Beyond the Blue Hills

Written by Katie Flynn
Review by Patrika Salmon

This is a little different from the usual saga. Two groups of people, one family who is Liverpool-based, the other family farming in Herefordshire, find their lives entangled because of the Second World War.

It’s a big and complicated read, spanning the late 30s and war years. Writing wise it’s rather more telling the story than showing it, but the information about life during WW2 is well researched and the details are good. There are many other characters apart from the two families, but we mainly focus on Tess, who becomes a Land Girl, and links Liverpool to Hereford and Sophie, who has to manage a farm with Land Girls. Phillip and Danny, the Hereford farming cousins who want to be fighter pilots, and Mike, the Liverpudlian sailor, are the male leads. If Sophie’s meekness irritates occasionally, at least she is a typical ’40s woman and not some 21^st century heroine planted in the story.

For saga lovers and Liverpudlians everywhere this is a good book for bedtime reading.