Lucy Caldwell
Author of These Days
About the Author
Works by Lucy Caldwell
Escape Routes 1 copy
At Sea (radio play) 1 copy
Martians (radio play) 1 copy
Associated Works
The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers from the North of Ireland (2016) — Contributor — 24 copies, 1 review
Beta-Life: Short Stories from an A-Life Future (Science-Into-Fiction) (2014) — Contributor — 15 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1981
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Cambridge University, Queens College (BA ∙ English)
Goldsmiths College, University of London (MA ∙ Creative and Life Writing) - Awards and honors
- Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (2011)
BBC National Short Story Award (2021) - Relationships
- Erskine, Wendy (former English teacher)
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
- Places of residence
- Belfast
London, England, UK - Associated Place (for map)
- UK
Members
Reviews
I’ve read a fair amount of World War II literature, but These Days was my introduction to the war’s impact on Northern Ireland. The Belfast Blitz took place in April and May 1941, as the prolonged London Blitz was coming to an end. Its docks and shipyards made it a prime target for the German army, but both citizens and government were caught completely off guard.
The story is told through the experience of one family and others in their circle. Florence and Philip are parents of two show more adult daughters, Audrey and Emma, and a teenage son Paul. Audrey is engaged to Richard, a young doctor, and seeking some greater sense of purpose beyond becoming a doctor’s wife. Emma works in a first aid response unit and is in a secret (and at the time illegal) relationship with a woman. Paul is just being a kid. Author Lucy Caldwell sets the stage by showing the family’s mundane daily lives, and then, with each attack on the city, completely upends them. Most of this is told through a female lens, as all three women grapple with how to live a life irrevocably changed by war.
Caldwell’s writing is sublime, building suspense before and during raids followed by feelings of both happiness and heartbreak. Highly recommended. show less
The story is told through the experience of one family and others in their circle. Florence and Philip are parents of two show more adult daughters, Audrey and Emma, and a teenage son Paul. Audrey is engaged to Richard, a young doctor, and seeking some greater sense of purpose beyond becoming a doctor’s wife. Emma works in a first aid response unit and is in a secret (and at the time illegal) relationship with a woman. Paul is just being a kid. Author Lucy Caldwell sets the stage by showing the family’s mundane daily lives, and then, with each attack on the city, completely upends them. Most of this is told through a female lens, as all three women grapple with how to live a life irrevocably changed by war.
Caldwell’s writing is sublime, building suspense before and during raids followed by feelings of both happiness and heartbreak. Highly recommended. show less
By 1941, Belfast has perhaps been less touched by war than the other big cities of the U.K. There has been no bombing and travel to Dublin is possible to buy goods that aren’t rationed (although they must be hidden from customs on the way back). The Bell family live a comfortable middle-class life in one of the better suburbs: Philip Bell a senior doctor at the local hospital; his wife Florence; their oldest daughter Audrey, just twenty one and engaged to another doctor; Emma a voluntary show more first-aid worker at the local air raid post; and their son Paul, still at school.
But all that changes at the start of 1941 when the first air raid begins:
As the raids continue, each increasing in severity, the Bells are changed in ways that they cannot predict and each must come to terms with their life in a city that will perhaps never be the same again.
This book was a worthy winner of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Its portrait of the Belfast Blitz, an event that seems to have fallen out of the national consciousness, was atmospheric and harrowing, and the quieter portrait of the Bell family was equally believable.
Recommended. show less
But all that changes at the start of 1941 when the first air raid begins:
Oh, but it is airless in there, cramped. Every few minutes the sky flares magnesium-white: the entire sky lights up, and the eerie thing is that you feel rather than see it. Under the waves of planes passing back and forth they start to hear the sound of handheld sirens, which is encouraging: it is the fire engines and the auxiliary services. But they haven’t, to Paul’s consternation, heard a single RAF plane. He can tell the difference, he swears, between the Jerries’ and ours, and he attempts to explain to them, at great length, why the German planes sound like woo, wooo, woooo, as opposed to the drone of ours.
Every so often Father unfolds his long limbs and ducks outside, into the hallway, into the front porch, to stretch out, to look at the sky. Paul begging to go with him, Mother absolutely forbidding it. Father crawling back in, thin-lipped, shaking his head. Not good, he says. Not good at-all, at-all.
As the raids continue, each increasing in severity, the Bells are changed in ways that they cannot predict and each must come to terms with their life in a city that will perhaps never be the same again.
This book was a worthy winner of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Its portrait of the Belfast Blitz, an event that seems to have fallen out of the national consciousness, was atmospheric and harrowing, and the quieter portrait of the Bell family was equally believable.
Recommended. show less
I find short stories are often less than satisfying, but in this collection Lucy Caldwell gets it spot on, knowing exactly how to pique your interest early and how to conclude each story well.
Most of the stories are based around the teenage years, and having gone to school in Belfast myself around 10 years before Caldwell I can absolutely vouch that she got that whole era spot on. I felt like I was transported back to my teenage self at times! There's something a little bizarre about reading show more about streets and parks and shops that you know very well, and I expect for that reason I got a hyper-real experience reading this collection compared to someone not from these parts.
Often I don't like reading books set in Belfast, as they tend to revolve around the Troubles and I've had enough of that nonsense to do me a lifetime, but this was a book that reflected the Belfast of my childhood. I might not have hung around the same streets as Caldwell, but I know the area well, and the slang that she uses made me chuckle as it took me right back to the late 1980s ("are you seeing him?"). Some of the slang is so Belfast-orientated I wonder if people not from here totally get it when they're reading the stories. show less
Most of the stories are based around the teenage years, and having gone to school in Belfast myself around 10 years before Caldwell I can absolutely vouch that she got that whole era spot on. I felt like I was transported back to my teenage self at times! There's something a little bizarre about reading show more about streets and parks and shops that you know very well, and I expect for that reason I got a hyper-real experience reading this collection compared to someone not from these parts.
Often I don't like reading books set in Belfast, as they tend to revolve around the Troubles and I've had enough of that nonsense to do me a lifetime, but this was a book that reflected the Belfast of my childhood. I might not have hung around the same streets as Caldwell, but I know the area well, and the slang that she uses made me chuckle as it took me right back to the late 1980s ("are you seeing him?"). Some of the slang is so Belfast-orientated I wonder if people not from here totally get it when they're reading the stories. show less
There's little less satisfying than a short story that doesn't get it quite right. And it's a hard medium to master; every element that a novel allows chapters to communicate, must be evident in a handful of paragraphs. Fully rounded characters must spring from a half dozen lines and the theme and plot must be pared down until each sentence serves a specific purpose. But when a short story works, it's like a shot of whiskey or a kick in the head, everything is there, all at once.
Lucy show more Caldwell's book of short stories is a rare case of a collection in which each of the eleven stories works. Centered on the city of Belfast, the collection tells of ordinary people, usually children or teenagers, figuring out life. Often the protagonists feel like outsiders, or are dissatisfied in ways that can't always be communicated to their friends or family. Belfast, its weather, houses, roads and schools, is evocatively described. This is a lovely collection of stories, each of which stands ably on its own. I'll be looking for more by this author. show less
Lucy show more Caldwell's book of short stories is a rare case of a collection in which each of the eleven stories works. Centered on the city of Belfast, the collection tells of ordinary people, usually children or teenagers, figuring out life. Often the protagonists feel like outsiders, or are dissatisfied in ways that can't always be communicated to their friends or family. Belfast, its weather, houses, roads and schools, is evocatively described. This is a lovely collection of stories, each of which stands ably on its own. I'll be looking for more by this author. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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Statistics
- Works
- 18
- Also by
- 8
- Members
- 549
- Popularity
- #45,446
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 33
- ISBNs
- 52
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 1
