Angel of Mons

Ben’s father is in prison and his mum, a former child genius, is barely hanging on to her sanity. When Ben and his classmates are nearly killed in a coach crash in Belgium, Ben starts to experience flashbacks: visitations to the brutal start of World War 1 and the uncertain world of Corporal Sam Lyle. Is Ben going mad too, like his mum, or is there another reason why he finds himself in a war zone in 1914? Who is the spectral figure that haunts both the boy and the soldier? Do angels exist? What people are saying… This is a stunning story: fast moving, fiercely realistic yet engaging with ghosts and an angel. It’s alive with native wit and, underpinned by the conflict of courage and cowardice, loyalty and bullying, it’s genuinely moving. Very many school groups visit the battlefields of WWI, and Angel of Mons (with its excellent notes at the end) should be essential reading for them all. (Kevin Crossley-Holland, Author and President of the School Library).