Bravery In The Face Of Sorrow : Flying Angels By Danielle Steel

‘A book brings comfort, joy, adventure and fun, opens eyes and hearts and minds, is the pathway to other books, each one a pathway to learning and understanding. One book can begin the journey of a lifetime, it can change a life.’

What better advert for reading could there be than this inspiring gem from the former Children’s Laureate, Sir Michael Morpurgo? A book, any book, at whatever age you come to it, is a portal to all sorts: fantasy and reality, people and places, facts and imagination. Whatever your taste, there is a book for you, and I genuinely believe that a person who doesn’t like reading has simply not yet found the book best suited to them, to unlock the magic.

When I received Flying Angels, I admit to thinking that Danielle Steel cannot possibly still be writing. Her name seems to have been on the bookshelves forever. I first read one of her novels many years ago and while intellectuals and academics might have snootily dismissed her, her longevity has proved her critics wrong and as I have said before, whatever gets people reading is good by me. I was intrigued though and did a bit of research.

cq[A book, any book, at whatever age you come to it, is a portal to all sorts: fantasy and reality, people and places, facts and imagination.]

Danielle Steel has written 185 books, all, unbelievably, written on Olympia SG1 standard typewriters, and with over 800 million copies sold. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time - so not to be dismissed then. She knows her audience and has introduced many readers to her world.

Her works consists of novels, non-fiction, picture books, and two series of children's books. Her first novel, Going Home, was published in 1973. Flying Angels is her latest, published in 2022. Despite a reputation among some critics for writing ‘fluff’, Steel often delves into some unsavoury aspects of human nature, including incest, divorce, suicide, war, and even the Holocaust, in books which are accessible to the majority.

She has received numerous awards both for her writing and her charitable work. Not least, she has created a foundation which funds mental illness related organisations, and she founded the Yo Angel Foundation to assist the homeless. A philanthropist of many talents, to be sure.

In Flying Angels, Steel introduces a group of remarkable young women who all become flight nurses during World War Two. They face the challenges of war and its many heartbreaks and victories, as unsung heroes. They come from different backgrounds with diverse experiences of life so far. The novel begins in America and the first two girls we meet are Audrey, who has nursed her ailing mother for seven years, and Lizzie, who shares the same passion for nursing, despite opposition from her family.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and with the country on the brink of war, they both enlist as flight nurses and join the elite Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron, flying into enemy territory to rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield. They meet Alex, an ex-debutante, who is dissatisfied with the superficiality of her life and longs to make a difference in the world, and Louise who is intelligent and focussed and has faced racial prejudice, growing up in the South. When these four are posted to England, they meet Pru who is similar to Alex, having grown up in privileged surroundings yet wanting to play her part. She is skilled and competent and proves herself to be a selfless leader with a heart of gold. Finally, there is red-haired Emma, nicknamed ‘the firebrand’, whose background in London’s East End couldn’t be more different but whose confidence and determination push her to risk everything for her patients.

All the elements of war can be found in this novel: love and loss, fear and gratitude, hard work and compassion. The war ‘devour[s] brothers and fathers, lovers and husbands and sons’ but these girls also risk their lives on perilous missions and knowing their planes could be shot down at any moment by an enemy who shares the skies, they make enormous sacrifices to save lives. They know the material rewards of rank and pay will be far less than they deserve but the Flying Angels give their all in the fight for freedom.

There are issues explored which have no place in war but which remain palpable and conspicuous. Steel more than touches on the role of women and the prejudice and repression they faced which should seem alien, even offensive, to the modern reader. The war and the role women played at least helped to change attitudes. Racial prejudice, too, rears its head but German bombs don’t have a pre-select button and death, feared by all, is the only certainty in life, be you rich or poor, man or woman, black or white. There is heartache and tragedy which should come as no surprise given the setting; fair play doesn’t seem to come into it.

The girls, from all walks of life, are eternally bound by their loyalty to one another and they serve as bravely and tirelessly as the men they rescue from the front lines. When the homeward journey eventually beckons in the summer of 1945, those who are left know they are ‘forever changed, forever different and stronger than when they arrived…forever bonded’. As those who survive accept their medals at the end, this novel pays tribute to the courageous women whose contributions are often forgotten in tales of ‘derring do’ which usually highlight the (undoubted) heroism of men.