by Ann Turnbull
“Want a sweet?” Olive asked Arnold, holding out her paper bag.
The young pigeons went to Arnold’s, school ended, and still Speedwell hadn’t come home.
Sunday the twenty-eighth was Mary’s birthday. Phyl arrived mid-morning, bringing a present: a silky hair ribbon and a brooch from Woolworths in the shape of a bird.
“A pigeon!” exclaimed Mary.
“Well, I think it’s meant to be a dove,” said Phyl. “Best I could do, like.”
“It’s lovely,” said Mary.
There was a red purse from Dad with a threepenny bit in it, and a cardigan from Mum; she had been secretly knitting it with wool unravelled from two old jumpers. Even Lennie gave her a bag of aniseed balls, and stayed close to her until they were all shared out and sucked.
In the afternoon there was to be tea at Aunty Elsie’s as usual, but today Aunty Elsie had said they would have “a bit of a do”. Everyone was excited. A “do” at Elsie’s meant a tin of salmon opened specially, thin sandwiches, little cakes, all laid out on the white embroidered tablecloth and the painted plates with birds on. Later, there would be a bottle of home-made wine for the grown-ups and fizzy lemon for the young ones.
“I’ll play the piano,” Aunty Elsie said to Mum. “And you must sing, Lina. ‘The Lark in the Clear Air.’ I like that.”
“And Uncle Charley wants ‘Roses of Picardy’,” said Phyl.
“‘Plaisir d’Amour’,” said Dad.
“I’ll be singing all night!” protested Mum, but a flush of pleasure came to her face.
Mum and Phyl scurried upstairs to get ready: Mum in her cream blouse with the brooch of china roses that Uncle Arthur had made; Phyl in a new dress she had bought with her wages.
“And there’s something for you, Mary,” said Phyl, handing her sister a parcel.
Eagerly Mary untied the string. She shook out a dress: cotton, printed with roses, with a pink collar and pink sash. It was faded and well worn, but Mary loved it.
“Annie sent it – the girl I work with. You’ll have to gather it in with the sash.” Phyl tossed the dress over Mary’s head. “Lord, it is long!”
“But I want to wear it,” insisted Mary. “Today.”
“We can tack the hem up for now,” said Mum. “I’ll do it, while you see to those pigeons.”
Mary twirled in the dress. It was pretty. And she’d have to take it in, not let it out.
“Tell Annie, thanks,” she said to Phyl.
Phyl was fixing a shiny slide in her bobbed hair.
“She’s all right, is Annie,” she said.
Mary put her old dress back on and went out with Dad to check the pigeons.
It was late afternoon, warm, with long shadows. The birds had had their exercise. They were all inside, and from the loft came a deep, soft cooing. Dad opened the door and went in. Mary, about to follow, heard a whirring of wings overhead.
She looked up.
A pigeon. Blue. A blue chequer. It was – it had to be…
Speedwell folded her wings and dropped down into the loft.
Books from Ann Turnbull:
No Friend of Mine
Room for a Stranger
No Shame, No Fear
Forged in the Fire
Seeking Eden
PIGEON SUMMER
It is 1930, the height of the Great Depression.
Mary Dyer’s father has left home in search of work, leaving his beloved racing pigeons in Mary’s care – much to her mother’s disapproval. During that long, hard summer there is barely enough money for bread, let alone pigeon feed, yet Mary clings to her dreams of racing glory, propelling her into ever deeper conflict with her mother.
Shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award, as well as being dramatized for TV.
“A wonderfully moving story … I would recommend it to anyone”
Independent on Sunday
“Buoyant, direct and unsentimental”
Guardian
NO FRIEND OF MINE
In the mining town of Culverton, workers are clashing with their bosses. Lennie’s father is the Union secretary, a “troublemaker”.
Ralph’s father is the boss, despised by his workers. Despite their very different backgrounds, Lennie and Ralph strike up a friendship, a happy escape from their own and their families’ troubles. But how strong is their alliance – really? While his dad fights injustice at the mine, Lennie finds that he too must battle prejudice, lies and betrayal, pushing his friendship with Ralph swiftly towards breaking point.
“A brilliant book which should be at the top of every 9 to 12 year old’s reading list”
Sunday Telegraph
ROOM FOR A STRANGER
When her older sisters leave home, Doreen gets a room of her own – at last! But it’s 1941, the cities are threatened by Nazi air raids and, to Doreen’s dismay, Mum has decided to take in an evacuee. Rhoda Kelly is a year older than Doreen, has a boyfriend in the Army and, worse still, is a talented singer. Forced to share a room – and the limelight – tensions grow between the two girls, erupting finally into bitter conflict, with potentially tragic consequences.
“The sharply drawn wartime poverty will thrill readers of nine and up”
The Times
“A lovely book for ten year olds plus”
Sunday Telegraph
NO SHAME, NO FEAR
1662. England is reeling from the after-effects of civil war, with its clashes of faith and culture.
Seventeen-year-old Will returns home after completing his studies, to begin an apprenticeship arranged by his wealthy father. Susanna, a young Quaker girl, leaves her family to become a servant in the same town. Theirs is a story that speaks across the centuries, telling of love and the struggle to stay true to what is most important – in spite of parents, society and even the law. But is the love between Will and Susanna strong enough to survive – no matter what?
Shortlisted for the Whitbread Book Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize
“Here is a novel that needs a trumpet to be blown for it… Exact and elegant language takes you to the heart of each character’s feeling”
The Guardian
“Frequently moving and unwaveringly honest”
Carousel
FORGED IN THE FIRE
London 1665–66. With the plague raging and the scent of smoke upon the wind, Will and Susanna, separated by class and distance, struggle to reunite. Will has become a Quaker and broken with his father. Leaving Susanna behind in Shropshire, he travels to London, swearing to send for her once he is settled. But Will is arrested and thrown in gaol for standing up for his beliefs. This, along with the rapidly spreading plague and a dire misunderstanding, conspire to keep the lovers apart…
SEEKING EDEN
1683. Inspired by William Penn’s vision of a Quaker colony and hoping to be free of the persecution they suffered in England, Will and Susanna Heywood have settled in Pennsylvania. Their son Josiah has found his own freedom, and adventure, in the employment of merchant George Bainbrigg, whose daughter, Kate, he has fallen in love with. It is only when the three travel to Barbados that Josiah learns the true nature of Bainbrigg’s work … and a painful struggle to uphold his beliefs begins.
Praise for Pigeon Summer
“A wonderfully moving story … I would recommend it to anyone.”
Independent on Sunday
“A sensitive, beautifully written story”
The Sunday Times
“Buoyant, direct and unsentimental”
Guardian
“A warm, engrossing story which resonates with quiet adventure”
Books for Keeps
“A remarkable story, steeped in the reality and politics of the time”
Junior Education
“Pigeon Summer is full of raw emotions, making it a book of power and passion.”
Julia Eccleshare
“Ann Turnbull’s style is of the deceptively simple kin
d which conceals art.”
Linda Newbery, School Librarian, US
Shortlisted for the 1992 Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award
Ann Turnbull grew up in south-east London but now lives in Shropshire. She has always loved reading and knew from the age of ten that she wanted to be an author. Her numerous books for children include Alice in Love and War, A Long Way Home and House of Ghosts, as well as her Quaker trilogy – No Shame, No Fear (shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Book Award and Whitbread Award) Forged in the Fire and Seeking Eden. For younger children, she has also written Greek Myths, illustrated by Sarah Young.
Local history was the inspiration behind the powerful and poignant trilogy of books about a mining family, the Dyers. Pigeon Summer, No Friend of Mine and Room For a Stranger follow the family and its fortunes from 1930 through to the early years of the Second World War. Pigeon Summer has been dramatized for TV and radio as well as being shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize and the WH Smith Mind Boggling Books Award.
Find out more about Ann Turnbull and her books at annturnbull.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
First published 1992 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
This edition published 2013
© 1992 Ann Turnbull
The right of Ann Turnbull of to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-4925-2 (ePub)
www.walker.co.uk