by KM Peyton
Published by David Fickling Books
This new novel from the veteran author, KM Peyton takes us right back to Flambards territory – and the series of young adult novels which, from 1967, later spawned a television series and an amusement park in Cornwall.
Set in the 1920s, Wild Lily eventually surges 50 years forward. Lily is the gardener’s daughter and she loves Antony Sylvester, the spoiled, reckless son of the Lockwood estate owner. He’s feckless and hopeless but even the reader can’t help but be drawn to him because he’s also kind and loveable, if thoughtless. We also sympathise with him because his father puts him in an impossible position. And the two of them are, in childhood, part of a cross-class group in the village who’ve grown up together where memories of WW1 losses and incidents are very fresh.
The story which unfolds is typical KM Peyton complete with aircraft, parachutes, enjoyable dogs, disability, villainy, kindness, tragedy, friendship, birth, death and the inevitable appalling aunt. The enjoyable thing about Peyton’s writing, as always, is that her characters are often flawed but always well rounded with lots of positive attributes and they don’t swear at each other or at least not on the page. And characters such as Squashy, Lily’s vulnerable, mildly brain-damaged younger brother, the kind, ever reliable Cedric Butterworth and their Etonian friend Simon are nicely done.
The ending of Wild Lily isn’t exactly plausible, but it works well enough and it’s satisfying. Anyone interested in old aircraft will enjoy this. So will those who like historical fiction and love stories.