by : Lilian Harry
It is 1941 and at quiet Harrowbeer, in Devon, a new airfield has been built. Amongst the squadrons moving in are pilots from Britain, Canada and Poland. The airfield, with its noise and its population, has a massive impact on the peaceful villages nearby - an impact that will affect some inhabitants for the rest of their lives. A SONG AT TWILIGHT tells the story of three such women who will never forget Harrowbeer. Alison Knight, married to pilot Andrew and newly pregnant, comes to be with her husband in the nearby picturesque village of Buckland Monachorum. Renie Wilkins, a WAAF from Portsmouth, is posted to Harrowbeer, first as a parachute packer and then to work in the Operations Room. Even local girl May Prettyjohn finds herself caught up in the life of the RAF, watching the aircraft take off on their dangerous missions over the English Channel and into France and Germany, and waiting - as do both Alison and Renie and all the other men and women of Harrowbeer - for the same number of planes to come back. This, however, is war - and not all the aircraft return. Of the men who catch at these women's hearts - Andrew Knight, young Ben Hazelwood and the Polish airman Stefan Dabrowski - not all may survive. But throughout all the joys, troubles and anguish of love and war, the work of the airfield will go on.
