This is SUCH a wonderful book! It follows the story of Lyla, in denial about being abandoned by her mother, angry at her soldier father, confused and intensely lonely. She finds herself, for the duration of World War Two, placed in the care of her eccentric Great Aunt Ada. Her cold and austere fortress of a house is full of strangeness; a parakeet called Little Gibson, a horse who eats at 7 o’clock each night at the window of the dining room to keep Ada company, ancient suits of armour everywhere, and lion taming old butler, Solomon. In an attempt to escape, Lyla unwittingly invites a whole boarding school of girls to stay, and her discomfort only increases as she begins to rub shoulders with girls her own age who don’t understand her at all! She makes one faithful friend, Cat, who despite Lyla’s prickliness and evasiveness, remains true.

It’s a book about loneliness, friendship, family, unconditional and persistent love, grief and loss, sadness, pure joy, and kindness. The whole book is full of characters who show relentless kindness and acceptance towards Lyla as she struggles to come to terms with the truth about her mother; her father persists in writing letters from abroad as he fights in the war, Ada speaks wisdom and is a rock for Lyla as she rages, and Solomon, the unassuming butler, is unrelentingly gentle and generous.

From a historical fiction point of view, this is a different take on WW2. Boarding schools are rarely used as the setting for WW2 fiction as the strict routine of life meant that other than food affected by rationing, very little, on the face of things, changed – however, this story explores the inner life of one girl and the effects of the war on her heart. For readers interested in Science and Maths, there are also brilliant moments in the story where Great Aunt Ada’s scientist approach to educating the girls comes to the fore – she is progressive in her ideas and insists that education should develop dreams, increase curiosity, and grow imagination, all wonderfully wise beliefs!

This is a gentle, slow burner of a read, with moments of genius. I smiled again and again as I read – for the kindness, for the zaniness, and for Angus’s exquisite turn of phrase – she is an exceptional writer – one who draws in vocabulary seldom used in novels for the 10-12 age range, and uses it with confidence and flair. This is a school story with a difference - with enough quirkiness to make it a bit mad, but enough emotion to ring true, it’s a must read!