Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory was published in 1994. Unlike the Tudor novels which she is most famous for, this book is set in the 1920s straight after the First World War. The main characters of the novel are Lily Pears, a young singer embarking on her career; and Captain Stephen Winters, decorated officer newly back from the front.

Lily uses the stage name of Lily Valance. She lives with her protective mother above the greengrocer's shop which they own in Portsmouth. Lily's mother Helen has scrimped and saved over the years in order to give Lily a good education so she can have a better life than she herself had. Lily's father was killed in the war after volunteering, and Lily hates any mention of the war to be made. Lily is a talented singer and with the help of Charlie Smith, the Musical Director, is determined to become a star.

Stephen has recently returned from Belgium, and is clearly still affected by the war and all the atrocities that he witnessed. His elder brother, Christopher, enrolled straight away and was killed within the first few weeks. Christopher was the apple of his parents eye, and upon hearing of his death his father suffered a stroke was left bed ridden and unable to care for himself. Stephen was determined not to go and fight despite pressure from his parents and only enrolled when it became clear that if he did not enrol as an officer, he would be conscripted as a soldier. His companion and batman from the war and now employed as his driver is a young man named Coventry, so named as he does not speak.

Lily and Charlie become close but due to a war wound, Charlie feels that he is unable to give Lily what she deserves despite their obvious love and affection. When tragedy strikes Lily, she finally agrees to marry Stephen seeing no other way to survive. As the book progresses an increasingly dark side to Stephen is revealed and I started to guess at what else he was hiding that would be exposed later in the book. I am not usually one to try to guess what will happen at the end, I get so caught up enjoying the moment, but with this book it was so obvious that something wasn't right! I felt increasingly sorry for Lily after their wedding as Stephen seems to have no emotion or compassion. He seems to be planning one step ahead in order to control Lily and her life, and is prone to violence with no provocation. When Lily convinces him against his wishes to let her perform on stage after their wedding, he ensures she soon gets pregnant knowing she will not be able to continue.

Stephen's relationship with his parents has completely broken down. His mother is struggling to cope without Christopher, and also with how times have changed - she is a stickler for etiquette and tradition. Stephen regularly taunts his invalid father who is unable to talk back to him. He even refuses to be seen walking down the road with him when Lily orders a wheelchair so he is able to leave the house for the first time in years.

I was left guessing at the relationship between Stephen and Coventry. It is difficult to judge when one person never speaks, but I was left wondering who needed whom most. There are obviously deep secrets between the two of them that they can never speak about with anyone else.

Stephen's main reason for marrying Lily is to help him forget the war. He feels that her youth and innocence are all that he needs to help him forget everything he has seen and to escape the nightmares he constantly wakes up from screaming. It is not until later in the book that we see what actually happened in the farmhouse in Belgium.

I am a big Philippa Gregory fan already and I really enjoyed the book. It was great being told from both Lily and Stephens perspective and discovering why they were acting in a certain way without the other one being aware of the reasons. Initially I wasn't sure about Lily's character. Her opinions about the war and an outburst at the beginning of the book about it, where she says that it was not her war, she was too young, she didn't ask them to fight and she didn't care about it, showed an incredibly selfish side to her. As the book continues it becomes clear that she is just trying to get on with her life as well as she can. Stephen does not come across well at all, but it is clear that he is completely suffering with shell shock or a similar post war complaint, something that as a man he would never admit to.

The end of the book was very exciting. I really didn't want to stop reading as I had to find out what had happened. I was getting closer and closer to the end of the book and although I thought I had guessed who was responsible, I just couldn't figure out how!

The book is long and quite tedious at times with a lot of irrelevant detail but this could just Gregory setting the scene, but the general storyline is fantastic. I became quite absorbed in the characters despite their obvious flaws and would recommend to my friends.

Available new on Amazon for £1.14 + £2.80 postage. Paperback is 640 pages.

Thanks for reading!
Rachel