That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson

That Burning Summer covers a series of fictional events during the summer of 1940, just as World War II is ramping up. Set in the Romney coast area of England the story opens in July just after Peggy Fisher, her younger brother Ernest and her mother have been forced to leave their home in Lydd near the coast and move to the farmhouse by Snargate where her mother grew up. The army has requisitioned their house so they have moved in with Uncle Fred, Aunt Myra and Cousin June and her baby daughter Claudette. The story is told from three points of view, that of Peggy, Ernest and Henryk.

Eleven-year-old Ernest is obsessed with the Leaflet that has been circulated by the Ministry of Information and the War Office about what to do if the German's invade. But Peggy is sick of hearing him talk about it and reminds him that "It says 'If the invader comes." Not 'When the invader comes.'" However, Ernest believes it's best to be prepared and can't understand Peggy's lack of interest.

Ernest ignores his sister's instructions to return home and instead rides his bike to the shore where he stands looking towards France. The instructions in the leaflet weigh heavily on his mind as he worries what he would do if the Germans invaded. He sees the coils of barbed wire along the shoreline and the low concrete buildings called blockhouses. As he's riding back towards home, Ernest hears a plane falling from the sky, on fire, black smoke trailing behind. The sight and sound of the plane causes him to crash his bike and lose his glasses so he thinks it has crashed into Walland Marsh. What he doesn't see is the pilot parachuting to the ground. When Ernest returns home to tell his family what he saw he is sent to the Land Defense Volunteers to make a report. The volunteers set out to where Ernest believes the plane went down and find evidence of the crashed plane but by this time it has sunk into the marsh and as everyone believes, along with the pilot too.

However it turns out that the pilot did survive. Polish airman, Henryk had just survived an encounter with German enemy fighters and set off in pursuit of a single plane heading towards France. He never saw the plane that hit him. Henryk falls out of the plane and manages to engage his parachute, but he hits the ground hard causing him to sprain his ankle. Shaken and covered in fuel, he is able to pack up his parachute and hide it, and hobble towards a line of trees.

That night Peggy, unable to sleep, decides to check the hen house door. Drawn to the hen house by the chickens squawking, she discovers a dirty, frightened man with no boots, wearing a flight suit and goggles on his head. He tells Peggy he cannot go back and reveals that he is a Polish pilot with the RAF and introduces himself as Henryk. Torn between turning him in and helping him, Peggy decides to hide him for the night in the abandoned church. She fetches him a pair of boots and her father's old clothing and leads him to the church before heading home.

In the morning Peggy is preoccupied with what happened during the night. Is she a traitor? She's supposed to report him to the nearest authority. She decides she will feed the missing pilot and then send him on his way. But things are not so simple. When she offers Henryk a way they can come forward, his overwhelming fear is evident. Peggy decides she will wait. What she doesn't expect is that as the days pass they will become friends and that things will become more complicated than she ever anticipated.

Discussion

That Burning Summer is one of several recent young adult novels exploring life in England during World War II. In this novel, the setting is the very south of England, in the Kent and Romney Marsh area which is just across the English Channel from France. The English, particularly people living in this area were understandably nervous about the real possibility of a German invasion.

By July of 1940, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemborg, Norway and France had surrendered to Germany after being invaded. Finland was captured by the Soviet Union. In June, 1940, Germany invaded the Channel Islands and in July, 1940 what was to become known as the Battle of Britain, had begun. Hitler had already signed off on a planned invasion of Britain, known as Operation Sea Lion. If an invasion was to happen, the flat coast and accessible beaches of this area offered a prime location for the Germans to land. As Syson mentions in her novel, the beaches were covered with rolls of concertina wire which also identified areas that were mined. In addition concrete pillboxes or blockhouses were also constructed along the coast as another layer of defense. The LDV (Local Defense Volunteers) was set up and comprised of men who were ineligible for military service. Their purpose was to slow down the invading troops, providing regular military units a chance to reorganize.

Syson effectively captures the uncertainty and fear many English felt in the summer of 1940 with frequent mention of the booming sounds coming from France, "the thunder across the sea." However despite their fear, each of the characters in the book reaches deep inside to act courageously. This fear is especially evident in the character of Ernest who is eleven-years-old at the beginning of the novel. His fear is shown by his obsessive attention to a pamphlet detailing what to do should England be invaded. Ernest has memorized the pamphlet and reminds himself to follow the tips for spotting an invader. He worries about almost every aspect of the invasion, about recognizing the enemy, about whether the church bells will be able to be rung in time, about whether they will hear them.

Ernest is shown to be very much like his father who is an artist and someone who abhors killing anything. When Ernest comes across the dead moles he feels disgusted and doesn't want to be involved in checking the traps but doesn't know how to tell his Uncle Fred this. "Ernest couldn't possibly tell him the truth about how he felt, though Dad would understand, of course. He didn't think it was silly or squeamish. A dead animal, in your bare hands, that you've killed yourself...? Ernest shuddered, imagining the feel of a stiff, cold body, hard under velvet." The gun given to him by Uncle Fred on his twelfth birthday is not something he's happy to receive.

Ernest is convinced he has LMF - Lack of Moral Fiber a term coined to describe RAF flyers too afraid to fly anymore. "But it's just the same, isn't it? I haven't got the moral fiber to go trapping with Uncle Fred. Or rabbit-hunting. I'm too scared. I'm no good at that kind of thing. A coward. They used to shoot cowards, you know." When Ernest visits Henryk alone, he is trying to determine if Henryk is who he claims to be. Instead, he learns about courage and why some people can no longer be brave. Henryk suggests that courage is like a bank and that it can be used up and that it cannot be made on its own. "Can you make it from nothing? I don't think so. I think perhaps...I think you get courage from other people. But when they go, it gets harder and harder. And when you know you have just a little left, and just a few people, it seems to go faster and faster. Until you are like me. Ernest, I have to tell you...I have none left. Not even the courage to die when I wished it..."

When Ernest learns the truth about his father, that he is a pacifist who took the peace pledge, he's devastated. Ernest believed is father was overseas fighting in the war.  Instead, he went away to Eastbourne where he helped conscientious objectors prepare for their hearings. Eventually he was arrested, convicted and sent to prison for handing out leaflets and newsletters outside the conscription office. Peggy reveals that their mom never told anyone in their village because she felt ashamed.  Ernest feels ashamed of his father and is determined to be different. "Ernest set the gun on his shoulder. Be like Dad, the posters said. But he would be better than his dad." He would reveal Henryk. However, Ernest ends up not facing Henryk, but a real spy, determined to silence Peggy, Ernest and Victor. When Peggy tells Ernest to run and get help, he refuses to leave her and tries to help.

Through the character of Henryk, the devastating reality of the war in Europe is shown. When Henryk's homeland of Poland was invaded, he fought the Nazis, as part of the Polish air force. Unsuccessful, he was forced to flee, enduring the pain of leaving his beloved country, travelling through Romania, Bulgaria, the Black Sea to Constantinople and then to Beirut. At a camp in Beirut, Henryk learned from his sister Gizela's letter that their parents have been murdered by the Nazis and later that his three sisters have also been murdered. Eventually he made his way to Britain, where he became part of the RAF. However, when he is shot down over Romney Marsh, Henryk is unable to turn himself in to authorities. He can no longer fly and fight. His courage is gone. Peggy recognizes that Henryk is not well. She explains to Ernest, "He twisted his ankle. But that's better now really. He's hurt in another way though. Not the kind of hurt they can do anything about in hospital, I don't think. It means he can't fly." Although Henryk believes he has no courage left, he decides to leave to protect Peggy, and on his way encounters Peggy and Ernest being attacked. Risking everything, Henryk comes to their aid, firing his revolver, something Peggy would not have believed him capable of doing just a day earlier.

Peggy must deal with her growing conflict over hiding Henryk who would be considered a deserter and the fact that she is falling in love with him. At first hiding Henryk "was like carrying around a boulder, this mistake she had made: huge and indigestible, it weighed her down." "For the first time she began to fear for herself. Maybe she was a traitor already. After all, she'd encouraged someone not to do his duty. That was a kind of treachery." Peggy remembers that they hang traitors, so she decides she will feed the missing pilot and then send him on his way. But seeing Henryk's fear she understands that he is unable to fly. With compassion she continues to hide and feed Henryk, not knowing what the future holds. Peggy too shows courage when she comes to the aid of Victor, whom she despises, but who is being drowned by the spy. "She had no hope of rescuing Victor...She was sinking. It felt hopeless. Yet Peggy refused to give up. Mrs. Velvick could not lose another son." 

The strength in That Burning Summer is its wonderful portrayal of the uncertainty and fear of the English as well as their stout determination to defend their country as the Battle of Britain begins. Syson brings the novel to an exciting conclusion and ties up all the loose ends by jumping ahead to the end of the war in 1946 in an Epilogue. The novel is rounded out with a Historical Afterword that explains about the LMF designation, peace protests, missing pilots, spies and Polish pilots in Britain. This novel would have done nicely with a map of the Romney Marsh area, and perhaps a more mysterious cover suited to the story. In her Acknowledgements, it is evident Syson did considerable historical research for That Burning Summer.

For information on the Romney Coast area during World War II, readers are directed to Romney Marsh The Fifth Continent .

Picture credits:
Romney Marsh Map: https://www.theromneymarsh.net/#marsh

Book Details:

That Burning Summer by Lydia Syson
New York: Sky Pony Press          2013
298 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.