Occasionally panoramic, more often intimate, in Clouds of Love and War author Rachel Billington balances a detailed and highly researched picture of the life of a Second World War Spitfire pilot with the travails and ambitions of a young woman too often on her own. The result is both a gripping story of war and a sensitive story of love, a love that struggles to survive.

Eddie and Eva meet on the eve of the Second World War. Eddie only wants to be a flyer, to find escape in the clouds from his own complicated family. However, the Battle of Britain makes a pilot’s life a dangerous way to flee reality.

Eva has her own passionate longing: to become a painter. When Eva’s Jewish mother disappears to Germany, she is left alone with her elderly father. Both Eddie and Eva come of age at a time that teaches them that happiness is always fleeting, but there are things worth living – or dying – for.

Through the connecting stories of these young people and their wider families, and against a background of southern county airfields, London, Oxford, Dorset and France, Rachel Billington brings the world of war time England, now eighty years in the past, back to life.

My review

This is a beautiful love story set in WW2 times. It is such a well researched book and if you love books set in a different era then this is the one for you.

Eddie goes off to war as a fighter pilot and Eva waits for him back at home. This story is a love story between Eddie and Eva and it is their journey in this trying time.

Clouds of Love and War is published by Unicorn on 15th July 2020, and is available for purchase here.

Disclaimer – thank you to the team at Bookollective for sending me a copy for my honest review