Where Simon and Rupert fight, on the western front, more than four million men and more than a million horses died. (Read Michael Morpurgo’s superb War Horse!) Soldiers were supposed to be nineteen years old to serve overseas, but it was easy to get around that. Birth certificates were not required to sign up. Simon is eighteen when he goes to France, but some were much younger. There are records of thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds fighting in the trenches.
While so many men were abroad, workers were needed at home. For the first time girls and women were given a chance to show what they could achieve. They made weapons, drove trains and buses and trams, farmed the land, ran the hospitals, worked in factories and offices. Sally Nicholls has written a great book called Things a Bright Girl Can Do, which describes the growing freedom of young women at this time.
When I am working on a story it helps me to have some “real” things about me as I write. That is why on my desk I kept Clarry’s gold sovereign, Peter’s star book, and the key to the cricket pavilion. If you would like to see what they look like, and find out more about this fascinating period of time, log on to my website: hilarymckay.co.uk.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hilary McKay is the award-winning author of Binny Bewitched (which was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and received two starred reviews), Binny in Secret (which received three starred reviews), Binny for Short (which received four starred reviews), and six novels about the Casson family: Saffy’s Angel, Indigo’s Star, Permanent Rose, Caddy Ever After, Forever Rose, and Caddy’s World. She is also the author of Wishing for Tomorrow, the sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess. Hilary lives with her family in Derbyshire, England. Visit her at HilaryMcKay.co.uk.
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Simon & Schuster · New York
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Hilary-McKay
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
Also by Hilary McKay
Saffy’s Angel
Indigo’s Star
Permanent Rose
Caddy Ever After
Forever Rose
Caddy’s World
Wishing for Tomorrow
Binny for Short
Binny in Secret
Binny Bewitched
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(WITH THANKS TO JIM!)
I could not have written Love to Everyone without these books:
Addington, Scott. World War One: A Layman’s Guide. scottaddington.com, 2012.
Adie, Kate. Fighting on the Home Front. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2013.
Adlington, Lucy. Great War Fashion: Tales from the History Wardrobe. Stroud, UK: History Press, 2013.
Brittain, Vera. Testament of Youth. London: Virago Press, 1978.
Clare, John D. First World War (I Was There). London: Riverswift, 1994.
Dent, Olive. A Volunteer Nurse on the Western Front. London: Grant Richards, 1917.
Grant, D. F. The History of “A” Battery 84th Army Brigade RFA, 1914–1918. Brighton, UK: The Book Guild Publishing, 2013.
Hansen, Ole Steen. The War in the Trenches. Lewes, UK: White-Thomson Publishing, 2000.
Jones, Nigel. Peace and War: Britain in 1914. London: Head of Zeus, 2014.
Langbridge, R. H. Edwardian Shopping. Newton Abbot, Devon, UK: David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd.,1975.
Mayhew, Emily. Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty, 1914–1918. London: Bodley Head, 2013.
Picture Taking with the Brownie Camera No. 2. Toronto, Canada: Canadian Kodak Co. Limited, [pre-1923]
SSAFA. The Great War, 1914–18: SSAFA’s Official Guide to World War 1. London: CW Publishing Group, 2014.
Tait, Derek. Plymouth in the Great War. Barnsley, Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military, 2104.
Williamson, Henry. How Dear Is Life. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Macdonald & Co., 1954.
MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2018 by Hilary McKay
Jacket illustration copyright © 2018 by Rebecca Green
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CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-5344-2710-5
ISBN 978-1-5344-2712-9 (eBook)