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These Days
Two sisters, four nights, one city.
April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war -- so far. Over the next two months, it's going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.
Many won't make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.
Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey -- one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman -- as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.
April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war -- so far. Over the next two months, it's going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.
Many won't make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.
Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey -- one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman -- as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published March 3, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 350 reviews
February 13, 2022
Lucy Caldwell writes a WW2 piece of unforgettable historical fiction that documents the devastation of Belfast, culminating with its people openly talking of the city being finished after the horrors of the Belfast Blitz in 1941. The book is structured around the Dockside Raid, the Easter Raid and the Fire Raids, focusing on the Bell family, Philip, a doctor, Florence, his wife, and the 3 children, the impulsive and impetuous 21 year old Audrey, serious and awkward 18 year old Emma, and the young, boisterous Paul. Audrey works at a tax office, forming an influential friendship with Doreen Bates, a colleague, and is on the cusp of getting married to Richard, a doctor. Emma, despite family objections, works as a volunteer at the First Aid Post, tending to casualties, believing she is making the best use of her skills in her contribution to help the city during the war.
Florence has lived through challenging times, including the Great War and the civil war, after a long marriage she finds herself dwelling more and more on a past love, Reynard, he is consuming more and more of her thoughts, and she wonders about what more could she do with her life. We learn of the ordinary everyday activities, Audrey growing more and more uncertain about what love is and questioning whether she is making the right choice in planning to marry Richard, whilst Emma finds delight in her discovery of a new world and a new love with another woman. Without question, the novel's greatest strength is revealing the harrowing impact of the German raids, the in depth details of the bodies piling up, the terror and panic in the population, the unbearable injuries, the fires, the inability to forget what has been seen and the unavoidable PTSD that follows, sending their children out of Belfast to try and protect them.
Probably like so many others, I was unaware of just how much suffering and pain Belfast endured during the war. With her impressive research, Caldwell paints an unflinching and unvarnished picture of a city already under pressure with poverty, food shortages, unemployment and rationing, then taken to the brink of hell on earth with the raids. The carnage, the atmosphere of sheer dread, people looking for the missing, the exodus from the city, the grief following the nightmare losses, the abandoned pets, it would have been impossible for people to prepare for the realities they are forced to confront. The Belfast Blitz is brought alive through the characters created by the author, the Bell family and others such as Wee Betty Binks, Doreen and little Maisie, the shattered lives, the novel throws a much needed light on Northern Ireland's experience of WW2, evocatively capturing the human cost of war on the Irish communities, business and infrastructure. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Florence has lived through challenging times, including the Great War and the civil war, after a long marriage she finds herself dwelling more and more on a past love, Reynard, he is consuming more and more of her thoughts, and she wonders about what more could she do with her life. We learn of the ordinary everyday activities, Audrey growing more and more uncertain about what love is and questioning whether she is making the right choice in planning to marry Richard, whilst Emma finds delight in her discovery of a new world and a new love with another woman. Without question, the novel's greatest strength is revealing the harrowing impact of the German raids, the in depth details of the bodies piling up, the terror and panic in the population, the unbearable injuries, the fires, the inability to forget what has been seen and the unavoidable PTSD that follows, sending their children out of Belfast to try and protect them.
Probably like so many others, I was unaware of just how much suffering and pain Belfast endured during the war. With her impressive research, Caldwell paints an unflinching and unvarnished picture of a city already under pressure with poverty, food shortages, unemployment and rationing, then taken to the brink of hell on earth with the raids. The carnage, the atmosphere of sheer dread, people looking for the missing, the exodus from the city, the grief following the nightmare losses, the abandoned pets, it would have been impossible for people to prepare for the realities they are forced to confront. The Belfast Blitz is brought alive through the characters created by the author, the Bell family and others such as Wee Betty Binks, Doreen and little Maisie, the shattered lives, the novel throws a much needed light on Northern Ireland's experience of WW2, evocatively capturing the human cost of war on the Irish communities, business and infrastructure. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
February 22, 2022
I was so excited to pick this book up, not only because it’s from my favourite historical fiction time period (WWII), but also because it’s based in Belfast, which I know nothing about from this period.
These days follows the story of two sisters and how their lives, and their loved ones lives are affected by the Blitz in Belfast.
I really enjoy books with multiple points of view when it is made clear whose point of view is being used. Although this book didn’t make it explicit, it didn’t usually take me long to figure out who was being focused on. My only issue was that from the premise I figured it would only be the two sisters that were used, and that was not the case. Which is fine, except some characters had only 1 or 2 chapters dedicated to their perspective, which ended up feeling a bit confusing. I would have rather had these characters added in one of the main characters storylines instead.
Caldwell’s writing led to some harrowing reading at times. I truly felt like I was experiencing the aftermath of the Blitz. I had two small issues with the writing style. I wasn’t keen on the lack of speech marks, I found it hard to follow what was speech and what wasn’t. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the random addition of bad language. I don’t ever have an issue with bad language, but it felt almost clunky and forced in this book and made me feel a little uncomfortable. That being said, I loved the powerful message that was conveyed in this book. This book is set in a time that was very different for women and other minority groups. Seeing the power of people willing to just be themselves was very moving (and I believe some of them were influenced by real people!). I also loved how short the chapters were, it’s such a small thing but it always makes me so happy because I feel like I’m flying through the book!
I recommend this to historical fiction fans who want to learn more about Belfast during the Blitz! I want to thank Readers First, Faber & Faber Publishers and Lucy Caldwell for allowing me to read this book and give my personal thoughts.
These days follows the story of two sisters and how their lives, and their loved ones lives are affected by the Blitz in Belfast.
I really enjoy books with multiple points of view when it is made clear whose point of view is being used. Although this book didn’t make it explicit, it didn’t usually take me long to figure out who was being focused on. My only issue was that from the premise I figured it would only be the two sisters that were used, and that was not the case. Which is fine, except some characters had only 1 or 2 chapters dedicated to their perspective, which ended up feeling a bit confusing. I would have rather had these characters added in one of the main characters storylines instead.
Caldwell’s writing led to some harrowing reading at times. I truly felt like I was experiencing the aftermath of the Blitz. I had two small issues with the writing style. I wasn’t keen on the lack of speech marks, I found it hard to follow what was speech and what wasn’t. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the random addition of bad language. I don’t ever have an issue with bad language, but it felt almost clunky and forced in this book and made me feel a little uncomfortable. That being said, I loved the powerful message that was conveyed in this book. This book is set in a time that was very different for women and other minority groups. Seeing the power of people willing to just be themselves was very moving (and I believe some of them were influenced by real people!). I also loved how short the chapters were, it’s such a small thing but it always makes me so happy because I feel like I’m flying through the book!
I recommend this to historical fiction fans who want to learn more about Belfast during the Blitz! I want to thank Readers First, Faber & Faber Publishers and Lucy Caldwell for allowing me to read this book and give my personal thoughts.
June 15, 2023
Winner of the 2023 Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.
I was drawn to this book due to its author Lucy Caldwell being winner of the prestigious BBC Short Story Award in 2021 for “All the People Were Mean and Bad� � I did not particularly like the anti-story-of-Noah world view underlying that story’s title and bookending the narrative, but the writing and observational style was very strong. But more impressive is that she had previously been shortlisted twice for the award - impressive because this is a prize which is initially judged blind and by a panel of judges which changes from year to year.
The author is also a novelist and won the equally presitigious Desmond Elliott Prize with her second novel “The Meeting Point� in 2011 � this is her fourth novel and on publication in 2022 will be her first for nine years.
The book is historical fiction, which successfully if perhaps unspectacularly combines:
insight into, at least to me, largely unknown story of the way, the Belfast Blitz: (), a series of destructive (in both property and lives) series of four German bombing attacks on military and manufacturing targets in Belfast in April-May 1941;
extensive but not heavy handed period detail and social insight;
and family drama, with the story of two sisters and their mother all torn by the difference between their external lives and their internal desires.
The book is arranged over three sections, each set in around and named after one of the main historical attack series: The Dockside Raid, the Easter Raid, the Fire Raids.
The family at the heart of the book are those of Dr Philip Bell, his young son Paul and three main point of view protagonists (we only ever see Philip and Paul from the outside): his wife Florence (ostensibly happily married but still harbouring thoughts for her first love), Emma (volunteering as a First Aider and increasingly attracted to a fellow but older First Aider Sylvia), Audrey (an office worker but heading, with some ambivalence, for a conventional future and marriage to another Doctor � Richard).
If I had some criticisms: I felt that the Belfast dialect was added in a rather clumsy fashion, I also felt the tangent of the two sister’s story was perhaps a little predictable.
But the book’s real strength is in giving a real sense of the impact of the attacks on the civilian population of Belfast: the shock of the initial attack, the sense that however much they had prepared for a possible attack (both domestically and professionally in the case of Philip and Emma) they were really not at all prepared for the fear of an actual attack and the horror of its aftermath; and the longer term impact as it questions both individual and societal norms.
3.5 stars.
My thanks to Faber and Faber Ltd for an ARC via NetGalley
I was drawn to this book due to its author Lucy Caldwell being winner of the prestigious BBC Short Story Award in 2021 for “All the People Were Mean and Bad� � I did not particularly like the anti-story-of-Noah world view underlying that story’s title and bookending the narrative, but the writing and observational style was very strong. But more impressive is that she had previously been shortlisted twice for the award - impressive because this is a prize which is initially judged blind and by a panel of judges which changes from year to year.
The author is also a novelist and won the equally presitigious Desmond Elliott Prize with her second novel “The Meeting Point� in 2011 � this is her fourth novel and on publication in 2022 will be her first for nine years.
The book is historical fiction, which successfully if perhaps unspectacularly combines:
insight into, at least to me, largely unknown story of the way, the Belfast Blitz: (), a series of destructive (in both property and lives) series of four German bombing attacks on military and manufacturing targets in Belfast in April-May 1941;
extensive but not heavy handed period detail and social insight;
and family drama, with the story of two sisters and their mother all torn by the difference between their external lives and their internal desires.
The book is arranged over three sections, each set in around and named after one of the main historical attack series: The Dockside Raid, the Easter Raid, the Fire Raids.
The family at the heart of the book are those of Dr Philip Bell, his young son Paul and three main point of view protagonists (we only ever see Philip and Paul from the outside): his wife Florence (ostensibly happily married but still harbouring thoughts for her first love), Emma (volunteering as a First Aider and increasingly attracted to a fellow but older First Aider Sylvia), Audrey (an office worker but heading, with some ambivalence, for a conventional future and marriage to another Doctor � Richard).
If I had some criticisms: I felt that the Belfast dialect was added in a rather clumsy fashion, I also felt the tangent of the two sister’s story was perhaps a little predictable.
But the book’s real strength is in giving a real sense of the impact of the attacks on the civilian population of Belfast: the shock of the initial attack, the sense that however much they had prepared for a possible attack (both domestically and professionally in the case of Philip and Emma) they were really not at all prepared for the fear of an actual attack and the horror of its aftermath; and the longer term impact as it questions both individual and societal norms.
3.5 stars.
My thanks to Faber and Faber Ltd for an ARC via NetGalley
April 11, 2025
Belfast 1941
A family of five.. father, mother, two daughters and young son, and life during the bombings by the Germans during the Belfast Blitz.. a series of bombings
In April-May of that year.. it wiped out docksides, whole streets, bomb shelters, etc.. so much devastating loss.
During this time the women in the family harboring personal issues that enrich the story.
I have read many WWll based novels..but none on what Belfast endured� love learning new things from historical fiction.
Thank you to Netgalley, Zando/SJP for the free e-copy for an honest review!
A family of five.. father, mother, two daughters and young son, and life during the bombings by the Germans during the Belfast Blitz.. a series of bombings
In April-May of that year.. it wiped out docksides, whole streets, bomb shelters, etc.. so much devastating loss.
During this time the women in the family harboring personal issues that enrich the story.
I have read many WWll based novels..but none on what Belfast endured� love learning new things from historical fiction.
Thank you to Netgalley, Zando/SJP for the free e-copy for an honest review!
January 24, 2025
Rating: ⭐⭐� ½
Genre: Historical Fiction + LGBTQIA+
I have been looking for WWII stories that offer something different. Fortunately, These Days turned out to be different from what I have read in the past. The story takes place in Belfast during the 1941 bombings. It follows two sisters, Audrey and Emma Bell, who face the challenges and devastations of war. Their journey highlights how the air raids impact individual lives and the strength required to get through such tough times.
Audrey, who is considered among the two sisters to be the one who is more practical, is engaged to a doctor, while Emma, the one with the more rebellious personality, has an affair with a woman. As bombs ravage the city, their lives become unstable, confronting personal and societal expectations. Caldwell explores love, identity, and human resilience amid change, fear, loss, and bravery.
The novel explores love, identity, and resilience against the harrowing backdrop of the Belfast Blitz during World War II. It shines in its vivid depiction of a city under siege, capturing both the physical destruction and the emotional toll on its inhabitants. Caldwell’s prose is lyrical and evocative, drawing readers into the world of the Bell sisters, Audrey and Emma, as they navigate the chaos of war and the complexities of their personal lives.
Audrey’s pragmatic approach to life and Emma’s secret same-sex relationship provide two contrasting but equally compelling perspectives on love and societal expectations. Caldwell sensitively handles their struggles, adding depth and emotional resonance to the narrative.
However, the novel’s introspective tone and deliberate pacing may not appeal to all readers. The story sometimes lingers on the sisters� internal conflicts, slowing the momentum and making certain sections feel repetitive. While Audrey and Emma are well-developed, secondary characters often lack the same depth, leaving the world somehow uneven. Regardless of the cons, I ended up liking it and appreciating what it offered.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.
Genre: Historical Fiction + LGBTQIA+
I have been looking for WWII stories that offer something different. Fortunately, These Days turned out to be different from what I have read in the past. The story takes place in Belfast during the 1941 bombings. It follows two sisters, Audrey and Emma Bell, who face the challenges and devastations of war. Their journey highlights how the air raids impact individual lives and the strength required to get through such tough times.
Audrey, who is considered among the two sisters to be the one who is more practical, is engaged to a doctor, while Emma, the one with the more rebellious personality, has an affair with a woman. As bombs ravage the city, their lives become unstable, confronting personal and societal expectations. Caldwell explores love, identity, and human resilience amid change, fear, loss, and bravery.
The novel explores love, identity, and resilience against the harrowing backdrop of the Belfast Blitz during World War II. It shines in its vivid depiction of a city under siege, capturing both the physical destruction and the emotional toll on its inhabitants. Caldwell’s prose is lyrical and evocative, drawing readers into the world of the Bell sisters, Audrey and Emma, as they navigate the chaos of war and the complexities of their personal lives.
Audrey’s pragmatic approach to life and Emma’s secret same-sex relationship provide two contrasting but equally compelling perspectives on love and societal expectations. Caldwell sensitively handles their struggles, adding depth and emotional resonance to the narrative.
However, the novel’s introspective tone and deliberate pacing may not appeal to all readers. The story sometimes lingers on the sisters� internal conflicts, slowing the momentum and making certain sections feel repetitive. While Audrey and Emma are well-developed, secondary characters often lack the same depth, leaving the world somehow uneven. Regardless of the cons, I ended up liking it and appreciating what it offered.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.
May 1, 2023
A really powerful and interesting book, with fantastic characterisation.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
March 20, 2023Oh dear, I'm a huge fan of Lucy Caldwell's short stories, but 70 pages of this historical novel was all I could hack. It was banal, info-dumpy, and not engaging in the slightest.
That, or I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
That, or I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
October 6, 2023
These Days is set over a period of a week in the life of one family with two daughters, both of whom are at significant turning points in their relationships, just as the Belfast Blitz is about to destroy much of their city.
The precariousness of life pushes both girls out of their everyday lives into confronting the very depths of who they are and what they want from life and whether or not they are prepared to conform or compromise.
The tension of living with blacked out windows, with their father being an on-call doctor, who must rush to the hospital to deal with the casualties and Emma, a First Aid volunteer also called into the throng of destruction, heightens the situations both girls are in, creating a unique sense of urgency, and yet...
Audrey's boyfriend, an only son, is also a doctor and the thought of possibly losing her hastens his own decisions, which Audrey responds to in that same atmosphere of heightened tension. But when she returns to work, and begins to realise how that decision is likely to change her life, she begins to question how much she really wants to change her role.
Emma spends less time thinking about her decisions and future life, she is more impulsive, reckless even. Just as she is coming to the realisation of how she wants to love and live, that vision of a future life disappears right in front of her. In a cruel twist of fate, she will experience something that her own mother has long lived with, intertwined feelings of love and grief, of love at its inception, turned in an instant to memory, rather than be allowed to flourish.
Their mother too conceals thoughts of a life not quite embarked on, one cut short that re-enters her imagination now and then, that has caused her to stop believing.
Her latent grief, a feeling that arises then recedes, removes some of the shock of what is happening around them.
As these women go about these terrible, historical days, encountering both a physical and emotional toll, they will all come to realise what is most important to them, it will mark them and change them.
The Belfast Blitz
Due to its capacity for shipbuilding and other manufacturing that supported the Allied war effort, Belfast was considered a strategic target by the German Luftwaffe. It was also the most undefended city in Europe.
That threat became a reality in April and May 1941, with four separate attacks, causing a high number of casualties and destruction of the city and residential areas.
On Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. 220,000 people fled from the city.
In total over 1,300 houses were demolished, some 5,000 badly damaged, nearly 30,000 slightly damaged while 20,000 required "first aid repairs".
The precariousness of life pushes both girls out of their everyday lives into confronting the very depths of who they are and what they want from life and whether or not they are prepared to conform or compromise.
The tension of living with blacked out windows, with their father being an on-call doctor, who must rush to the hospital to deal with the casualties and Emma, a First Aid volunteer also called into the throng of destruction, heightens the situations both girls are in, creating a unique sense of urgency, and yet...
Audrey's boyfriend, an only son, is also a doctor and the thought of possibly losing her hastens his own decisions, which Audrey responds to in that same atmosphere of heightened tension. But when she returns to work, and begins to realise how that decision is likely to change her life, she begins to question how much she really wants to change her role.
...She thinks of the Yeats poem: this tumult in the clouds...in balance with this life, this death...and she thinks how strange, how strange it is, the sides on which we find ourselves, the things we, really, have no choice or say in, the ways we blindly go through a life in which the grooves are already set.
Emma spends less time thinking about her decisions and future life, she is more impulsive, reckless even. Just as she is coming to the realisation of how she wants to love and live, that vision of a future life disappears right in front of her. In a cruel twist of fate, she will experience something that her own mother has long lived with, intertwined feelings of love and grief, of love at its inception, turned in an instant to memory, rather than be allowed to flourish.
Their mother too conceals thoughts of a life not quite embarked on, one cut short that re-enters her imagination now and then, that has caused her to stop believing.
But the times we live through, she thinks, as they turn onto Sydenham Avenue, have bred in us all a grim, stoical sort of endurance. After the Great War, and the civil war, and the shattering Troubles of the twenties, those hundreds of people dead...After the unemployment and the riots of the thirties, the sectarian pogroms, the chaos, the roads blockaded, the burning, only half, a quarter of a mile away...You're not surprised by anything anymore: you shake your head and press your lips and get on with whatever else there is to be doing, make the most of things, make of what you have - what you're fortunate, and yes, grateful to have - the best you can.
Her latent grief, a feeling that arises then recedes, removes some of the shock of what is happening around them.
It hasn't surprised her, over the years, she sometimes secretly thinks, that the city around her should periodically erupt into barricades and flames, doesn't surprise her that it should be obliterated now from above, because that, sometimes, is how a cold small part of her feels - just take it, take all of it, I want none of it, none of this, because none of it - how can it? - none of it matters.
As these women go about these terrible, historical days, encountering both a physical and emotional toll, they will all come to realise what is most important to them, it will mark them and change them.
It will never go away, she wants to say then. None of it does - the real or the imagined. Once you have seen those images, whether with your eyes or or in your mind's eye, they are etched there - seared into the body. They are there forever and you can't pretend otherwise. When they rise up, you need to try not to fight them, try not to push them away. You must just focus on the smallest, most incidental thing you can. You must make yourself breathe, and feel the current of breath through your body.Meticulously researched, the days of the Belfast Blitz are brought to life in the pages of this novel, those familiar with the streets and surrounds of the area will imagine it all the more evocatively.
The Belfast Blitz
Due to its capacity for shipbuilding and other manufacturing that supported the Allied war effort, Belfast was considered a strategic target by the German Luftwaffe. It was also the most undefended city in Europe.
That threat became a reality in April and May 1941, with four separate attacks, causing a high number of casualties and destruction of the city and residential areas.
On Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941, 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city. Some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured. 220,000 people fled from the city.
In total over 1,300 houses were demolished, some 5,000 badly damaged, nearly 30,000 slightly damaged while 20,000 required "first aid repairs".
April 21, 2022
A beautiful novel set in Belfast in April 1941. I didn’t realize the devastation the city suffered during the Second World War. We see it mostly through the eyes of the Bell family � especially daughters Audrey, engaged to be married to a young doctor, and Emma, in love with a fellow female first aider. I was wary of the characterization of the lower class, and the period slang can be a bit heavy-handed, but the evocation of a time of crisis is excellent, contrasting a departed normality with the new reality of bodies piled in the street and in makeshift morgues. The lack of speech marks, fluid shifting between perspectives, and alternation between past and present tense keep the story from seeming too familiar or generic. All of the female characters have hidden depths: the mother, Florence, is pining over a lost love, and Audrey’s colleague Doreen (based on a real figure) is in love with a married man. It’s unfortunate that . This reminded me most of Pat Barker’s war novels and The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.
A few favourite lines:
“How are we ever going to recover, she [Audrey] thought, from having seen such things?�
“I never knew.
Well. That’s not your fault, but now that you do, it is your responsibility.�
A few favourite lines:
“How are we ever going to recover, she [Audrey] thought, from having seen such things?�
“I never knew.
Well. That’s not your fault, but now that you do, it is your responsibility.�
August 9, 2023
3.5 stars
Belfast, 1941 - over two months, the Belfast Blitz rips through the Northern Irish city leaving broken buildings and bodies in its wake. During These Days, readers follow two sisters Audrey and Emma as they fight to survive and continue normal life during the war - but both are left scarred in different ways from loss and shock.
Shamefaced I have to admit I didn't know a huge amount about the extent of the bombing on Belfast during WW2, and reading about the horrific impact left behind during this novel was really startling - especially when thinking about the 'relative' peace people were living in just south of the border. I actually really liked the scene set on a train from Dublin as people tried to hide items from customs people, and the absolute waste that was the customs men just throwing items out of the train. From a history aspect, I found it really interesting.
I liked both Audrey and Emma - though I will say I think Audrey was a slightly stronger character for me - Emma felt a little bit meek and pale in comparison, and even when she was with Sylvia, her almost overbearing feelings towards the woman felt a bit immature. I think I enjoyed Audrey's predicament a little bit better - this struggle between the societal norms of marrying and children battling her desire to work and do 'more' with her life. I also really liked the chapters we get from Audrey and Emma's mother Florence - hints at a young love she still remembers - scenes of which were quite aching and moving yet never taking away from the love she had for her husband and almost grown family. I found her a very interesting character, and would actually happily read a prequel novel about her (presumably set during WW1 and her first love Reynard).
While this was well written and taught me a lot I didn't know, I think overall I would have liked maybe a little bit more of everything. Some of the character decisions felt maybe slightly surface level and I would have liked to follow the characters for longer and seen more character growth. It's disappointing that the story fell into the 'kill your gays' trope as well but the story wasn't going to end without at least one tragedy close to home.
Belfast, 1941 - over two months, the Belfast Blitz rips through the Northern Irish city leaving broken buildings and bodies in its wake. During These Days, readers follow two sisters Audrey and Emma as they fight to survive and continue normal life during the war - but both are left scarred in different ways from loss and shock.
Shamefaced I have to admit I didn't know a huge amount about the extent of the bombing on Belfast during WW2, and reading about the horrific impact left behind during this novel was really startling - especially when thinking about the 'relative' peace people were living in just south of the border. I actually really liked the scene set on a train from Dublin as people tried to hide items from customs people, and the absolute waste that was the customs men just throwing items out of the train. From a history aspect, I found it really interesting.
I liked both Audrey and Emma - though I will say I think Audrey was a slightly stronger character for me - Emma felt a little bit meek and pale in comparison, and even when she was with Sylvia, her almost overbearing feelings towards the woman felt a bit immature. I think I enjoyed Audrey's predicament a little bit better - this struggle between the societal norms of marrying and children battling her desire to work and do 'more' with her life. I also really liked the chapters we get from Audrey and Emma's mother Florence - hints at a young love she still remembers - scenes of which were quite aching and moving yet never taking away from the love she had for her husband and almost grown family. I found her a very interesting character, and would actually happily read a prequel novel about her (presumably set during WW1 and her first love Reynard).
While this was well written and taught me a lot I didn't know, I think overall I would have liked maybe a little bit more of everything. Some of the character decisions felt maybe slightly surface level and I would have liked to follow the characters for longer and seen more character growth. It's disappointing that the story fell into the 'kill your gays' trope as well but the story wasn't going to end without at least one tragedy close to home.
March 15, 2022
(4.5 Stars)
While much has been written about the impact of WW2 on mainland Britain (London in particular), the fate of Northern Ireland has probably not received the same level of attention. It’s a topic that Lucy Caldwell explores vividly and movingly in her exquisite new novel, These Days, which takes as its focal point a series of attacks � the Dockside Raid, the Easter Raid and the Fireside Raids � that took place in Belfast from April to May 1941. Nine hundred people died and more than a thousand were injured in the Easter Raid alone, making it the biggest loss of life in any single night-raid outside of the London Blitz.
Using these devastating events as a springboard, Caldwell has created a really beautiful novel here � an engrossing, evocative portrayal of the Belfast Blitz, seen through the eyes of the Bells, a fictional middle-class family.
Philip Bell, a Belfast-based GP, and his wife, Florence, have been fairly happily married for twenty-two years. They have three children, all living at home: twenty-one-year-old Audrey, who is flighty, impulsive and bookish; eighteen-year-old Emma, a kind, diligent but somewhat awkward girl who volunteers at the local First Aid unit; and thirteen-year-old Paul, a lively boy who enjoys adventures and making dens. By following these individuals through April and May �41, we see the impact of the war on a personal level � not just for the Bell family but the broader Belfast community too.
Audrey, a junior clerk at the Belfast tax office, has just become engaged to Richard, a respectable but somewhat stiff doctor who views marriage as the logical next step in their relationship. But through her friendship with Doreen Bates, a bright independently-minded colleague from London, Audrey begins to wonder whether marriage to Richard will be the right option for her. At twenty-one, she is still eager to experience life and the possibilities it has to offer � and while Richard represents safety and security, Audrey wonders whether she truly loves him enough to go through with it.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
While much has been written about the impact of WW2 on mainland Britain (London in particular), the fate of Northern Ireland has probably not received the same level of attention. It’s a topic that Lucy Caldwell explores vividly and movingly in her exquisite new novel, These Days, which takes as its focal point a series of attacks � the Dockside Raid, the Easter Raid and the Fireside Raids � that took place in Belfast from April to May 1941. Nine hundred people died and more than a thousand were injured in the Easter Raid alone, making it the biggest loss of life in any single night-raid outside of the London Blitz.
Using these devastating events as a springboard, Caldwell has created a really beautiful novel here � an engrossing, evocative portrayal of the Belfast Blitz, seen through the eyes of the Bells, a fictional middle-class family.
Philip Bell, a Belfast-based GP, and his wife, Florence, have been fairly happily married for twenty-two years. They have three children, all living at home: twenty-one-year-old Audrey, who is flighty, impulsive and bookish; eighteen-year-old Emma, a kind, diligent but somewhat awkward girl who volunteers at the local First Aid unit; and thirteen-year-old Paul, a lively boy who enjoys adventures and making dens. By following these individuals through April and May �41, we see the impact of the war on a personal level � not just for the Bell family but the broader Belfast community too.
Audrey, a junior clerk at the Belfast tax office, has just become engaged to Richard, a respectable but somewhat stiff doctor who views marriage as the logical next step in their relationship. But through her friendship with Doreen Bates, a bright independently-minded colleague from London, Audrey begins to wonder whether marriage to Richard will be the right option for her. At twenty-one, she is still eager to experience life and the possibilities it has to offer � and while Richard represents safety and security, Audrey wonders whether she truly loves him enough to go through with it.
To read the rest of my review, please visit:
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
March 19, 2025Really loved Paul Lynch's Prophet Song, so I thought I'd give Ireland another try. I had trouble grabbing onto the story. Giving up at page 63 and moving on. Promised myself I would stop reading books to the end that really need to be DNFd. Think I'm getting better at it?
March 3, 2022
These Daysis set between April and May 1941, focusing on four days during which Belfast was subjected to intense bombing raids. The book is structured in three parts � The Dockside Raid, The Easter Raid and The Fire Raids. Through the experiences of the Bell family � sisters, Audrey and Emma, their younger brother, Paul, and their mother and father, Phillip and Florence � the author illustrates the impact of the raids on the people of Belfast.
When the novel opens, Belfast has so far escaped the intense bombing experienced by other UK cities so, initially, the concerns of the family are close to home.
Audrey, the eldest daughter, is due to marry Richard, a doctor who works alongside her father Phillip, also a doctor. However, she has started to have doubts about whether her feelings for Richard are strong enough and whether the direction her life is moving in is the right one. ‘I wish, Audrey says, impulsively. I wish � But she doesn’t know what she wishes.�
Emma, a volunteer at a First Aid Post, is attracted to one of the other female volunteers and has taken the first tentative steps towards an intimate relationship, a relationship that would be considered shocking by her family, possibly even by wider society, but which has opened up for her a whole new set of feelings. ‘She hasn’t known, ever, that it is possible to feel so � ardent.�
Although by all appearances happily married, unbeknownst to her husband, Florence secretly continues to pine for her first love, lost in the First World War. ‘How is it, she sometimes thinks, that this is her life […] It isn’t, she hastily thinks, that she’s unhappy, nor ungrateful with her lot; just bemused, she supposes, that this has turned out to be it.�
Everything changes when the bombing raids start, initially targeting the docks but later becoming more indiscriminate in nature. (Over the night of 4th and 5th May 1941, the so-called Fire Raids, nearly 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Belfast including in residential areas.) The experiences of the Bell family are a microcosm of the impact of the bombing raids on the city: loved ones killed or injured, people desperately searching for missing family or friends, families seeking to be reunited.
The descriptions of the death and destruction inflicted on the city are harrowing but horrifyingly realistic: homes and buildings demolished, people buried beneath rubble, bodies in their hundreds laid out in a makeshift morgue. I found it impossible to read the scenes of the aftermath of the raids and of people fleeing the bomb-damaged city without thinking of the dreadful scenes we are currently witnessing in Ukraine. ‘Cars, carts, bicycles, perambulators, batch chairs, even children’s bogey-carts, anything with wheels has been pressed into service, loaded with human and material flotsam, leaving the city.�
I found Florence’s compassionate and empathetic response to Phillip’s experiences tending to the injured and dying and the terrible images that are now seared in his memory, particularly moving. ‘It will never go away, she wants to say then. None of it does � the real or the imagined. Once you have seen those images, whether with your eyes or in your mind’s eye, they are etched there � seared into the body. They are there for ever and you can’t pretend otherwise.�
These Daysis a compelling, hard-hitting depiction of the realities of war but also an illustration of the resilience of the human spirit, the instinct to rebuild and to carry on, in the words of Emma, come what may.
When the novel opens, Belfast has so far escaped the intense bombing experienced by other UK cities so, initially, the concerns of the family are close to home.
Audrey, the eldest daughter, is due to marry Richard, a doctor who works alongside her father Phillip, also a doctor. However, she has started to have doubts about whether her feelings for Richard are strong enough and whether the direction her life is moving in is the right one. ‘I wish, Audrey says, impulsively. I wish � But she doesn’t know what she wishes.�
Emma, a volunteer at a First Aid Post, is attracted to one of the other female volunteers and has taken the first tentative steps towards an intimate relationship, a relationship that would be considered shocking by her family, possibly even by wider society, but which has opened up for her a whole new set of feelings. ‘She hasn’t known, ever, that it is possible to feel so � ardent.�
Although by all appearances happily married, unbeknownst to her husband, Florence secretly continues to pine for her first love, lost in the First World War. ‘How is it, she sometimes thinks, that this is her life […] It isn’t, she hastily thinks, that she’s unhappy, nor ungrateful with her lot; just bemused, she supposes, that this has turned out to be it.�
Everything changes when the bombing raids start, initially targeting the docks but later becoming more indiscriminate in nature. (Over the night of 4th and 5th May 1941, the so-called Fire Raids, nearly 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Belfast including in residential areas.) The experiences of the Bell family are a microcosm of the impact of the bombing raids on the city: loved ones killed or injured, people desperately searching for missing family or friends, families seeking to be reunited.
The descriptions of the death and destruction inflicted on the city are harrowing but horrifyingly realistic: homes and buildings demolished, people buried beneath rubble, bodies in their hundreds laid out in a makeshift morgue. I found it impossible to read the scenes of the aftermath of the raids and of people fleeing the bomb-damaged city without thinking of the dreadful scenes we are currently witnessing in Ukraine. ‘Cars, carts, bicycles, perambulators, batch chairs, even children’s bogey-carts, anything with wheels has been pressed into service, loaded with human and material flotsam, leaving the city.�
I found Florence’s compassionate and empathetic response to Phillip’s experiences tending to the injured and dying and the terrible images that are now seared in his memory, particularly moving. ‘It will never go away, she wants to say then. None of it does � the real or the imagined. Once you have seen those images, whether with your eyes or in your mind’s eye, they are etched there � seared into the body. They are there for ever and you can’t pretend otherwise.�
These Daysis a compelling, hard-hitting depiction of the realities of war but also an illustration of the resilience of the human spirit, the instinct to rebuild and to carry on, in the words of Emma, come what may.
December 9, 2024
this novel wasn’t exactly what i expected it to be. which may be my fault, to be fair.
i went into this book expecting it to be focused on the lives of two sisters in belfast during world war ii. it is that, in a sense. however, i felt so disconnected from not only audrey and emma but also from all of the other characters introduced throughout the novel. i understand this is a war novel, but i was expecting audrey and emma to be the stars of the show—not the war itself.
i will say that lucy caldwell’s ability to set a scene is spectacular. she really puts you in the world of belfast during the war and describes everything in immense but not overwhelming detail. my knowledge about northern ireland during wwii is minimal; this book definitely made me interested in learning more about how the war impacted this area.
i suppose this novel wasn’t character driven enough for me. i didn’t feel attached to any of them. there were too many side characters that i couldn’t care less about. i wanted to stay with emma and audrey and get a sense of their characters more than i did. this book just fell flat for me unfortunately.
tl;dr: the characters in this novel have as much personality as drywall. also, shoutout belfastians.
(thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!)
i went into this book expecting it to be focused on the lives of two sisters in belfast during world war ii. it is that, in a sense. however, i felt so disconnected from not only audrey and emma but also from all of the other characters introduced throughout the novel. i understand this is a war novel, but i was expecting audrey and emma to be the stars of the show—not the war itself.
i will say that lucy caldwell’s ability to set a scene is spectacular. she really puts you in the world of belfast during the war and describes everything in immense but not overwhelming detail. my knowledge about northern ireland during wwii is minimal; this book definitely made me interested in learning more about how the war impacted this area.
i suppose this novel wasn’t character driven enough for me. i didn’t feel attached to any of them. there were too many side characters that i couldn’t care less about. i wanted to stay with emma and audrey and get a sense of their characters more than i did. this book just fell flat for me unfortunately.
tl;dr: the characters in this novel have as much personality as drywall. also, shoutout belfastians.
(thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!)
April 29, 2025
Emma and Audrey are two young adult sisters in Belfast, discovering themselves during the WWII air raids. Emma’s romantic involvement with Sylvia intensifies. Emboldened, she openly embraces her sexuality and moves from volunteering with first aid to training to be a nurse. Audrey can’t picture spending her life with Richard, her fiancé. She wishes to work, dreads living with her in-laws, and doesn’t want to be a mother. In the midst of the Belfast Blitz, both women sort through a maelstrom of questions about their role in society, the boundaries in their romantic relationships, and their desire to find gainful employment.
These Days was not for me because, in general, I struggle with historical fiction. I keep trying to find books in this genre, though, because I want to (1) train this aversion out of me and (2) read widely so that I grow as a person. The story solidly falls into the type of historical fic. with which is difficult for me to stay intrigued. I found myself flipping through the pages quickly to move on. Furthermore, the story was too romantic, hitting what I felt like were less-than-interesting tropes. Perhaps the clearest one is Audrey’s engagement to Rich. Caldwell evidently sets up the dynamic for readers such that, quite early on, we plead for Audrey to end the engagement. They finally end the romantic relationship at the end of the book, whereby Rich contends Audrey suffers from a nervous breakdown and undermines her agency. Audrey stands up for herself, saying, “It’s not you.� I finished These Days because I received an ARC from Zando/SJP Lit via NetGalley—thank you.
These Days was not for me because, in general, I struggle with historical fiction. I keep trying to find books in this genre, though, because I want to (1) train this aversion out of me and (2) read widely so that I grow as a person. The story solidly falls into the type of historical fic. with which is difficult for me to stay intrigued. I found myself flipping through the pages quickly to move on. Furthermore, the story was too romantic, hitting what I felt like were less-than-interesting tropes. Perhaps the clearest one is Audrey’s engagement to Rich. Caldwell evidently sets up the dynamic for readers such that, quite early on, we plead for Audrey to end the engagement. They finally end the romantic relationship at the end of the book, whereby Rich contends Audrey suffers from a nervous breakdown and undermines her agency. Audrey stands up for herself, saying, “It’s not you.� I finished These Days because I received an ARC from Zando/SJP Lit via NetGalley—thank you.
February 6, 2022
I know little about the city of Belfast and to my shame knew nothing about its part in WWII. Lucy Caldwell’s debut historical fiction novel puts that right by exploring the four nights that comprised the harrowing events of the Belfast Blitz as seen through the eyes of one family, laying bare the impact these events had on the ordinary person. Through vivid descriptions and stark prose, Caldwell has rendered the devastation and damage of the conflict something that I am unlikely to forget. From the destruction of the swathes of terraced houses in the north of the city where the objective can have only have been to instil terror into the hearts and minds of the residents, to the makeshift morgues and piles of bodies not yet in coffins, this is an incredibly evocative look at the Belfast Blitz (April to May 1941),
The Bell’s are a middle-class family in a city which has so far escaped the worst of WWII when the novel opens in April 1941 and are comprised of doctor Phillip, wife Florence, daughters Audrey and Emma and younger son, Paul. To an outside observer Florence is a happily married wife and mother, but emotionally she is far more conflicted than it appears, pining for a first love that she only allows herself to covet during the weekly visit to church. Eldest daughter, Audrey, is twenty-one and works in the tax office. She looks set for marriage to a doctor who works alongside her father while privately harbouring serious doubts about whether such a conventional future is right for her. Emma is a serious and stubborn eighteen-year-old who in the first throes of a clandestine relationship with an older female at the First Aid Post where she is volunteering and feeling increasingly stifled at home. Told from the perspectives of mother and both daughters within the Bell family, the novel also loosely follows the stories of several people connected to the family. This helps to gives a broader understanding of the impact of the events of the Belfast Blitz across society and social class.
The period detail and descriptions of a ravaged Belfast and its citizens are excellent and evidently well-researched, and I found this aspect of the novel infinitely superior to the characterisation, with both Bell sisters frustratingly underexplored. Furthermore both of the sister’s story arcs are disappointingly predictable (especially that of Emma, the LGBT representative) and it is their mother, a woman some twenty years older, that I found more sensitively explored and memorably well-observed. I did find the prose wasn’t always the easiest to follow and at points it felt like the story was one of discrete scenes stitched together that lacked cohesion. However for all the atrocity, carnage and bloodshed contained within this short but poignant novel it is not without hope and a real sense of optimism, not just for Belfast as a city but for all its citizens.
The Bell’s are a middle-class family in a city which has so far escaped the worst of WWII when the novel opens in April 1941 and are comprised of doctor Phillip, wife Florence, daughters Audrey and Emma and younger son, Paul. To an outside observer Florence is a happily married wife and mother, but emotionally she is far more conflicted than it appears, pining for a first love that she only allows herself to covet during the weekly visit to church. Eldest daughter, Audrey, is twenty-one and works in the tax office. She looks set for marriage to a doctor who works alongside her father while privately harbouring serious doubts about whether such a conventional future is right for her. Emma is a serious and stubborn eighteen-year-old who in the first throes of a clandestine relationship with an older female at the First Aid Post where she is volunteering and feeling increasingly stifled at home. Told from the perspectives of mother and both daughters within the Bell family, the novel also loosely follows the stories of several people connected to the family. This helps to gives a broader understanding of the impact of the events of the Belfast Blitz across society and social class.
The period detail and descriptions of a ravaged Belfast and its citizens are excellent and evidently well-researched, and I found this aspect of the novel infinitely superior to the characterisation, with both Bell sisters frustratingly underexplored. Furthermore both of the sister’s story arcs are disappointingly predictable (especially that of Emma, the LGBT representative) and it is their mother, a woman some twenty years older, that I found more sensitively explored and memorably well-observed. I did find the prose wasn’t always the easiest to follow and at points it felt like the story was one of discrete scenes stitched together that lacked cohesion. However for all the atrocity, carnage and bloodshed contained within this short but poignant novel it is not without hope and a real sense of optimism, not just for Belfast as a city but for all its citizens.
March 21, 2025
This was a very harrowing and authentic reflection on the devastation of the ‘Belfast Blitz� during WWII, and as someone who unfortunately knows very little about irish history, this book did a great job of portraying just how badly it tore their communities apart. Lucy Caldwell’s writing is haunting and poetic and she did a great job of balancing different characters� storylines while portraying how these bombings permanently changed (or ended) the lives of those that lived through it.
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this book!
Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC of this book!
September 8, 2023
I've sat on this review for a few days.
First things first, and whether or not this is relevant is subjective: I was born in this area, raised on the streets that figure in 'These Days', and still work there, serving the super library-going community of East Belfast.
Okay, look: if you loved this novel and/or worship at the altar of Lucy Caldwell, then don't read this adverse review.
On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that when you find experiences represented in novels that are alien to your own, there can be value in considering lived viewpoints on those experiences, like opinions on lesbian characters from lesbian readers.
Hence, the following rant [which contains spoilers, but pretty obvious ones]:
Lord! Can this genuinely be a modern female writer's idea of how lesbian women are with one another?! I could boke, it's so ultra-earnest and stomach-churning. As Caldwell puts it, 'a hot gush of vomit' wants to rise in me. I ask myself, have I ever read heterosexual content so hurl-worthy as this? It's worse than Mills & Boon, Emma 'falling back into a dreamless sleep' after masturbating with thoughts of a snatched day with Sylvia. Before that, they'd conversed:
So, my knee-jerk Structuralist reaction to interpreting the novel was to read the two sisters as binary opposites: LGBT and heterosexual; and I baulked at the seemingly predictable outcome that Emma's storyline would be the one to suffer. The tragedy of forbidden lesbian love practically beckons the tragedy of bereavement. Angst attracting angst... But Barthes would say it doesn't matter what Lucy Caldwell's sexuality is. Derrida would encourage unpacking that binary opposition for examination of its parts.
Despite that, however, I do think we've got to turn the spotlight on the author at some point and, multiple truths that there might be in the text, Caldwell has to shoulder responsibility for the way that she has presented a lesbian relationship. There might not be one 'true' meaning, but there are predictable interpretations, and she has created a vessel that will hold that stereotypical homophobia if readers wish to partake of it.
Moreover, Lisa Dwyer Hogg's narration of the audiobook is woeful. It does those of us with perfectly acceptable East Belfast accents a disservice to have a Randalstown-born narrator read Caldwell's jarringly unrealistic, regurgitated historical research like she's a primary-school teacher explaining numbers and letters to small children.
It also has to be said that this novel has been written before, and with skyscraping heaps of talent. And so if you want to read this novel and haven't yet read 'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters, read it first and make your own comparisons. It, for me, is a much more sumptuous repast than this corny effort.
First things first, and whether or not this is relevant is subjective: I was born in this area, raised on the streets that figure in 'These Days', and still work there, serving the super library-going community of East Belfast.
Okay, look: if you loved this novel and/or worship at the altar of Lucy Caldwell, then don't read this adverse review.
On the other hand, there is an argument to be made that when you find experiences represented in novels that are alien to your own, there can be value in considering lived viewpoints on those experiences, like opinions on lesbian characters from lesbian readers.
Hence, the following rant [which contains spoilers, but pretty obvious ones]:
Lord! Can this genuinely be a modern female writer's idea of how lesbian women are with one another?! I could boke, it's so ultra-earnest and stomach-churning. As Caldwell puts it, 'a hot gush of vomit' wants to rise in me. I ask myself, have I ever read heterosexual content so hurl-worthy as this? It's worse than Mills & Boon, Emma 'falling back into a dreamless sleep' after masturbating with thoughts of a snatched day with Sylvia. Before that, they'd conversed:
"Why do you say it all so sadly?"I was going to say that I cannot forgive a woman author for just dangling a same-sex relationship between women into a novel seemingly to add spice, without any intention of exploring positive future possibilities if that relationship were to flourish. I wanted to know whether Caldwell's straight or not."Oh Emma, this isn't something you'd choose."
"I choose it, Sylvia! I choose it!"
[...]"You don't know anything yet."
"I do!"
So, my knee-jerk Structuralist reaction to interpreting the novel was to read the two sisters as binary opposites: LGBT and heterosexual; and I baulked at the seemingly predictable outcome that Emma's storyline would be the one to suffer. The tragedy of forbidden lesbian love practically beckons the tragedy of bereavement. Angst attracting angst... But Barthes would say it doesn't matter what Lucy Caldwell's sexuality is. Derrida would encourage unpacking that binary opposition for examination of its parts.
Despite that, however, I do think we've got to turn the spotlight on the author at some point and, multiple truths that there might be in the text, Caldwell has to shoulder responsibility for the way that she has presented a lesbian relationship. There might not be one 'true' meaning, but there are predictable interpretations, and she has created a vessel that will hold that stereotypical homophobia if readers wish to partake of it.
Moreover, Lisa Dwyer Hogg's narration of the audiobook is woeful. It does those of us with perfectly acceptable East Belfast accents a disservice to have a Randalstown-born narrator read Caldwell's jarringly unrealistic, regurgitated historical research like she's a primary-school teacher explaining numbers and letters to small children.
It also has to be said that this novel has been written before, and with skyscraping heaps of talent. And so if you want to read this novel and haven't yet read 'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters, read it first and make your own comparisons. It, for me, is a much more sumptuous repast than this corny effort.
December 1, 2021
Belfast, 1941 is the setting for Lucy Caldwell’s latest novel These Days.
Despite the war, the city hasn’t fared too badly by Spring of this year. Food is probably more plentiful than it is in England, and Belfast benefits from the neutrality of neighbouring Southern Ireland, when the Customs Men have been circumvented. But the increased prosperity gained from the wartime contacts awarded to the shipyards becomes a liability when the Luftwaffe embark upon a concerted bombing campaign subsequently referred to as the Belfast Blitz.
Sisters Emma and Audrey Bell have both discovered the joy of what, for both, will become ill-fated love affairs. They live in middle class comfort in the East of the city, Audrey works in the tax office and Emma volunteers at a First Aid Post. As the bombing intensifies and more damage is caused and the death toll rises, no lives are left untouched by the horror.
Lucy Caldwell employs her elegant and sincere style in relating these harrowing events, providing lighter relief by Emma and Audrey’s stories and that of Florence, their mum, who is perhaps the most interesting character in the book. Ms Caldwell’s research has been comprehensive, leaving this Belfast native embarrassed by having learnt so much. Her descriptions of Belfast, so different 80 years on, and yet still so much the same, are vivid and heartfelt and her genuine characters jump to life from the pages. Possibly a little over-egged on the dialect front, but only here and there.
I really could not put this book down and I am very grateful to Netgalley UK and Faber and Faber Ltd for the opportunity to read it.
Despite the war, the city hasn’t fared too badly by Spring of this year. Food is probably more plentiful than it is in England, and Belfast benefits from the neutrality of neighbouring Southern Ireland, when the Customs Men have been circumvented. But the increased prosperity gained from the wartime contacts awarded to the shipyards becomes a liability when the Luftwaffe embark upon a concerted bombing campaign subsequently referred to as the Belfast Blitz.
Sisters Emma and Audrey Bell have both discovered the joy of what, for both, will become ill-fated love affairs. They live in middle class comfort in the East of the city, Audrey works in the tax office and Emma volunteers at a First Aid Post. As the bombing intensifies and more damage is caused and the death toll rises, no lives are left untouched by the horror.
Lucy Caldwell employs her elegant and sincere style in relating these harrowing events, providing lighter relief by Emma and Audrey’s stories and that of Florence, their mum, who is perhaps the most interesting character in the book. Ms Caldwell’s research has been comprehensive, leaving this Belfast native embarrassed by having learnt so much. Her descriptions of Belfast, so different 80 years on, and yet still so much the same, are vivid and heartfelt and her genuine characters jump to life from the pages. Possibly a little over-egged on the dialect front, but only here and there.
I really could not put this book down and I am very grateful to Netgalley UK and Faber and Faber Ltd for the opportunity to read it.
March 21, 2022
There is nothing particularly "bad" about this novel. The writing is competent enough, and the author has clearly done her research, providing the reader with a sense of the 1941 Belfast Blitz. Having said that, I can't say I see anything particularly noteworthy or "good" about the book either. I stopped at precisely the halfway point due to complete boredom. Audrey and Emma, the twenty-something sisters at the heart of the story, failed to engage me in any way. Women's secrets and dissatisfactions have been done countless times before, though the same-sex relationship between Emma and her first-aid-post supervisor was, I suppose, a departure from typical WWII historical fare. Underwhelmed, I can't imagine bothering with Caldwell again.
April 7, 2022
I'm biased because this novel is set in parts of Belfast I know so well, but during a part of its history I ashamedly don't. I loved a lot of the author's engaging and relatable characters and her vivid descriptions which really brought this period of history to life for me, so much so that I almost felt I was living it with them.
March 29, 2023
I really struggled with this book. I very nearly gave up after getting about 100 pages in, however I persevered to the end and was extremely disappointed. To put it bluntly, I found it terribly boring.
Feels really strange to say this, but the three chapters where the Germans attacked were the highlight of the entire story.
Feels really strange to say this, but the three chapters where the Germans attacked were the highlight of the entire story.
January 4, 2022
London, Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, Coventry, Exeter, Plymouth, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow (to name just a few) are the cities which immediately spring to mind when I think about the WWII blitz bombing raids, which caused such devastating damage to the UK’s manufacturing capacity and the deaths of so many civilians. However, until I read this well-researched novel I hadn’t been aware of the Belfast Blitz. Through a combination of reading this book and doing some subsequent research, I now know that in total approximately 1,000 people were killed, many more were injured and bombs hit half of the houses in the city, leaving 100,000 people homeless. During the Easter Sunday raid (the second of four carried out between 7th April and 6th May 1941) some 900 people died as a result of the bombing and 1,500 were injured: apart from in London, this was the greatest loss of life in any night raid during the Blitz.
Central to this gripping story, which explores the impact on civilians as they struggle to adjust to these harrowing events, is the middle-class Bell family: Dr Philip Bell, his wife Florence and their three children � twenty-one-year-old Audrey, working in the local tax office and engaged to Richard (also a doctor); eighteen-year-old Emma, working as a volunteer First Aider and tentatively exploring her developing attraction to Sylvia, a more senior volunteer and finally, their brother Paul, who is in his early teens and still inclined to see the war as a bit of an adventure. However, it is essentially from the perspectives of the three women that the story is told and I enjoyed the many ways in which the author very effectively used their personal experiences to explore a range of contemporaneous issues.
It’s human nature that during any crisis we are often forced to take stock of our lives, to question what’s important to us and what we need to do to achieve that. As the story begins to unfold it becomes clear that all three women are struggling to find ways to reconcile their inner feelings and desires with external expectations. Audrey is becoming increasingly ambivalent about her impending marriage. Although she loves (and is very good at) her job, she knows that she will have to give it up when she gets married and wonders whether she loves Richard enough to be prepared to make that sacrifice. Emma has fallen in love with Sylvia but knows that their tentatively developing sexual relationship, although not actually illegal, must be kept secret. Through Florence’s narrative, the reader discovers that she continues to mourn a long-lost love, feelings which have been reawakened by the death and destruction which now dominates all their lives. How each of them deals with their personal conflicts will be shaped by their experiences of loss on a greater and more devastating scale than they could ever have imagined.
Although I enjoyed how the author developed these main characters, what impressed me most about her storytelling was her powerful and deeply moving evocation of the impact of the bombing raids on individuals and on communities. She captured the fear generated as people heard the planes overhead and listened to the sound of bombs falling; of their shock as they emerged after each raid to find the landscape of their city changed almost beyond recognition; of the desperate plight of those who were now homeless; of the frantic search for news of family and friends who were missing; of the authorities struggling to deal with vast numbers of dead bodies to be retrieved and identified and of hospitals being overwhelmed as they tried to treat the injured. Without going into any gratuitously explicit detail, she captured the scale of the horrors faced by the emergency services and First Aiders as they dealt with the aftermath of each raid.
The fact that the book was divided into three parts (‘The Dockside Raid�, The Easter Raid� and ‘The Fire Raids�) allowed the author to explore not only the cumulative effect of the destruction and its impact on the community, but also on how this came to shape the decision-making of the three main characters. Although no one in Belfast escaped totally unscathed, as the main targets (military, the docklands and manufacturing) were located in the working-class areas of the city, disproportionately it was the homes of the poorer families which were either razed to the ground or so badly damaged that they were uninhabitable. By using a number of different characters from these areas who had links with the Bell family, the author offered insights into the particular privations faced by people who had little to start with and ended up with even less.
I admired the way in which the author so effectively used her considerable research to add authenticity to her storytelling. Her descriptions of the two fire raids (close to 100,000 incendiaries were dropped, more than in almost any other raid in the UK) were so evocative that I could hardly bear to continue reading. The resilience of the community as they pulled together restore some semblance of order to their devastated city was in sharp contrast to an intervention from Winston Churchill. Apparently the morning after the Fire Raids he phoned to speak to Sir Wilfred Spender, the head of the civil service, to enquire about what was being done to protect Sir Edward Carson’s statue � I was delighted to discover that Sir Wilfred, much to Churchill’s fury, told him in no uncertain terms that all available resources were being deployed to ‘help remove the living from buildings condemned, and the deceased from the rubble�! A timely reminder that politicians being out of touch with the lives of their voters isn’t a new phenomenon!
Although explorations of many types of loss permeate this deeply moving story, it is also a paean to resilience, to the importance of family and community, to love and, ultimately, about a belief in regeneration and hope. The fact that it also taught me something new, and encouraged me to read even more about this period, has made this a much more thought-provoking and memorable read than I’d anticipated � always a bonus!
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.
Central to this gripping story, which explores the impact on civilians as they struggle to adjust to these harrowing events, is the middle-class Bell family: Dr Philip Bell, his wife Florence and their three children � twenty-one-year-old Audrey, working in the local tax office and engaged to Richard (also a doctor); eighteen-year-old Emma, working as a volunteer First Aider and tentatively exploring her developing attraction to Sylvia, a more senior volunteer and finally, their brother Paul, who is in his early teens and still inclined to see the war as a bit of an adventure. However, it is essentially from the perspectives of the three women that the story is told and I enjoyed the many ways in which the author very effectively used their personal experiences to explore a range of contemporaneous issues.
It’s human nature that during any crisis we are often forced to take stock of our lives, to question what’s important to us and what we need to do to achieve that. As the story begins to unfold it becomes clear that all three women are struggling to find ways to reconcile their inner feelings and desires with external expectations. Audrey is becoming increasingly ambivalent about her impending marriage. Although she loves (and is very good at) her job, she knows that she will have to give it up when she gets married and wonders whether she loves Richard enough to be prepared to make that sacrifice. Emma has fallen in love with Sylvia but knows that their tentatively developing sexual relationship, although not actually illegal, must be kept secret. Through Florence’s narrative, the reader discovers that she continues to mourn a long-lost love, feelings which have been reawakened by the death and destruction which now dominates all their lives. How each of them deals with their personal conflicts will be shaped by their experiences of loss on a greater and more devastating scale than they could ever have imagined.
Although I enjoyed how the author developed these main characters, what impressed me most about her storytelling was her powerful and deeply moving evocation of the impact of the bombing raids on individuals and on communities. She captured the fear generated as people heard the planes overhead and listened to the sound of bombs falling; of their shock as they emerged after each raid to find the landscape of their city changed almost beyond recognition; of the desperate plight of those who were now homeless; of the frantic search for news of family and friends who were missing; of the authorities struggling to deal with vast numbers of dead bodies to be retrieved and identified and of hospitals being overwhelmed as they tried to treat the injured. Without going into any gratuitously explicit detail, she captured the scale of the horrors faced by the emergency services and First Aiders as they dealt with the aftermath of each raid.
The fact that the book was divided into three parts (‘The Dockside Raid�, The Easter Raid� and ‘The Fire Raids�) allowed the author to explore not only the cumulative effect of the destruction and its impact on the community, but also on how this came to shape the decision-making of the three main characters. Although no one in Belfast escaped totally unscathed, as the main targets (military, the docklands and manufacturing) were located in the working-class areas of the city, disproportionately it was the homes of the poorer families which were either razed to the ground or so badly damaged that they were uninhabitable. By using a number of different characters from these areas who had links with the Bell family, the author offered insights into the particular privations faced by people who had little to start with and ended up with even less.
I admired the way in which the author so effectively used her considerable research to add authenticity to her storytelling. Her descriptions of the two fire raids (close to 100,000 incendiaries were dropped, more than in almost any other raid in the UK) were so evocative that I could hardly bear to continue reading. The resilience of the community as they pulled together restore some semblance of order to their devastated city was in sharp contrast to an intervention from Winston Churchill. Apparently the morning after the Fire Raids he phoned to speak to Sir Wilfred Spender, the head of the civil service, to enquire about what was being done to protect Sir Edward Carson’s statue � I was delighted to discover that Sir Wilfred, much to Churchill’s fury, told him in no uncertain terms that all available resources were being deployed to ‘help remove the living from buildings condemned, and the deceased from the rubble�! A timely reminder that politicians being out of touch with the lives of their voters isn’t a new phenomenon!
Although explorations of many types of loss permeate this deeply moving story, it is also a paean to resilience, to the importance of family and community, to love and, ultimately, about a belief in regeneration and hope. The fact that it also taught me something new, and encouraged me to read even more about this period, has made this a much more thought-provoking and memorable read than I’d anticipated � always a bonus!
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for an uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review.
May 22, 2023
3.5 Stars rounded up
Set largely over four days this novel tells the story of the 1941 German air raids on Belfast which flattened large areas of the city and killed horrendous numbers of people. The story is told through the eyes of sisters Emma and Audrey, and to a lesser extent their mother Florence. Snippets about other members of the family and other inhabitants of the city are interestingly added largely through the voices of the three women.
The writing was engaging and there are some wonderful passages that capture the fear and the emotions of this period. For me the strength of the novel lay in these descriptions and its portrayal of the effects of these intense raids on the city and its population, especially as Belfast is often forgotten in depictions and discussions of the blitz. If I had to articulate any negatives I would have to say that the sisters questioning of societal norms and the potential for longer term change, especially for women, although at the root of the events, are perhaps not as strong as might have been and the handling is rather predictable. Secondly, although the author uses odd words as representations of the Belfast dialect I felt that this could have been stronger and would have rooted the novel more firmly in its sense of place, but this is a personal preference and striking a balance is difficult.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will look to more from this author.
Set largely over four days this novel tells the story of the 1941 German air raids on Belfast which flattened large areas of the city and killed horrendous numbers of people. The story is told through the eyes of sisters Emma and Audrey, and to a lesser extent their mother Florence. Snippets about other members of the family and other inhabitants of the city are interestingly added largely through the voices of the three women.
The writing was engaging and there are some wonderful passages that capture the fear and the emotions of this period. For me the strength of the novel lay in these descriptions and its portrayal of the effects of these intense raids on the city and its population, especially as Belfast is often forgotten in depictions and discussions of the blitz. If I had to articulate any negatives I would have to say that the sisters questioning of societal norms and the potential for longer term change, especially for women, although at the root of the events, are perhaps not as strong as might have been and the handling is rather predictable. Secondly, although the author uses odd words as representations of the Belfast dialect I felt that this could have been stronger and would have rooted the novel more firmly in its sense of place, but this is a personal preference and striking a balance is difficult.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will look to more from this author.
March 24, 2023
3.5 stars
These Days is a strangely gentle book, especially when you consider it's horrific setting of Belfast during it's World War 2 blitz. A subject I knew nothing about really, and I was shocked to read about the devastation to the city during this time. As a ship building city it makes sense but not something I had considered before.
What makes it gentle is the meandering prose, the detailed descriptions of ordinary events during an extraordinary time. Even in the worst of times, people still fall in and out of love, worry about seemingly unimportant things, and seek for meaning in the unexplainable.
The book revolves around two sisters, and their internal emotional lives. The language is so vivid, that I lived this book with them, and my heart felt battered at times.
I did find the pace a little slow for me personally, but I could appreciate the beautiful prose all the more for that as I wasn't trying to race ahead to see what would happen next.
Recommended if you enjoy historical fiction, descriptive writing and Irish settings.
These Days is a strangely gentle book, especially when you consider it's horrific setting of Belfast during it's World War 2 blitz. A subject I knew nothing about really, and I was shocked to read about the devastation to the city during this time. As a ship building city it makes sense but not something I had considered before.
What makes it gentle is the meandering prose, the detailed descriptions of ordinary events during an extraordinary time. Even in the worst of times, people still fall in and out of love, worry about seemingly unimportant things, and seek for meaning in the unexplainable.
The book revolves around two sisters, and their internal emotional lives. The language is so vivid, that I lived this book with them, and my heart felt battered at times.
I did find the pace a little slow for me personally, but I could appreciate the beautiful prose all the more for that as I wasn't trying to race ahead to see what would happen next.
Recommended if you enjoy historical fiction, descriptive writing and Irish settings.
April 5, 2023
I enjoyed this! Set largely in East Belfast, an area familiar to me, I found it interesting to read about the various characters during the Belfast Blitz. Alongside WW2 being my favourite period in history, and my Granda growing up in Sydenham (and being evacuated!!) this book was of great interest to me. Some inappropriate and unnecessary language in parts. Would recommend to a friend- I enjoyed reading this!
March 31, 2023
Rep: lesbian mc
April 17, 2023
This is a compelling story about two young women trying to make sense of what they want in life during the WW2 bombings in Belfast. The depictions of the setting and mood of the events is often heart-breaking but ultimately the underlying theme of female liberation and freedom to choose leaves the reader with the feeling that there’s hope, resilience and strength to carry on.
'It does take courage, to know. To live a life that, at least to yourself, is true. For a lot of people that's too high a prize to pay.'
'It does take courage, to know. To live a life that, at least to yourself, is true. For a lot of people that's too high a prize to pay.'
May 1, 2025
Aangrijpend. Maar de eerste +/- 80 pagina’s waren vrij saai.
April 30, 2023
Lucy Caldwell is an author whose work I very much enjoy, and I have been steadily making my way through her oeuvre. These Days, first published in 2022, is Caldwell’s sixth work of fiction. As if I needed any encouragement to pick it up, the late, great Hilary Mantel described it thus: ‘Adroit, precise storytelling, atmospheric and satisfying; this is a novel of real substance.�
These Days takes place in Belfast during April 1941, when the Blitz is upon the city. I believe that this is the first work of historical fiction which I have read of Caldwell’s, and also the first which incorporates the Belfast Blitz. I have a huge interest in this period of history, so this element also really caught my attention.
In this novel, we follow sisters Emma and Audrey Bell, both very different in temperament and desires, ‘as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz.� Emma is volunteering at a local First Aid post, something which her mother greatly disapproves of. However, for Emma, this ‘has been the first thing in her life that has made sense�, and it gives her a great sense of purpose during an overwhelming time. Early in the novel, Audrey, who works at the tax office, turns 21. She is engaged to be married. During the narrative, younger sister Emma, just 20, begins a relationship with Sylvia, who works with her at the tax office. These relationships, which ebb and flow, are well considered by Caldwell. We are given an insight, too, into the wider Bell family, from their mother to their younger brother, Paul. Caldwell displays such an interesting, multilayered family dynamic in These Days.
I love how visceral Caldwell’s writing is, particularly with regard to descriptions of characters and scenery. We are first introduced to Emma, of whom she writes: ‘How many times, she asked, are you going to do this, and in the dream Emma understood, and when she wakes her mouth is bleeding where she’s bitten the inside of her cheek in her sleep, struggling, through her dream, to find the right thing to say.� One of Caldwell’s earliest descriptions of the war is written as follows: ‘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.�
The impact which the Blitz has on individuals has been very carefully considered, and realistic reactions are woven through These Days. Caldwell has really picked up on the feeling of helplessness which comes with such an enormous event; not a single one of her characters can do anything to stop the barrage. An example of this is when Emma reflects on the situation she and her family find themselves in: ‘Here we are, she thinks, bitterly, the eighth of April 1941, the pinaccle of Western so-called civilisation, hiding in a bloody wee cupboard under the stairs while the world ends around us.� Another scene, in which the focus shifts to the city’s Floral Hall, has been based on true events in Belfast: ‘Until half past four this afternoon, when the band had to begin setting up, the floor was in use for the repair of the city’s barrage balloons: it was famously built without a single pillar obstructing the dance floor, and so it is one of the only places in the city where such repairs can be done, where the entire vast silver skins of deflated balloons can be laid out, examined, patched, restitched.�
Caldwell captures a great deal throughout, with a plethora of realistic scenes: ‘When the All-Clear sounded, they were too exhausted, too wrung out to go back to bed. They went out into the garden, into the street, to see that the neighbours were alright, and they were, not a house on the road was hit, although you could see whole streets ablaze further east, towards the docks. They stood there for a few minutes, relieved, numb, appalled, breathing in the choking, acrid air, before Mother ushered them all back inside.� Everyday scenes are also quite beautifully evoked: ‘They stand. The river flows. The silence, which isn’t silence at all, swirls and coalesces around them. Everything that it’s impossible to say, or that you shouldn’t try to. The dawn, the day. This day, this.�
Caldwell is a really gifted storyteller; her short stories are miniature masterpieces, and she is clearly a gifted interpreter of historical events too. I thoroughly enjoyed These Days, a novel which brings attention to such an important period in Northern Ireland’s history.
These Days takes place in Belfast during April 1941, when the Blitz is upon the city. I believe that this is the first work of historical fiction which I have read of Caldwell’s, and also the first which incorporates the Belfast Blitz. I have a huge interest in this period of history, so this element also really caught my attention.
In this novel, we follow sisters Emma and Audrey Bell, both very different in temperament and desires, ‘as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz.� Emma is volunteering at a local First Aid post, something which her mother greatly disapproves of. However, for Emma, this ‘has been the first thing in her life that has made sense�, and it gives her a great sense of purpose during an overwhelming time. Early in the novel, Audrey, who works at the tax office, turns 21. She is engaged to be married. During the narrative, younger sister Emma, just 20, begins a relationship with Sylvia, who works with her at the tax office. These relationships, which ebb and flow, are well considered by Caldwell. We are given an insight, too, into the wider Bell family, from their mother to their younger brother, Paul. Caldwell displays such an interesting, multilayered family dynamic in These Days.
I love how visceral Caldwell’s writing is, particularly with regard to descriptions of characters and scenery. We are first introduced to Emma, of whom she writes: ‘How many times, she asked, are you going to do this, and in the dream Emma understood, and when she wakes her mouth is bleeding where she’s bitten the inside of her cheek in her sleep, struggling, through her dream, to find the right thing to say.� One of Caldwell’s earliest descriptions of the war is written as follows: ‘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.�
The impact which the Blitz has on individuals has been very carefully considered, and realistic reactions are woven through These Days. Caldwell has really picked up on the feeling of helplessness which comes with such an enormous event; not a single one of her characters can do anything to stop the barrage. An example of this is when Emma reflects on the situation she and her family find themselves in: ‘Here we are, she thinks, bitterly, the eighth of April 1941, the pinaccle of Western so-called civilisation, hiding in a bloody wee cupboard under the stairs while the world ends around us.� Another scene, in which the focus shifts to the city’s Floral Hall, has been based on true events in Belfast: ‘Until half past four this afternoon, when the band had to begin setting up, the floor was in use for the repair of the city’s barrage balloons: it was famously built without a single pillar obstructing the dance floor, and so it is one of the only places in the city where such repairs can be done, where the entire vast silver skins of deflated balloons can be laid out, examined, patched, restitched.�
Caldwell captures a great deal throughout, with a plethora of realistic scenes: ‘When the All-Clear sounded, they were too exhausted, too wrung out to go back to bed. They went out into the garden, into the street, to see that the neighbours were alright, and they were, not a house on the road was hit, although you could see whole streets ablaze further east, towards the docks. They stood there for a few minutes, relieved, numb, appalled, breathing in the choking, acrid air, before Mother ushered them all back inside.� Everyday scenes are also quite beautifully evoked: ‘They stand. The river flows. The silence, which isn’t silence at all, swirls and coalesces around them. Everything that it’s impossible to say, or that you shouldn’t try to. The dawn, the day. This day, this.�
Caldwell is a really gifted storyteller; her short stories are miniature masterpieces, and she is clearly a gifted interpreter of historical events too. I thoroughly enjoyed These Days, a novel which brings attention to such an important period in Northern Ireland’s history.
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