August 2013, MacMillan, 288 pages, Paperback, Review copy
Themes: life in
wartime London & the countryside, evacuees, livimg with a not entirely
friendly woman, rations, siblings sticking together, nursing a horse from a
foal, bond between horse and human, being picked on, having a disgraced father,
village gossip, happy moments, light among the dark, wild animals, fire in the
country, life in the coal mines, many tense moments, illegal activities, horse
racing, grief, kind people
Content: moderate
to strong occasional peril, human disasters, box of tissues needed
Summary from MacMillan
War took his hope, a horse gave him courage
Nayuleska's thoughts
This is a
more hard-hitting read than Soldier Dog. I was in floods of tears at the end.
It turned out that all the horrors of prejudice which Dodo and Wolfie put up
with (or in Wolfie's case, since he focused on Hero, almost blissfully ignored)
were nothing compared with the final incident. It was worse because it brought
to mind similar incidents in history which I'd heard about. The love between
Dodo and Wolfie is second to none. Having a bereft brother is heartbreaking.
The ending is truly beautiful, and I like to think there was no more drama in
their young lives as Dodo and Wolfie had already suffered more than most people
do in a lifetime.
Find out more on Sam's website.
Suggested
read
Be sure
to read Sam's other book, Soldier Dog, about the first world war.
Now, it is with great pleasure that I present answers to some questions Sam kindly answered for today's review!
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| Photo taken by Nick Harvey |
1) Do
you choose to use animals in your stories a way of exploring the topic
of war while having something positive to focus on?
Writing about
animals in war brings the scope of the immense battlefield of war down
to the very personal and human and the very local. One boy, one dog, one
child, one horse etc. can give you a lovely way of showing the war,
illustrating the course of events but with a story that most children
will want to hear, not about clashing armies, but about the survival of
the hero and his hound or his horse. The other great thing about animals
in war is that they offer great scope for immense heroism and loyalty
and love as well as giving the men soldiers a chance to show the softer
side of their nature. There were no children or women in the trenches so
it was only with animals that the soldiers could be gentle and kind,
hence the large numbers of adopted dogs and cats
2) Have you heard a lot of eye witness accounts of what it's like having an animal during wartime?
I've
read a lot of accounts and memoirs, letters and diaries of all sorts of
people who served with animals during the war, vets, muleteers,
gunners, pigeon handlers, dog handlers, literally hundreds and hundreds
of books and diaries. They don't always tell you want you want to know
so you have to comb through a lot of first-hand accounts in order to get
the detail that you need.
3) Which were the hardest parts of A Horse Called Hero to write?
It's
much harder to write about things that you haven't any experience of at
all and of which there is very little first-hand documentation. Writing
about a young boy, trapped with a horse down an exploding coal mine was
definitely by far the hardest part of A Horse Called Hero to write,
though endings are always a challenge too. I've probably read every
piece of documentation available on what it is like to be trapped in a
mine during an explosion.
4) Will you ever write about
cats in a war? (Regular readers will know I'm a cat owner!)
I've always been a dog person, I understand them and
love them whereas I find cats sort of sudden and unexpected and very
slightly spooky. So I wouldn't be the best person to write about them
though people do keep asking.
5) Where is your favourite place to write?
I
love to write at my desk. It's long and wide and made of walnut and it
looks out over a leafy street, with a leafy garden behind it. The desk
has to be completely empty of things except for the computer and the
internet has to be switched off. I often write with my eyes closed and
type very very fast and then surface every forty five minutes or so for a
break. I can edit and tidy up later, by which stage I am usually too
tired to write.
Writing at my desk is my ideal, though a lot of
the time, I write sitting in the car, or anywhere really where my
children can't find me.
Your secret is safe here, Sam, unless your children read this interview! Thank you for your interesting answers Sam - whichever animal it is about, I for sure am looking forward to your next book!
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