Wild Lily

I have a confession to make; I've never read a book by K M Peyton. Not being a fan of stories involving horses, which many of them are, I just have never chosen to read one. I am very glad that now I have. Wild Lily is a sweeping drama that spans a lifetime and you can't help but fall in love with the heroine, Lily. She is a young girl born into a life of hard work and essentially poverty, but she never complains. Lily is in love the rich boy next door, Antony, who happens to live in the big mansion house where her father works in the grounds and her love for Antony remains steadfast throughout, despite his disregard and lack of care toward her. Whilst they are friends of sorts, Antony relies on Lily a little too heavily but she is happy to oblige, helping him with everything from learning to fly a plane and parachute jumps to organising a party while his father is abroad. Antony lives with his father, a disinterested man absorbed in business and his sister, Helen, who is beautiful, but blind and deaf. On the face of it, the family are very wealthy and Antony attends Eton. Other characters include Antony's school 'chums', friends of convenience perhaps at first, some of whom show their true worth as the story progresses with tragedy and misfortune striking twice in succession. The story also features some of the locals, who provide a further glimpse into the life of a village in the 1920s and how the rich folk who live in the big house could have such an impact on everyone, for good and for bad. Lily brings the whole cast together, with her hopes for the future, her uncompromising spirit and her desire to remain true to her feelings for Antony, and also to look after her younger brother and ageing father. You're never quite sure whether true happiness will evade Lily and whether Antony will one day realise her true worth. Wild Lily full of excitement, humour, adventure, mystery, bereavement, friendship and above all, hope. It is an old-fashioned story, written without the need for bells and whistle, magic or monsters and not a dystopian world in sight, which frankly I found refreshing in a climate where so many young people's books aim to be more weird and wacky than the last one. And I absolutely loved the ending of this story, which shows so wonderfully how it feels to be alive! Ages 12+ / Reviewed by Victoria Dilly

Suggested Reading Age 11+