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During the First World War, young men in flimsy biplanes fought one another in the skies above France. In 1917 William Reynolds is a pilot in the Flying Corp, an ace whose solitary habits and criticism of the class-ridden hierarchy ensure that he is resented by his fellow pilots, who are unaware of his background and the betrayal that left him embittered.
Though poor and from a rural working-class background, William was educated at a minor English public school. Without money he grows up straddling social classes, belonging to neither, until his interest in aviation results in friendship with the aristocratic Christopher Horsham, and Elizabeth, who William falls in love with. However, during the summer of 1913 against the idyllic setting of the Horsham ancestral home, Pitsford House, and evenings spent at local jazz dances, love turns to a conflict of loyalty and ultimately, tragedy.
By 1917 Elizabeth has trained as a nurse and has come to France to try to make amends for the past. William's struggle to survive, and Elizabeth's attempts to find him are the basis for the second half of the novel, which takes place against the backdrop of a conflict in the air that was pursued with deadly earnest by both sides.
The Flyer is the first book in the Pitsford Series. The sequel, We Should Dance, takes place after the war when the narrative moves to America, partly taking place during the beginnings of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Though poor and from a rural working-class background, William was educated at a minor English public school. Without money he grows up straddling social classes, belonging to neither, until his interest in aviation results in friendship with the aristocratic Christopher Horsham, and Elizabeth, who William falls in love with. However, during the summer of 1913 against the idyllic setting of the Horsham ancestral home, Pitsford House, and evenings spent at local jazz dances, love turns to a conflict of loyalty and ultimately, tragedy.
By 1917 Elizabeth has trained as a nurse and has come to France to try to make amends for the past. William's struggle to survive, and Elizabeth's attempts to find him are the basis for the second half of the novel, which takes place against the backdrop of a conflict in the air that was pursued with deadly earnest by both sides.
The Flyer is the first book in the Pitsford Series. The sequel, We Should Dance, takes place after the war when the narrative moves to America, partly taking place during the beginnings of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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Used availability for Stuart Harrison's The Flyer