Under a Fire-Red Sky
In this unusual novel set in the early years of World War Two in the UK, we meet four teenagers, Olive, Franklin, Lawrence and Susan, aka Gemmy or Gremlin. They all were supposed to have been evacuated from London, specifically Blackheath and Greenwich. They are older teenagers, and each decides to defy their parents’ wishes and return to London.
They then decide to form a group which they call The Meridians. They will make expeditions designed and led by Lawrence to monuments and places of interest in the past. Their present and future seem to be too uncertain, so they are seeking comfort and togetherness while exploring the past. Franklin particularly wants to become a fireman like his father and is on a constant search for a fire station that will accept him. The reader is rooting for him throughout the novel.
Lawrence is the academic of the group. He loves history and is also secretly inventing an Aviette or small plane. Olive’s father is also a fireman and, through her, we see the effects of his job, particularly in wartime, on his family. Gemmy is trying to escape on the evacuating train from her abusive, alcoholic father. She manages to escape from the train and lives in an abandoned van in the woods. How will the war affect them all, and will they all make it through?
This is an ambitious novel told from four different points of view. It also contains a detailed account of a little-known facet of the war, the work of firefighters in war time and the immense risk to which they were subjected. This is an immersive narrative which holds the reader’s interest from page one. McCaughrean has managed to conjure the London Blitz impeccably.
