The Beckoning Hills

The Beckoning Hills is the second book in a quartet about four sisters, who are orphaned by their mother's death in 1910, and the impact World War I has on their lives. The Beckoning Hills is about the oldest sister, Frances, who is 17 when her mother dies. Frances is determined that she and her sisters be allowed to remain in their family home, Hillcrest, near the Quantock Hills in Somerset. She's also determined to go to art school.
Her single-minded ambition to be a painter puts her at odds with others - if not her generally understanding sisters, then the family of their guardian, the Mackenzies. Mrs Mackenzie is disapproving, and while Frances becomes friends with the Mackenzies' eldest son, she and Gabriel do not always agree. show more (This feels like a slight understatement.)
And then war breaks out, and threatens to turn all their lives upside down.

I absolutely love this story, about growing up, a young woman's determination to remain independent and be an artist, and WWI. The entire quartet is about the ramifications of WWI on two families and their surrounding community, but The Beckoning Hills is also about Frances reconciling with her own role (or perhaps, lack thereof) during the war and the choices she's made.
"The whole world goes up in flames but never mind, Frances Purcell paints on. A bit like Nero, isn't it?"

I would say that this is my favourite (it's the one I've reread the most), but it is ultimately impossible to truly separate the four books. There is a lot of overlap between them - the first three all begin during 1910 - but although they cover some of the same events, the sisters ultimately have very different experiences of the war (experiences they do not always share with each other!) and each book focuses on different aspects of life at Hillcrest. Furthermore, these books are about relationships, characters and characters' reactions to events, rather than those events themselves. Part of what makes this quartet so wonderful is how reading them is like putting the pieces of a jigsaw together. I can't think of anything else quite like them.
The Beckoning Hills certainly stands on its own - all of them do - but the four books together paint a much bigger picture. show less