watching him one morning washing at the water pump she wonders, "Would this Greek god still be here by summer, washing at the pump in the warm sun?"

Observing Paul working on the farm creates curiosity in Lorna. "She found herself wanting to know more about him. And it was strange, the more they'd talked the evening before...the less German he became. Or not less German, exactly, but more like any of the normal boys, the Scottish boys she knew at school. Lorna didn't know what to make of that. He was not like she had expected the enemy to be at all. In fact, she was beginning to realize that he might not be so very different from her."

Lorna's inner conflict is realistically portrayed and her gradual change of heart as she comes to view Paul as a person worth loving is touching and very romantic. Her internal struggle is a complicated one. For example, as their friendship grows, Lorna finds herself becoming more concerned with Paul and how he feels. His scarred faced no longer repulses her as she is able to look beyond his wounds to the person beneath. Lorna feels shame over her initial feelings about Paul suffering from the cold when he first arrived on the farm and shame for labelling him a Nazi. Paul's help when she is caught unexpectedly in a rainstorm, leaves her feeling comfort at his presence and recognizing that Paul is a nice person whom she could be friends with. But when they talk about the war and how Paul came to be injured, Lorna remembers that Paul may have killed Allied soldiers. "Suddenly the doubts crept back in. She must not forget that this man was an enemy soldier, she must not forget he was German, that he had been trained to kill men like her brother and his friends."

 Although Lorna is loyal to Britain she can't make herself hate or treat Paul badly simply because he's German. Her close relationship with Paul helps her to recognize that he doesn't represent the Nazi regime and that like her family, he's been caught in a war not of his own making.  But her struggle is ongoing throughout the novel; she is ready to accuse Paul of stealing her father's watch and she viciously blames him for what happens to John Jo.

Ironically, Lorna's only other interaction with a man who is not a family member is a complete contrast to Paul's actions towards her. While everyone is warning her to be watchful of Paul because he might be a spy, to lock her bedroom door when he stays overnight on the farm, it turns out it is the American soldiers she needs to be wary of. Her date for a dance turns out to be an American soldier whose drunken attempt to rape her, leaves Lorna distraught and afraid. His behaviour is in stark contrast to Paul who is labelled an enemy soldier. Even Nellie's experience with the American soldiers is not a positive one; she becomes pregnant by a soldier who then tells her cannot marry her because he has a wife in Tennessee. 

As Lorna's relationship with Paul becomes known within the community both she and Paul face prejudice and Lorna is ostracized by almost everyone.  Here Leech's character shows her mettle; she stands up to her brother and to the prejudice of the villagers. Her bravery is soon supported by her father and by Mrs. Murphy whose son Gregor was killed. As her family rallies around her, Paul begins to find some acceptance when the war ends.

Leech builds tension throughout the novel beginning with the crisis between Lorna and her brother John Jo who is furious that she is friends with a German soldier, to a confrontation between Lorna's family and the parish minister, culminating in the sudden departure of the Germans from Gosford leaving Lorna believing Paul has gone for good. But Leech closes her story on a hopeful note, as suggested by the novel's title.

Wait For Me really captures the atmosphere of living in rural Scotland during the close of World War II. Life on the farms continued as families worried and waited for word of sons and husbands sent off to fight. Lambing season arrives, people fall in love, life goes on. Interactions with American and Allied soldiers were not always positive. And the arrival of German prisoners of war caused much worry among the local people.  Leech offers a balanced perspective with some characters being open and accepting of Paul, while others are not. John Jo's furious reaction to Lorna's relationship with Paul is realistic (it would be expected a soldier would not be happy with his sister falling in love with an enemy soldier) while Mrs. Mack recognizes Paul as a person who needs healing and compassion. Leech also touches briefly on the bombing of Dresden by Allied forces, demonstrating that in war, terrible deeds are done by both sides.

Wait For Me is another excellent addition to the young adult World War II historical fiction genre. Fans of Dan Smith's My Friend The Enemy will enjoy Caroline Leech's debut novel. Look for more from this author in the coming year.

A February 2015 Atlantic article titled, "Remembering Dresden: 70 years after the firebombing" contains many interesting photographs (Please note some are very graphic). Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/02/remembering-dresden-70-years-after-the-firebombing/385445/

Book Details:

Wait For Me by Caroline Leech
New York: HarperCollins Children's Books   2017
361 pp.

Remembrance by Theresa Breslin

Remembrance is a thoughtful and deeply touching novel that brings home the realities of war and the tragedy of the First World War, considered the war to end all wars.

It is 1915 and war has been raging now for over a year. Fifteen year old Charlotte Armstrong-Barnes lives at Stratharden House just outside the village of Stratharden in Scotland. Against her mother's wishes, Caroline has been volunteering at the Cottage Hospital. Her mother wants her to organize charity functions but Charlotte wants to train as a nurse, an occupation her mother thinks is not respectable.  

Charlotte's brother, twenty-two year old Francis, has just returned home from college and unlike most Englishmen, is not eager to enlist. In fact, he is deeply troubled by the war. He tells Charlotte that the "patriotic drumbeating" is wrong. "Who in their right mind would want to go to war?" said Francis. "Not the ordinary Prussian or Frenchman, I'll wager. What makes a human being want to kill another who has done him no personal harm? Patriotism. The one thing that can unite people. It takes priority over religious differences, or class, or money, or social position." But his mother considers such views disloyal and admonishes him.

The war has meant many changes at Stratharden; most of the servants are now involved in the war effort. Charlotte's governess has joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and their maid, Annie has seen her two boys, Rory and Ewan enlist.

One day Francis and Charlotte decide to walk into the village to get a newspaper. For Charlotte it's a chance to flirt with the son of the shop proprietor, John Malcolm Dundas. John Malcolm's twin sister Maggie doesn't like either Francis or Charlotte. She considers that Charlotte, "Miss High-and-Mighty"  is just "playing" at being a nurse. Charlotte's interest in John Malcolm annoys Maggie, while Francis is "...the dreamy brother, freshly returned from university and full of new ideas, ...to tell others what to do," Francis tells Mr. Dundas that he hopes to take up his sketching seriously. John Malcolm offers to take the milk order up to the farm, allowing him a chance to talk to Charlotte. Deeply attracted to each other, Charlotte suggests they have a picnic on the Bank Holiday and asks John Malcolm to invite his sister. As he suspects, Maggie is not keen to go but does agree. 

At Stratharden, Charlotte's mother worries about her keeping company with the right kind of people and is unsure the Dundas family meet that criteria. But Francis tells her they are honest and "known for being upright and generous to the less fortunate." On the picnic, Charlotte and John Malcolm realize they have a strong affection for one another.

Soon the war overtakes everyday life; Charlotte spends long hours working in the hospital, and Francis becomes increasingly preoccupied with news about the war. The chauvinistic patriotism of the newspaper headlines contrast starkly with the growing number of dead and the need for more recruits. Francis laments the growing war machine and the determination of his countrymen to be part of the war. To that end, the King's Own Scottish Borderers Regiment sets up camp in the field behind the school in Stratharden, organizing a recruitment drive for more soldiers. John Malcolm and Maggie's younger brother, fourteen year old Alex, becomes enamoured with the soldiers. He spends time around the reserve battalion, determined to learn all he can about soldiering. Eventually the Scottish regiment leaves with both John Malcolm and his younger brother Alex expressing the intense desire to enlist when they come of age.

As the war continues on, Charlotte considers volunteering at one of the city hospitals as there are so many wounded. Charlotte and the other nurses know the war is not going well given the large number of casualties, the lack of munitions and the disorganized offensives. Francis tells Maggie and her father that he has read that the Allies are short of munitions and it is this news that leads Maggie to decide to work at the Springbank munitions factory. At first her parents, especially her father, are against the idea but Maggie tells them she wants to contribute to the war effort in a meaningful way.

In January 1916, Charlotte leaves Stratharden for Edinburgh to work in the Springbank military hospital. John Malcolm Dundas turns eighteen in November 1915 and enlisted along with his friend Eddie Kane. As for Francis, he continues to be deeply troubled by the war and is strongly against it. People in their village have assumed that his commission has been delayed which is not the case. Francis has not enlisted and Charlotte worries about how this will be perceived. As Charlotte continues to work in the hospital and is now dealing directly with wounded soldiers she begins to wonder if her brother is not correct in his view that this war is particularly wrong.

As Francis frequents the shop, Maggie begins to read the newspapers both from their shop and at work for more information about the war. She is annoyed that her father leaves her out of discussions about politics and the war, instead talking to Alex. With Francis, Maggie is able to discuss pacifism, socialism and he doesn't mind if she disagrees with him. John Malcolm goes off to war and shortly after, on February, 1916, the Military Service Act is passed meaning that Francis is called up to serve. However Francis has no intention of serving if possible. He goes before the military tribunal but on the advice of his father's cousin, Major Grant, says nothing and gets a temporary exemption. Francis tells Grant that he is not a conscientious objector because he does believe that some wars are just. On his way home, Francis is confronted by two women who hand him a white feather as a sign that he is a coward for not signing up. Maggie is furious, leaving Francis touched that she would defend him.

Meanwhile, life goes on in Stratharden. Maggie marvels at the changes taking place in society and both Maggie and Charlotte receive letters from John Malcolm about life on the front lines. Both young women feel a sense of dread and both soon learn that the war is beginning to change their lives forever.

Discussion

Theresa Breslin is an award winning author who writes books for children and young adults. Breslin undertook significant research for her novel, Remembrance, visiting Belgium and France, the Imperial War Museums in London and Edinburgh, and reading regimental histories and biographies as well as consulting newspapers and journals from the First World War era.

As such, Remembrance is an extraordinary piece of historical fiction that vividly portrays the Scottish experience during World War I. It is an experience sadly mirrored in Britain, Canada, France and Germany. The novel portrays how people in the United Kingdom viewed World War I, how the conflict impacted life for civilians of all classes in Scotland, France and Belgium and how it changed society in ways that could never have been imagined.

One of the major strengths of this novel is how Breslin uses her characters to effectively inform readers about the attitudes and politics of this era, about how the people were lied to in order that the war would continue on in spite of poor military decisions, a false sense of patriotism and a sickening loss of life. 

Breslin portrays the attitudes toward women in the early 1900's prior to the First World War, through the characters of Charlotte, Maggie, Mrs. Armstrong-Barnes and Maggie's father, Mr. Dundas. Some of these attitudes and beliefs were that women shouldn't be nurses or ride bicycles, that a woman pursuing a career was thought to be selfish, that women needed to take care about who they kept company with in order to make a good marriage, that women were not to be involved in politics or the business of war. Both Charlotte and Maggie have to overcome negative attitudes at home to go out and work in society. Maggie has told her mother that she ought to be able to choose what she wants to do but her mother tells her only the rich can choose what they do and that "the rest of us occupy our set station in life, and you should be grateful to have one that feeds and clothes you."   Charlotte's mother was not comfortable with her daughter going outside the home either and Charlotte had to tell remind her that nursing was now considered a "respectable" profession. Because Francis is not part of the war effort, Charlotte is seen as helping the family's image in that regard.

Breslin effectively uses specific characters to portray opposing viewpoints on the war. For example, John Malcolm and Alexander Dundas portray those who whole-heartedly supported the war effort. When John Malcolm and his younger brother, Alexander watch the parade of the Scottish regiment as they leave Stratharden, John Malcolm says to Charlotte, "Isn't it glorious?" he said, eyes shining."  "I wish I were going now, with the rest of the lads," said John Malcolm. "It's so frustrating to be left at home and not be a part of it all."

Their view is in complete contrast with that of Francis who believes the war to not only be unjust, but simply the work of madmen. Francis is a conscientious objector or a "conchie" as Major Grant, a cousin of his father, calls him. In an exchange between Grant and Francis, the latter's opposition is made quite clear.

"This cause is not just," said Francis passionately. "The war should be stopped at once. The vast amounts of money maintaining the army would be better spent at home feeding the poor. It is the same situation in Germany, and the condition of the ordinary Russian people does not bear thinking about. Thousands of young men's lives are being squandered for little gain."
"The conduct of the war is criticized in many places," replied the major, "mostly by those who know nothing of warfare. It is true that mistakes have been made, but we have learned from them."
"Other men pay with their lives for your mistakes," Francis said bitterly, "The carnage sickens me."
"Things are improving," said Major Grant.
"How can a war improve?" said Francis in despair.

It is a view, that in 1916 Scotland, would have been considered wholly unpatriotic and even treasonous. Francis is a prophetic and tragic character, warning that the war will go on for years and cost millions of lives and inflict terrible suffering. He is all the more tragic because he is forced to enlist simply because he cannot bear the weight of the deaths of so many around him and because of what the war ultimately does to him.His experience is exactly the reality he predicted while back in Scotland.

Breslin uses Francis's letters to Maggie to illustrate what life was like for soldiers in the trenches. Francis's letters tell what troops experienced in the trenches and the effect the new type of warfare would have on millions of surviving soldiers, many suffering "shell shock" or what would decades later become known as post traumatic stress syndrome. In a letter to Maggie, he writes that the men are "half out of their wits with noise or driven  down by fear and cold, poor rations, and no hope of leave this winter...the fact that we have gained little advances this year with a colossal casualty list had caused many to complain.
But some of the punishments seem barbaric -- where a man is tied for hours to the wheel of a wagon, or deprived of food and kept in solitary confinement."

The madness of the entire war becomes more and more evident to Francis and is demonstrated in his letters to Maggie. For example he relates that in an effort to help the men under his command, Francis went to his commanding officer and requested blankets for the men. He was turned down. The men could not be made comfortable in order that they understand they would soon be moving forward. Francis attempts to counter this by reasoning with his CO, "But sir, we have occupied these very same trenches for the last two years. The men cannot have failed to notice this." To which he replied: "Nevertheless." I found myself unable to respond. In the face of such monumental madness, my chin began to shake and I could not articulate a reply."

Breslin also shows that as the war drags on, even supporters begin to turn against it. Maggie joined the war effort making munitions in a factory but as she learns more about the fighting conditions from Francis, as she hears about the wounded, and watches the suffering of families who have lost all their sons or an only son, she begins to change her mind. When she learns the effects the munitions have on the bodies of soldiers from a book Charlotte lends her, Maggie knows she cannot continue to make bombs.She writes to Francis that if people on both sides of the conflict stopped making the bombs, maybe the war would stop. This is in direct opposition to what she's been told - that more bombs will end the war sooner. "My thought is that if the manufacturing of arms for the War ceased, then there would be no more war. I am sure the mothers and sisters of German soldiers would agree. If this happened and production everywhere stopped, then so would the War, and the leaders would be forced to conduct a peace." Francis warns her that such thoughts would be considered treasonous and that he plans to "lose" her letter.

Perhaps the character Alex best illustrates how the romance of war clashes with the reality of battle. When Alex experiences his first attack it is completely different from what he thought. He thought it would be orderly and exciting but was confronted with something totally different.
"Alex had always imagined that being in a battle would be a definite thing. Commanders would lead at the front, and everyone else would know exactly what was happening. He had thought almost that he would be able to watch the action as well as take part. He had not envisaged the mess, the chaos, the running and shouting, the unbearable noise, and the overwhelming awfulness of it. He ...had no awareness of what was actually happening. It was his first experience of an attack, and he hated everything about it. There was no excitement, no joy of marching forward together to defeat the enemy, only a dull tense pain of dreadful anticipation in his gut and then an explosion of gunfire and confusion."

Alex also changes his view of Germans whom he understood committed terrible atrocities on prisoners of war. His primary reason for enlisting is to avenge the death of his brother, John Malcolm. When Alex kills a German soldier in revenge for his brother's death, at first he feels elation. However, he can't kill the second soldier who is boy like himself. As he spends several weeks with the injured German soldier whose name is Kurt, Alex begins to see the humanity in his enemy and realizes that killing won't help him remember John Malcolm. He makes the decision to risk his own life to save Kurt's.

If Francis represents the millions of soldiers who returned from war damaged, Charlotte represents the millions of British and Scottish women from that generation who lost future husbands and who would marry simply because there were not young in the years following the war. Charlotte, Maggie and Annie demonstrate how the war impacted friends, sisters and mothers as they struggle to come to terms with the loss of future husbands, brothers and sons. They are told their men are dying to keep a country free from oppression but at what cost?

There are many, many themes to explore in this novel; the use of child soldiers in World War I, the concept of just war, the effect of patriotism on war and soldiers, the use of media in warfare especially in producing propaganda, and the role of women in war to name a few.

It's a shame this novel is no longer in print and I do hope that it will be offered once again for publication. Remembrance is an amazing novel, well worth the read and is one of the best historical fiction novels written for young people about the Great War.

Book Details:

Remembrance by Theresa Breslin
New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf       2002
296 pp.

The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen

Sophia Williams is not your typical 18th century young lady. The daughter of a baronet from Devonshire, she loves to read the poetry and plays of Alexander Pope and Shakespeare. She is a crack shot with a pistol, can ride a horse, and she doesn't intend to ever marry. She wants a life of adventure.

Sophia and her cousin Jack have been very much on their own, after Sophia's father, Sir Edward Williams left four years earlier for Jamaica in the West Indies, where he owns a plantation. When he unexpectedly returns home to Littlecote, bringing Sophia's Aunt Amelia with him, he finds Sophia is not the lady he expected. His steward has been fired by Sophia for stealing from the estate, as well as her governess who was to teach and chaperone her. Instead he finds Sophia has been learning Latin, Greek and mathematics, all subjects that to her father's thinking won't be of use to her as a married woman. As a lady of birth and breeding he expects her to be accomplished in things that matter; embroidery, painting and dancing.

Sophia's father promptly ships Jack off to the cavalry and orders Sophia's horse sold. To punish her, Sophia's father makes her carry all her poetry books to a huge bonfire and burn them. She is forced to burn her books of Shakespeare, Pope and Dryden, and the poetry of Wycherly, and Congreve. Sophia vows to get revenge on her father for this. Because he wants to marry her off and considers her reputation ruined, and since the London season is over, Sophia's father decides to rent a house in "the Bath"; Bath England, famous for its healing waters.

On the three day trip to Bath, Sophia is forced to ride in the carriage instead of travelling on horseback. She is given a book of sermons to read on the journey. Sophia questions her Aunt Amelia's motivation for her sudden interest in her, and is told that the Bath is a city known for its refined entertainment. When they stop at the first post house, Sophia goes for a long walk up a windswept hill.  As punishment for being thirty minutes late for dinner, she is made to stand and watch as her father and aunt eat dinner. Locked in their room with Aunt Amelia, Sophia waits until her aunt falls asleep and escapes through the window!

Outside, the servants and maids are very amused seeing Sophia climb down from her room.The servant who served their table at dinner brings Sophia some food. That servant is Bill Smith and he tells Sophia that his father took his sister Jenny to the Bath over a year ago and he's not heard from her since. In exchange for bringing her food, Sophia promises to find out about his sister, Jenny who has gone to Bath to find work. Bill tells Sophia that she will know his sister by the missing tip of her pinkie finger on the left hand. 

The next day on their way to Bath, Sophia and her aunt and father encounter a stagecoach accident which forces them to take another route into Bath. However, just before reaching the city their stagecoach comes to a halt before a very steep hill. Sophia's father orders her and her aunt to walk down the hill while the stagecoach attempts the road. It is at this point that they are robbed by two masked highwaymen. In a remarkable co-incidence, one of the highwaymen is Bill Smith's sister, Jenny whom Sophia recognizes by the missing finger on her left hand. Sophia quietly lets Jenny know that her brother is worried about her but she doesn't respond. The next day, Sophia wonders how the robbers managed to miss her father's pocket watch and her aunt's jewelry. Aunt Amelia reveals that her father has a hidden compartment in the chaise which Sophia plans to investigate later on.

 On her first walk through the town, Sophia encounters Jenny who tells her that she does not want her brother knowing that she robs coaches for a living. Back at their residence at Number 1 Trim Avenue, Sophia is forced by her father to be measured for gowns. He has subscribed to the balls at Guildhall and to Harrison's tea room.  Her father also engages a dancemaster to teach Sophia, and a lady's maid named Dawes. Sophia spends her days taking dancing lessons and roaming Bath at night.

At her first dance at the upper ballroom at Guildhall, Sophia tries to make everyone dislike her so that no one will be interested in marrying her. She succeeds admirably by insulting the men who dance with her and wolfing down the meats that her aunt tells her are supposed to be for the men. When Sophia insults Mr. Wimpole, her enraged father decides it is time to leave. However, a handsome young man who heard the insult requests a dance. During this dance, Sophia and the stranger verbally duel with one another but he is determined to meet her again. They do meet again at Harrison's Assembly Rooms. On a walk in the gardens, Sophia learns that he is Mr. Charleton. Mr. Charleton asks Sophia if she reads the newspapers and is aware of the riots in London. Sophia is puzzled by this line of questions because as she tells him this doesn't concern her. She doesn't care who is king. Charleton, who also didn't get along with his father, recognizes that Sophia being beaten by her father.

After her father discovers her attempt to write her cousin Jack and Bill Smith, he cruelly punishes her.  Sophia decides that she will get revenge upon him by robbing his chaise when he leaves to go to London. To achieve this, Sophia spends several nights attempting to hunt down Jenny Smith and finally is able to find her. She asks Jenny to help her rob her father's chaise, by providing her with boys clothing and a gun. However, she doesn't want Jenny involved because that will upset her brother Bill. Instead she wants Jenny to provide an accomplice. However, Sophia, with Jenny's help, barely manages to pull off the robbery. 

After a successful robbery, Sophia senses that Mr. Charleton suspects what she has done. During one evening at Guildhall, Sophia is introduced to Captain Mould, an older man who she is forced to spend the evening dancing and having supper with. It is at this time that Jenny's brother, Bill Smith appears in Bath and through Mr. Allen, Sophia is able to correspond with him. Sophia's situation takes a distressing turn when the revolting Captain Mould reveals his intention to ask her father for her hand in marriage. She is completely revulsed by Mould whom she considers to be like a lizard. He tells her that their age difference will allow him to "form" her as he wishes but to Sophia this is just another form of subjugation.

Even though Mr. Charleton treats her kindly and with great deference, and often helps her, Sophia discovers that he knows about her involvement with Mrs. Oswald's "accident".  After tricking Mr. Charleton into helping her purchase boy's clothing, she spends a night wandering Bath and helps Jenny to escape from a desperate situation. But when she returns to her lodging, Mr. Charleton is waiting for her on the roof! He accuses Sophia of being involved in a plot to overthrow the King. Stunned, Sophia tells him "I don't give a tinker's pot what king is on the throne! I just want to get out." Charleton explains what is happening and that there is a rebellion planned in the Bath, but despite Sophia's repeated denials, he does not believe her. Mr. Charleton's suspicions seem to be confirmed when he sees her at the mob in the Bath, not realizing that this was just a coincidence. 

She furthers his suspicions when she agrees to help Jenny commit another robbery in exchange for her replacing the boy's clothing that Mr. Charleton has taken from Sophia's rooftop hiding place. Jenny doesn't know who is paying for the robbery but they have offered her five guineas to get the man's papers. When the two girls hold up the curricle, Sophia discovers that they are robbing Mr. Charleton. During the robbery he recognizes Sophia and offers her money but asks that she not take the papers. Sophia doesn't listen and she and Jenny escape, again just barely.  

As the season is coming to an end in Bath and her father has received no offers of marriage, Sophia finds herself threatened by her father. He tells her he will sell her if he has to, in order to rid himself of his unmarriageable daughter. At the ball at Guildhall, Mr. Charleton reveals to Sophia that he knows it was she who held up his curricle and stole his papers. He tells her she has become involved in something that could very well involve the security of England.  Mr. Charleton also questions Sophia about the notes her Aunt Amelia is passing on. This piques Sophia's interest because she has noticed her aunt passing notes to Captain Mould. She becomes determined to secure one of the notes to give to Mr. Charleton. Sophia is able to steal the note given to Captain Mould by her Aunt Amelia and she is also able to locate the papers they stole from Mr. Charleton and arranges to have the note and papers given to Mr. Charleton. 

On the day of the Masquerade Ball, Sophia is dressed in a virginal white dress with a gold mask and a gold sash. When she tells Dawes that the gold spoils the effect of the costume as Persephone, the unwilling child-bride of the underworld, Dawes tells her that she won't be wearing the sash in the morning with the gown. Sophia forces Dawes to reveal what she suspects, that she will marry in the morning. At the ball, Sophia is drawn into further intrigue when Mr. Charleton asks her to dance. Spiriting her to a more secluded spot he tells her about the plot to depose the king and asks for her help. Even though she has set things right with Mr. Charleton, saves his life, and helps him thwart the rebellion, the deepening crisis within her own family leads Sophia to flee the Bath along with Jenny. As Sophia and Jenny struggle to survive, a new and unforeseen opportunity appears once again in the form of Mr. Charleton!

Discussion

Set in 1715 around the historical event of the failed rebellion of (Catholic)Stuart supporters to reclaim the British throne from the protestant King George, The Girl in the Mask was a surprisingly entertaining read. 

In 1707 the unification of the Kingdom of Scotland with the Kindgom of England created the Kingdom of Great Britain. A new Parliament was created that added forty-five Members of Parliament from Scotland.  However, unification was unpopular in Scotland. In 1715, one year after the death of Queen Anne and the succession of George I (a German from the House of Hanover) to the English throne, an unsuccessful attempt was made to put a Catholic Stuart back on the throne. James II, a Catholic was king of England (and Ireland) until he was deposed in 1688. England, Scotland and Ireland were then ruled over by the protestant Mary II and her husband William III. In 1715 an attempt was made to place the exiled James Edward Stuart, a Catholic and the heir of James II back on the throne of England. The rebellion was led by the Earl of Mar, John Erskine and was unsuccessful. As she writes in her Historical Note, "During the summer of 1715, a larger number of supporters of the Stuart heir to the throne gathered in Bath. Many horses were stabled outside the city and large caches of weapons and gunpowder were secreted in places like Slippery Lane. However, the rebellion was defeated before it really began. largely thanks to the vigilance of Ralph Allen, postmaster at Bath...."

The novel opens a year into the reign of George I and there are riots in London, in protest. Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch of England, has died and has been succeeded by George I (a German from the House of Hanover). Many are not happy because he is not Catholic and he is German. Sophia's father believes that a Stuart should be on the throne while her Aunt Amelia has stated that she was a supporter of Queen Anne. Sophia, as a young girl, has no interest in who is king. The division King George has created in London, is evident in Bath as well. Whenever somone arrives in Bath, the bells are rung to announce their arrival. When Sir William Wyndham, leader of those who oppose George I, arrives in Bath and the bells ring out, there is an angry outburst in the Harrison rooms. Soon the Bath sees demonstrations and violence. Eventually Sophia is told that a rebellion is being planned, starting in the west, in Bath, "to overthrow the government, depose the king and crown the pretender in his place (a reference to the exiled Catholic and rightful heir to the throne, James Edward Stuart who is in France). It is eventually revealed that Sophia's aunt has been helping Captain Mould, a leader in the rebellion. And investigating the rebellion is Mr. Chaleton, an agent working for King George I. 

While the Jacobite rebellion forms the background of the novel, the story focuses on the rebellion of a young girl against the expectations of women in 18th century England. Sophia is an intelligent but willful and rebellious young girl who doesn't want to conform to her father's idea of womanhood. She doesn't want to learn embroidery and painting but wants to be educated. She's doesn't want to be married, but there are almost no options for women of her social class.

Her father however is determined that Sophia will follow social conventions. He has her books burned, her horse sold and sets about ensuring she meets those expectations with the use of beatings and other punishments. This sets up a contest of wills that plays out throughout the novel. Although she stands up to him, Sophia is afraid of him too. "My old fear of my father was reasserting itself. Every capitulation I made reinforced his power over me, but the violence in him brought back so many hateful, half-suppressed memories from my childhood. I could feel my resolve crumbling."  "Dancing, balls, promenades, tea parties, and at the end of it a husband of my father's choosing.I could see no escape from my grim future and it seemed I didn't even  have the capability to rebel." 

Even Mr. Charleton, who appears to be a sympathetic friend to Sophia doesn't understand her situation. It's not immediately clear how or why he comes to believe that she's involved in the Jacobite rebellion, even when Sophia vehemently denies this. (Later it's revealed that he suspects her because of her aunt's association with Captain Mould.) It's quite clear that as a man he just doesn't understand her situation.  When Mr. Charleton threatens to take back her boy's clothing Sophia tells him "Please, you don't understand, you have no idea!...My life is unendurable. What do I care about politics? How can they matter to me compared to the life I'm condemned to lead? I'm confined and hemmed in, allowed to exercise neither my mind nor my body. I would go insane without some escape. That is all I have!" However, Mr. Charleton, like all the men in Sophia's life, doesn't believe she is "confined" or even restricted. He counters that she is able to go to balls, the baths and the tea room. What more could she want?!! But Sophia tells him that this is really just an illusion of freedom: "No books except for religious ones, no learning at all...Dawdling along in a ridiculous gown at my aunt's side, exchanging nothings with people I don't care about.  Waiting to be married to an old man like Captain Mould who will be as bad as my father. Being told what to do, even what to think!... To never be allowed more? To have no hope?" Sophia wants a more meaningful life than what she is being given.

Determined to rebel and even punish her father, Sophia decides to rob his chaise. This development in the story really does stretche credibility. Robbing a chaise or stagecoach was considered so serious a crime that the penalty in England was death by hanging. If Sophia were to be caught, this would be her fate, something she would have known. Yet she only seems to consider herself a criminal if she helps Jenny rob. "It was bad enough that I'd robbed my own father. But at least there was some justification in my own mind for what I'd done. To betray the movements of strangers to a couple of highwaymen was quite another thing. That would make me a criminal."  Nevertheless, Sophia continues to rob coaches, robbing Mr. Oswald and then Mr. Charleton. Credibility is stretched even further when, near the end of the novel, Sophia and Jenny who have been robbing coaches with impunity to stave off starvation, attempt unsuccessfully to rob Mr. Charleton's chaise again. 

Sophia's intelligence and resourcefulness comes into play when she agrees to help Mr. Charleton. She is able to steal several notes that have been passed to Captain Mould and her Aunt Amelia, and she rescues Mr. Charleton from certain death when he is locked in the basement of the Guildhall. Believing she is unable to outwit her father, she decides to flee with Jenny rather than risk being forced to marry Captain Mould. 

Marie-Louise Jensen has crafted interesting and different characters: the unconventional heroine, Sophia Williams, the indifferent and calculating Aunt Amelia, the brutish Sir Edward - Sophia's abusive father, the unscrupulous Captain Mould, and the handsome, chivalrous Mr. Charleton.  

Some of the situations in the novel feel contrived, for example, when Sophia happens to have her coach robbed by Jenny Smith the girl she's just promised to watch for, or when Mr. Charleton and Ralph Allen suddenly appear repeatedly to save Sophia from a desperate situation. While the author ties up all the loose ends quickly and neatly, this too feels contrived: Captain Mould escapes to the continent, Aunt Amelia vanishes, and Sophia's father is killed in a duel, while Sophia and Jenny become spies working with Mr. Charleton. 

Nevertheless, fans of historical fiction will enjoy The Girl in the Mask, with its spirited heroine and touch of adventure and romance.

Book Details:
The Girl in the Mask by Marie-Louise Jensen
Oxford University Press
311 pp.

The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen of Scots by Carolyn Meyer

The Wild Queen is the seventh book in the Young Royals series, written by Carolyn Meyer. This well  researched novel tells the story of Mary of Scotland, who was the rightful heir of both Scotland and England. Mary was born December 8, 1542, at Linlithgow Palace, in Scotland. Her father, King James V, died a few days later. Mary was his only legitimate heir to the Scottish throne. Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland when she was just nine months old, at Stirling Castle on September 9th, 1543. In an attempt to unite Scotland and England, Henry VIII, King of England successfully negotiated a treaty which the Scottish Parliament signed, dictating that Mary would marry Henry's son, Prince Edward when she turned ten.

Fearing for her daughter's safety, Mary's mother moved her to Stirling Castle which was well fortified and far north of the English-Scotland border. When Mary was four years old, King Henry VIII died. Her mother made the decision that she would marry the future king of France rather than England's Prince Edward and so she was sent to France to live at the French court and learn the language and customs of the French people. At this time France had been supporting and protecting Catholic Scotland. Eventually however, protestantism, imported from England, overtook Scotland. John Knox, a strict, dour Protestant preacher was the main force behind the stripping of  Scotland of its Catholic heritage and faith.

Accompanied by her Four Maries, Mary Fleming, Mary Seton, Mary Beaton, and Mary Livingston, the young Mary left her beloved Scotland on July 29, 1548. For the next thirteen years, Mary lived in France, traveling throughout the country as the French court moved from one palace to another. Throughout those years, Mary grew into a beautiful woman, over six feet tall and well spoken. She grew to love the French people but never forgot that she was in line for the Scottish throne.

Mary became the wife of the dauphin, Francois de Valois when she was fifteen years old. Their marriage was short-lived however, when Francois, always somewhat sickly, died from a massive infection on December 5, 1560. Mary was a widow after just two years of marriage. At this point in her life, just days shy of her eighteenth birthday,  Mary decided to return to her native Scotland in an attempt to regain the throne and rule Scotland as queen. Alone, without the support of a husband, or a father or father-in-law, Mary found herself caught in a difficult situation. She was a devote Catholic returning to a country no longer in the faith. She needed to find a strong Catholic prince to marry but there was no one in all of Christendom. Her enemies were many although at first she had a few staunch supporters. From this point on Meyers tells the tragic story of Mary, Queen of Scots as she struggles to rule Scotland, while fighting off traitors, dealing with a murderous and cowardly second husband, and protestant reformers such as John Knox who considered women not fit to reign.

Meyer's novel will appeal to those with a keen interest in history, especially royalty. Her account is remarkably unbiased and is a creative retelling of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. The novel opens with Mary, facing her day of execution, Wednesday, February 8th, 1587 and then narrating her life's story as to how she came to be in prison, sometimes reflecting on how the choices she made led her to her fate.  The Wild Queen is quite readable, has several maps to help readers understand the setting and at 420 pages, rather lengthy. After all this, some readers may be interested in learning more about this remarkable Catholic woman, who was both courageous and sometimes remarkably naive.

For those who are interested in reading about Mary, Queen of Scots, I suggest Antonia Fraser's Mary Queen of Scots and also Warren Carroll's The Cleaving of Christendom. The latter book is Volume 4 in his History of Christendom series.

Book Details:
The Wild Queen: The Days and Nights of Mary, Queen  of Scots.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company         2012
420 pp.