Under Darkening Skies
Will Burnett is a surgeon at the Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He is angry about the differences in health care for the rich and poor and frustrated that so many of his patients die after he has operated on them. His wife, Grace, works at the Dunn Institute in the city where the potential of penicillin has recently been established, and efforts are now concentrated on synthesising sufficient quantities to make it available.
Kitty, Will’s sister, is a beautiful, idealistic and athletic young woman. A nurse by profession, she has gone to Spain to fight against the Fascist rebels. There she meets and loses the love of her life. Grace and Will’s daughter Emily, named after Emmeline Pankhurst – they are that sort of family – is a talented mechanic with aspirations to become a pilot. Daniel, their son, is a budding psychiatrist.
We follow them through the Spanish Civil War and the growing threat of Fascism. We are present when Neville Chamberlain announces that Britain is at war with Germany, at Dunkirk, the start of the Blitz, Pearl Harbour, D-Day and beyond.
This is the final book in a trilogy, but it stands alone with no requirement to have read the previous two, although you may (or may not) choose to do so. It is a series of adventure stories: Kitty’s dangerous exploits in Spain and her hunt for her lost lover, Emily’s attempts to break into a man’s world, and Will and Grace’s struggle to save lives. It will certainly appeal to lovers of adventure stories. Hilary Jones is a doctor, and his elucidation of the state of health care in the mid-20th century is one of the book’s strengths.
