There Was a Time

Description

From an author who lived through - and served in - the conflict, a brilliant novel set in an English village at a turning point of the Second World War. A Lincolnshire village on a glorious summer's morning in 1940, the countryside as still as a painting. In the blue sky above, the fate of the whole war will soon rest with the RAF and their desperate effort to win the Battle of Britain. If they fail, Hitler's next step will be invasion. And as the scene comes to life before us over the next six months, this shadow of war will not disappear - the conflict will take husbands and sons away, bring in evacuees from the city and soldiers to defend the coast. There will be more money from war work, but less to spend it on - legitimately at least. Everywhere, the feeling of change is in the air. From the pub to the church, the humblest cottage to the biggest farm, from a struggling single mother to the lady of the manor, the paper boy to a traumatised bomb disposal volunteer, this superb jewel of a novel portrays a community of people and weaves together their stories with passion, betrayal, intrigue and suspense. There Was a Time is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

Frank White, who was born in Manchester in 1927, now lives with his wife June in Lincolnshire, midway between Cleethorpes and Louth. He is a veteran of the wartime British Pacific Fleet. He has contributed essays and short fiction to numerous magazines and is the author of two novels and a short book on the First World War. Other work includes a dozen plays for stage and radio, and material for BBC television. In 2013, realising that the world was no longer full of people who could write at first-hand about the Second World War, he spent the summer working on There Was a Time.

These fabulous, often funny stories have the authentic, freewheeling atmosphere of a time when all bets were off. * Daily Mail * A wonderful read, packed with incident, colour and detail. * Telegraph * The book captures the anxieties, heightened emotion and community spirit that marked this epoch-defining chapter in the nation's long and colourful history. * Yorkshire Post * There Was a Time vividly evokes life in a Lincolnshire village in 1940. Elegantly written and with beautifully-drawn characters, this absorbing story, amusing and poignant by turns, tells of the impact of the last War on a small, close-knit community. -- Gervase Phinn He writes beautifully - poignantly and with humour. * Telegraph & Argus * White depicts unique, worried, caring individuals who it is not difficult to warm to and who are memorable. * Lincolnshire Life * A tender evocation of a unique period in history * Sunday Mirror *