Customer Reviews

Edge of the Cloud (Puffin books)

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The book "Edge of the Cloud" is the second novel in the Flambards Trilogy by K.M. Peyton and earned her the Carnegie Medal. Suitable for teens, it is still a fascinating story for adults (it is one of my favorites). This is the story of a young English woman in the years right before, and during the start of, WWI when women's roles were changing and aviation was starting to take off so to speak. Read "Flambards" first and "Flambards in Summer" after "Edge of the Cloud" for the whole story. Years later Peyton wrote "Flambards Divided" as a sequel to the trilogy. In the 1980s Yorkshire Television and PBS aired a series based upon the Flambards trilogy, leading to renewed interest in the books, which were first published in the 1960s. Get comfy -- once you start reading this book you'll not want to put it down!

I'm one of the people who stumbled across the book after watching the the mini-series on PBS way back in the early 80's as a child. Like the other reviewer states, this book works best when read in the order of the trilogy, Flambards, The Edge of the Cloud, Flambards in Summer, and for a finale Flambards Divided. It tells the story of a young girl, Christina, in the years directly leading up to the First World War. Aviation was still in its infancy, and plays a major part in this installment of K.M. Peyton's trilogy as it centers around Christina and her fiance/ cousin William.

The book is really more of a coming of age story than its predessor, Flambards. Flambards pretty much covered the gamut of childhood and the threshold of young adulthood, this story actually has the characters dealing with real world adult issues of being more or less on their own for the first time.

It's a great book, a wonderful series, and I highly recommend this to readers of any age.