Winner of the 1969 CILIP Carnegie Medal K.M. Peyton won the Carnegie Medal for this romantic and passionate story set in the run up to World War 1. A sequel to Flambards, it tells how Christina, now seventeen, fleeing her raging uncle and his plans for her marriage, elopes with Will and begins a new life with him as he pursues his passion for flying. Will finds work on an airfield where he can fly and design planes in the hope of being able to earn enough money to marry Christina. To be near him, Christina gets work in a hotel. K.M. Peyton captures their happiness despite the dangers of flying and the threat of the possible war. When war is declared, Will signs up swiftly for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps and all the dangers it will entail.
The First World War is looming and for young sweethearts, Christina and Will, their adventures are just beginning as they head to London - their heads full of dreams. But the reality is altogether more difficult. Will has just one ambition - to design and pilot flying machines. As he strives to fulfil his dream, Christina is left to make a new life for herself around the airfield. She soon makes friends and begins to enjoy her newly-found independence but nothing will ever overcome her terror of the aeroplanes that Will loves so much. And when war breaks out, she fears the worst ...that she may lose the man she loves for ever. This much-loved story was the winner of the Carnegie Medal.
Born in 1929 K. M. Peyton is a well known and well loved author of over 50 books for children. Author of the Flambards Series and A Pattern of Roses, both of which have been adapted for film, she was winner of the Carnegie Medal in 1969 for The Edge of the Cloud, part of the Flambards Series.
