''That Summer'' is the fourth novel by Scottish writer

Andrew Greig Andrew Greig (born 23 September 1951) is a Scottish writer. He was born in Bannockburn, near Stirling, and grew up in Anstruther, Fife. He studied philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and is a former Glasgow University Writing Fellow and S ...

. It was retitled ''The Clouds Above: A Novel of Love and War'' for the U.S. market.

Plot summary

It is June 1940.

Working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

Len Westbourne, an inexperienced fighter pilot, falls in love with Stella Gardam, a more worldly

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

operator. Stella's friend Maddy is killed in a bombing raid and Len's squadron colleague, Polish pilot Tad, dies in a flying accident. Told in alternate chapters from the perspectives of Len and Stella, ''That Summer'' is a love story told against the background of the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

. Len is injured when his

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

crashes and goes off to recuperate with Stella in the countryside.

External links

Bio
2000 British novels Novels by Andrew Greig Scottish novels Fiction set in 1940 Novels set during World War II Faber & Faber books {{2000s-WWII-novel-stub