Description

‘Beautifully-written, and highly evocative of the remote Lincolnshire landscape, the Second World War and the two people whose loneliness brings them together for a life-changing time… Full of quiet drama and sorrow at loss, cruelty and mortality’ Amanda Craig

‘Compelling and beautifully intimate. A classic piece of storytelling’ Toby Litt

‘A haunting and lyrical novel’ Maggie Brookes, author of The Prisoner’s Wife

In the depths of wartime, a friendship takes wing

Freda is a twelve-year-old evacuee from the East End, sent to live with a farming family deep in the lonely landscape of the Fens.

Philip is an artist and a conscientious objector, living in a remote lighthouse on the shores of the Wash.

The two outcasts come together amid the wild beauty of the wetlands, beneath skies filled with migrating birds and crisscrossed by Nazi bombers. As the world is consumed by war, they form a friendship that will change the course of both their lives.

Publisher Review

''Flatlands is a haunting and lyrical novel about loneliness and the compensations of the natural world, art and unlikely friendships. The characters of an unhappy evacuee from the East End and a conscientious objector will draw you in as they search for some kind of peace in the wide open landscapes of the fens and the story moves them to their own inevitable crises.'' - Maggie Brookes 'Praise for Sue Hubbard's previous work:' - . 'Beautifully written and wholly knowledgeable... A triumph of literary and artistic understanding, a tour de force: masterly, moving' - Fay Weldon 'A writer of genuine talent' - Elaine Feinstein 'Lyrical, highly visual and beautifully observed' - John Burnside