Every Lifetime After
Timeslip: 2018 and 1943. The filming of the best-selling novel, The Bomber Boys, brings Hollywood star Claudia Baxter back to North Yorkshire where she spent her earliest years. Staying and working at Doverley Hall, the actual site of the RAF Airbase whose story is told in the book, she plays the leading role of Radio Operative Iris Winterton opposite Nick Turner as Pilot Robbie Grayson, Iris’s childhood sweetheart.
As she and Nick recover from the loss of their baby at twenty weeks, unsure whether their relationship will survive this tragedy, Claudia’s fragile equilibrium is further shaken by recurring episodes of déjà vu where Iris’s experiences are superimposed on her present-day reality. A parallel narrative shows Iris as night after night she counts the bombers out on their air raids over Europe and back again in the morning, always aware that not all will return safely.
This is a story layered with secrets and mysteries, not least the final one when Robbie’s plane returns with only one crew member on board. Ross skilfully blends the story lines, revealing the answers bit by bit and racking up the tension as the plot develops. For this reader, at least, she also raised the question of artistic licence, both for the historical novelist and the film director. Who has the right to determine the true ending?
