Under an English Heaven

What a glorious ride Under An English Heaven is! Filled to the brim with interesting characters, incredible missions, and English countryside, this novel by Robert Radcliffe will sweep you back into World War II and take you flying with Crew 19 of the Mighty 8th Air Force. The crew of the B17 Misbehavin' Martha suffers the loss of its pilot and two more crew members early in their tour; they find themselves stuck in limbo until John Hooper comes to join them. Hooper is a haunted man whose entire last crew was lost in a devastating mission, though he refuses a medical discharge in order to continue flying. As we watch the ten men become a true team, we are on board the Martha as she flies deep into enemy territory, and we see the youthful exuberance and disappointing losses of warfare. Meanwhile, Hooper finds solace in the arms of Heather Garrett, a local school teacher whose husband is missing in the Pacific Theatre. How will the two reconcile their relationship if her husband returns? Will the Martha lose any of its men in its twenty-five missions? What happens to these characters, plus young Billy, a London evacuee, and his family as they face the realities of wartime England engulfed me and brought me deep into daily life of World War II. I cannot say enough good things about this wonderfully written novel. It all rings true; my own father is living proof that, yes, some crews did survive intact through twenty-five or more missions. Hooper's leadership and his conflicts are believable and Radcliffe has brilliantly relayed the anguishes of the war. I could envision myself inside the B17; I could see myself pedaling my bike through the countryside; I could feel the joy of young men discovering London on a three day pass. This is a truly wonderful novel, not to be missed. Highly, highly recommended.

In Robert Radcliffe's, Under An English Heaven, soldiers and civilians alike learn quickly the techniques of self-preservation as they toil through WWII in England. Radcliffe portrays the war's hardships from the viewpoints of numerous characters; these include members of American B-17 crews, a young London evacuee, and various inhabitants from the surrounding area of Suffolk. Moving from one view point to another, Radcliffe's style of chronological overlapping keeps the reader engaged throughout the entire novel. The reader first meets the original crew members of Misbehavin' Martha and an enterprising evacuee, Billy Street. As Billy is giving his grade school class a tour of a B-17, Martha simultaneously returns with two crewmen dead after their first mission turned "from milk-run to bloodbath in half a second" (3) when a Messerschmitt fighter laced her with bullets. Thus Radcliffe immediately introduces his overlapping style to illustrate the effect war has on different people. After losing his entire crew of another B-17 in a crash landing, Lt. John Hooper takes over as Martha's commanding officer and pilot. His task is daunting: he must retrain Misbehavin' Martha's surviving crewmen and restore their confidence to return to battle. Radcliffe's motif of self-preservation not only includes Hooper's crew, but also pertains to the lives of such Suffolk villagers as Heather Garrett, the wife of a British officer missing in action in the Pacific theater. Heather's survival slightly differs from Hooper's: she struggles with the strain of anticipating news of her husband's fate. In addition, when Heather and Lt. Hooper become intimate with one another, she must also survive the village's scrutiny and disgruntlement and the psychological strain of choosing between being faithful to her marriage or to her heart. This coupling of enchanting love with the searing indifference of battle characterizes Radcliffe's style. Other characters, including radioman Gerry Via and young Eldon Ringwald, spend time with their lovers to seek refuge from the mental scars of battle. The novel's conclusion - unrealistic given the historical mortality rate of the 8th Air Force - may not appeal to some readers. Radcliffe arguably errs towards the melodramatic, which may delight or irritate readers depending on personal preference. Regardless of how readers respond to the theatrical ending, Radcliffe clearly qualifies the importance of love and hope as essential intangibles to surviving the callousness and horrors of war.