Our Castle By The Sea is a cleverly told, thrilling wartime adventure that seamlessly pairs fiction with historical fact. It is played out against the run-up to the Dunkirk rescue mission when hundreds of vessels sailed to northern France to rescue British soldiers trapped on the beaches.įor good measure, Strange also blends the mysterious local legend of the Daughters of Stone, ancient coastal standing stones, into her potent mix. Strange has set this story in a very exciting era. Uki and the Outcasts book review: A new fantasy packed with thrilling adventuresĭetermined to discover the restore her family’s good name, Petra has to overcome her timidity and discover the truth. Could her family members be hiding a dangerous secret? Her father and sister are not acting normally.

Mutti’s arrest sets off a chain of events both in the lighthouse and in the village that change Petra. Someone in the village has been spying for Germany. Petra’s mother is German, and like other foreigners living in the area, she is arrested and sent to an internment camp. The English Channel is presently keeping the fighting in Europe, but the German forces need only to get across that narrow strip of water separating them from Europe and the war would take a disastrous turn.Īs soon as Britain declares war on Germany on September 3, 1939, the inhabitants of the village near the lighthouse, people Petra has known all her life, change their attitude towards the her family. The cliffs and beaches where Petra has lived with her father, mother and elder sister, Mags, could any day become a battleground.

But now the war is turning her life upside down.īearmouth book review: An utterly unique tale of a miserable underground existence – and escape Her father is the lighthouse keeper, and her childhood has been filled with adventures in the caves and abandoned smugglers’ tunnels along the coast.

The year is 1939, and Britain is at war with Germany.ġ2-year-old Petra lives in the lighthouse. Like castles, lighthouses are built by the sea to do a specific job the one in Strange’s story, on the south coast of England, is not only there to warn vessels to steer clear of coastal rocks, but is also keeping an eye out for enemy ships.

Our castle by the sea