Fighter Boys: Saving Britain 1940 by Patrick Bishop provided invaluable information about the experiences of fighter pilots in the RAF, as did First Light by Geoffrey Wellum, The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary and Never Surrender: Lost Voices of a Generation at War by Robert Kershaw. Most of the information about Toby’s escape from Belgium came from The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II by Peter Eisner and Wingless Victory: The Story of Sir Basil Embry’s Escape From Occupied France by Anthony Richardson.
Information about Spain came from Ambassador on Special Mission by Samuel Hoare, Viscount Templewood, They Shall Not Pass: The Spanish People at War 1936–39 by Richard Kisch and Chief of Intelligence by Ian Colvin, while The Duchess of Windsor by Michael Bloch and King of Fools by John Parker provided descriptions of the Nazi plan to abduct the Duke of Windsor. ‘Petticoat Diplomacy: The Admission of Women to the British Foreign Service, c.1919–1946’ by Helen McCarthy (Twentieth Century British History vol. 20 no. 3 (2009)) was an invaluable resource when writing about Veronica’s experiences at the Foreign Office.
Most of the information about the Kennedys and Billy Hartington came from Kathleen Kennedy: The Untold Story of Jack’s Favourite Sister by Lynne McTaggart and Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty by Catherine Bailey. I also consulted John F. Kennedy’s Why England Slept and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s memoir, Times to Remember. Stephen Dorril’s Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley & British Fascism and Anne de Courcy’s Diana Mosley provided details of the Mosleys’ imprisonment and the activities of Fascists in Britain during the war.
Quotes from the following poems and novels were used:
Ode on Melancholy
Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Toby also misquotes from The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
The quote fromPicture Post was cited in ‘Imperial War Museum’s Ministry of Food: Terry Charman Explores Food Rationing’ by Terry Charman, Culture24, 15 February, 2010. The quotes from If the Invader Comes, a booklet published by the British Government in 1940, were cited in Juliet Gardiner’s Wartime: Britain 1939–1945 and the letter about ‘the old school tie’ was cited in Arthur Marwick’s The Home Front: The British and the Second World War.
There are also several quotes from, or references to, speeches by British politicians, which were delivered either in the House of Commons or as broadcasts on the BBC. These include Chamberlain’s declaration of war and his ‘Missed the bus’ and Norway speeches, as well as Churchill’s ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’, ‘We shall defend our island’, ‘Never in the field of human endeavour’ and Soviet Union speeches. Leo Amery delivered the ‘You have sat too long’ speech in 1940. Churchill’s ‘let ’em starve’ comments about the Channel Islands were noted on the minutes of a Cabinet meeting in September, 1944, and his description of the Channel Islanders as ‘weak-livered . . . quislings’ came from a conversation with Lord Louis Mountbatten (both quotes are featured in the ‘Captive Islands’ exhibition in the Jersey War Tunnels).
THANK YOU TO: Zoe Walton and Nancy Siscoe, for their patience, encouragement and invaluable editorial advice throughout the process of writing this series; the hard-working teams at Random House Australia and Random House Children’s Books (US); and Rick Raftos and Catherine Drayton.
About the Author
MICHELLE COOPER IS THE AUTHOR of The Rage of Sheep and the Montmaray Journals trilogy. The first Montmaray book, A Brief History of Montmaray, won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award and was listed in the American Library Association’s 2010 Best Books for Young Adults. Its sequel, The FitzOsbornes in Exile, was shortlisted for the NSW and WA Premier’s Literary Awards, named a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book and listed in Kirkus Reviews’ Best Teen Books of 2011. Michelle lives in Sydney and is currently working on her next book for teenagers.
Visit www.michellecooper-writer.com for more information about Michelle and her books.
Sophie FitzOsborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray, along with her tomboy younger sister, Henry, her beautiful, intellectual cousin, Veronica, and Veronica’s father, the completely mad King John. When Sophie receives a leather journal for her sixteenth birthday, she decides to write about her life on the island. But it is 1936 and bigger events are on the horizon. Is everything Sophie knows and loves about to change?
‘An exquisite, slowly built story of intrigue, romance, bravery, wartime and family . . . Simply divine.’ Persnickety Snark
Sophie’s dreams of making her debut in shimmering ballgowns are finally coming true, but how can she enjoy her new life in England when they have all lost so much? Aunt Charlotte is ruthless in her quest to see Sophie and Veronica married off, Toby is as charming and lazy as ever, Henry is driving her governess to the brink of madness, and the battle of wills between Simon and Veronica continues. Can Sophie keep her family together, when everything seems to be falling apart?
An enticing glimpse into high society, the cut and thrust of politics as nations scramble to avert world war, and the hidden depths of a family in exile, struggling to find their place in the world.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
The Montmaray Journals 3: The FitzOsbornes at War
Copyright © 2012 Michelle Cooper
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Random House book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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First published by Random House Australia in 2012
This ebook edition first published by Random House Australia in 2012
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Cooper, Michelle
Title: The FitzOsbornes at war (electronic resource) / Michelle Cooper
Series: Cooper, Michelle. Montmaray journals; 3
Target audience: For secondary school age
Dewey number: A823.4
Cover photograph by Nikoline Rasmussen
Cover design by Christabella Designs
Internal design by Zoë Sadokierski
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Ebook Producation by Midland Typesetters Australia
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Table of Contents
Cover
About the Book
Title
The Story So Far
3rd September, 1939
7th September, 1939
15th September, 1939
17th September, 1939
21st October, 1939
24th October, 1939
23rd November, 1939
5th December, 1939
15th December, 1939
24th December, 1939
20th January, 1940
16th March, 1940
21st April, 1940
13th May, 1940
29th May, 1940
9th June, 1940
15th June, 1940
20th July, 1940
2nd August, 1940
10th August, 1940
15th August, 1940
31st August, 1940
5th September, 1940
11th September, 1940
23rd September, 1940
16th October, 1940
24th October, 1940
18th November, 1940
30th November, 1940
24th December, 1940
25th December, 1940
19th January, 1941
12th March, 1941
6th April, 1941
11th May, 1941
28th June, 1941
24th August, 1941
21st December, 1941
28th April, 1942
14th May, 1942
17th May, 1942
26th May, 1942
7th June, 1942
19th June, 1942
11th July, 1942
5th September, 1942
16th November, 1942
12th December, 1942
Boxing Day, 1942
4th March, 1943
29th April, 1943
10th July, 1943
21st August, 1943
25th September, 1943
27th September, 1943
2nd October, 1943
19th October, 1943
26th November, 1943
13th December, 1943
28th December, 1943
14th January, 1944
17th January, 1944
28th January, 1944
21st February, 1944
2nd March, 1944
19th April, 1944
8th May, 1944
16th May, 1944
Toby’s Account of Events from May, 1942 to January, 1944; transcribed 16th May, 1944
20th May, 1944
2nd June, 1944
20th June, 1944
28th August, 1944
17th September, 1944
29th October, 1944
12th November, 1944
30th November, 1944
Four Years Later
21st August, 1948
Author Notes
About the Author
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