Fallen Skies [Paperback]

Philippa Gregory (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Harpercollins (1994)
• ISBN-10: 0006475078
• ISBN-13: 978-0006475071
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,649,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Kenya in 1954, Philippa Gregory moved to England with her family and was educated in Bristol and at the National Council for the Training of Journalists course in Cardiff. She worked as a senior reporter on the Portsmouth News, and as a journalist and producer for BBC radio.

Philippa obtained a BA degree in history at the University of Sussex in Brighton and a PhD at Edinburgh University in 18th-century literature. Her first novel, Wideacre, was written as she completed her PhD and became an instant world wide bestseller. On its publication, she became a full-time writer, and now lives with her family on a small farm in the North of England.

Her knowledge of gothic 18th century novels led to Philippa writing Wideacre, which was followed by a haunting sequel, The Favoured Child, and the delightful happy ending of the trilogy: Meridon. This novel was listed in Feminist Book Fortnight and for the Romantic Novel of the Year at the same time - one of the many instances of Philippa's work appealing to very different readers.

The trilogy was followed by The Wise Woman, a dazzling, disturbing novel of dark powers and desires set against the rich tapestry of the Reformation, and by Fallen Skies, an evocative realistic story set after the First World War. Her novel A Respectable Trade took her back to the 18th century where her knowledge of the slave trade and her home town of Bristol produced a haunting novel of slave trading and its terrible human cost. This is the only modern novel to explore the tragedies of slavery in England itself, and features a group of kidnapped African people trying to find their freedom in the elegant houses of 18th century Clifton. Gregory adapted her book for a highly acclaimed BBC television production which won the prize for drama from the Commission for Racial Equality and was shortlisted for a BAFTA for the screenplay.

Next came two of Gregory's best-loved novels, Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth, based on the true-life story of father and son John Tradescant working in the upheaval of the English Civil War. In these works Gregory pioneered the genre which has become her own: fictional biography, the true story of a real person brought to life with painstaking research and passionate verve.

The flowering of this new style was undoubtedly The Other Boleyn Girl, a runaway best-seller which stormed the US market and then went worldwide telling the story of the little-known sister to Anne Boleyn. Now published in 26 countries with more than a million copies in print in the US alone, this is becoming a classic historical novel, winning the Parker Pen Novel of the Year award 2002, and the Romantic Times fictional biography award. The Other Boleyn Girl was adapted for the BBC as a single television drama and a film is now in production starring Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Eric Bana as Henry VIII.

A regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, with short stories, features and reviews, Philippa is also a frequent broadcaster and a regular contestant on Round Britain Quiz for BBC Radio 4 and the Tudor expert for Channel 4's Time Team.

She lives in the North of England with her husband and two children and in addition to interests that include riding, walking, skiing and gardening (an interest born from research into the Tradescant family for her novel, Virgin Earth), she also runs a small charity building wells in school gardens in The Gambia. Fifty-six wells have been built by UK donors to date.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Help me. It's what I married you for.", November 21, 2008

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fallen Skies: A Novel (Paperback)

Gregory is a master story-teller, this engaging novel set in 1920's England shortly after the end of World War I. Stephen Winters is a medaled officer, returned to the bosom of his wealthy family, expected to step into the empty shoes of his brother Christopher, who was killed in the war. Stephen has his own war stories, but never speaks of them, except to his batman and chauffeur, Coventry, his mute companion. Profoundly damaged by his war experiences, the young Winters' heir hides the depths of his emotional wounds, his rages rare but violent. The family home is quiet as the grave, Stephen's father, Rory, felled by a stroke after Christopher's death, his luminous dark eyes unable to communicate from a twisted face and worthless body. Muriel Winters cannot find rapport with her son, the unsaid between them more powerful than any conversation and her nagging guilt at having goaded her second-born into a war that annihilated his already cloudy soul.

Singer Lily Valance, only seventeen, is a refreshing antidote to the nightmares that have haunted Stephen since his return. Even the knowledge that she is a chorus girl is assuaged by the purity of her lovely voice and the diligence of a mother who protects her innocent daughter from male admirers. As soon as he sees Lily perform, Stephen knows she is the antidote to his fury and discontent, that Lily will heal the wounds of the past. On the cusp of a successful career, thanks to the efforts of music director and friend, Charlie Smith, Lily's path to success is clear. Suddenly Stephen is everywhere pressing his suit, shadowing Lily's every move. Intimidated by his aggressive courtship, Lily turns to Charlie, who can never make her his wife. But fate intervenes and Lily is forced into life-changing decisions in the midst of unfathomable grief.

And there is Stephen, soft-spoken, iron-willed, offering his protection and love. Lily marries her ardent suitor, thrust into a world of strict proprieties, a singing career suddenly inappropriate. And Stephen's panacea is short-lived as reality intrudes on fantasy. As a rigid mother-in-law, compassionate but helpless father-in-law and Stephen's man, the mute Coventry, struggle to adapt to the high spirits of Lily's youthful enthusiasm, the fragile hopes she has for her marriage are exposed as a sham. Lily learns first-hand the terrible cost of war, her marriage battered by upheaval and violence as a helpless Charlie watches from the outside. From love to madness, joy to despair, Gregory's characters grapple with their situations, tentative alliances, demons revealed in a tragic denouement that shatters the night. Gregory writes with a rhythm and style all her own, high drama and dense prose that wounds and expunges, human failings stripped of pretense one by one. But Lily is a survivor, a girl grown to womanhood in the harsh landscape of a deeply troubled marriage: "We've got to live no matter how many skies have fallen" (DH Lawrence). Luan Gaines/2008.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WORLD WAR I VETS VIVIDLY PORTRAYED, October 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fallen Skies (Paperback)

I discovered Philippa Gregory within the last year and have now read five of her books, Fallen Skies being the most recent. As always, she has created multi-dimensional characters where it's possible to even feel some sympathy for the "villain" of the piece. The heroine of the book, Lily Vallance, is very much a product of her times when roles for women were quite restrictive. Gregory does a great job of portraying just how much power husbands had over their wives in the early part of the last century. Her husband, World War I vet, Stephen Winters, is a tragic figure although to state he was purely a product of the horrors of the war may not be quite true. His own upbringing and profound sibling rivalry also had to have played a part in the man he became in the trenches of Belgium.

The supporting characters of Charlie, Lily's true love, Muriel, Stephen's mother and Coventry, Stephen's chauffeur/best friend are wonderfully written. I especially enjoyed Gregory's constant reference to the food that "Cook" served the family during the rigidly proscribed meal times. She ably described the societal customs of the upper middle class and how Lily constantly chafed at them.

This is not a romance novel, by any means, but a fascinating story of what happened to the generation of men who fought in World War I and the impact of this on those left on the home front.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow-moving, but intense, October 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Fallen Skies (Mass Market Paperback)

This book starts out strong, then crawls, gets exciting at about 3/4 of the way through, but leaves many unanswered questions. You can't help but feel sympathy for the main character, Lily, who is married to a man she doesn't love and whose husband's family adheres to the strict formality of upper-class England. Nothing unseeming should ever occur in their household. Ironically, what happens between Lily and her husband is enough to make even the lowliest of English families cringe, if only they knew. The strict upper-class attitudes of the family should be reminiscent of what it must be like for young, innocent girls who marry into certain royal families and are forced to live with the consequences. Overall, several of the characters could have been taken in a much different direction toward the end of the story, if only to give Lily more sympathy and friends. It might also have resolved a few more issues, such as what happens between Lily and her true love, Charlie. This book needs a more satisfying ending!!