Isabella lives in Italy. As she walks home from school one day, explosions shake her city. Isabella’s family is separated. Her sister Gabriella is at university. While her mother sets out to find Gabriella, Isabella and her father head for his childhood home in the fells of northern England.
Years of war and hardship have devastated England. No water, no shops, not even a phone signal. Isabella must adapt to a new life in her grandparent’s old house, which is situated in a beautiful and isolated valley. At first there seems to be nobody about. Then Dad sets out for the shops and Isabella meets Rowan and Kelda. The children have lived alone for years, ever since sickness killed all the adults nearby. When Dad fails to return, Isabella grows closer to Rowan and Kelda. They have things to teach each other. Bit by bit, they work out what life might look like. How to survive.
Given the state of the world – both politically and in terms of the impact humans are having on the environment – it is unsurprising that stories are examining what life might look like in the future. Where do we want things to go? How might we live? This is never more poignant than in stories for children. Children and young people are raising their voices more than ever, but it would be unsurprising if they often feel totally helpless. That is why I love Julia Green’s writing. She shows that the world isn’t in a happy state without inciting her readers to anger. She empowers children to respond without pressuring them to solve the world’s problems.
Stories about children chosen as figureheads who must inspire and then lead a war against destructive forces are valid, but no individual has all the answers and the reality is that children’s lives can be turned around in a moment, like Isabella’s when she hears the explosions, by the actions of adults. Their choice is less likely to be how shall I turn the world back to good? than how shall I survive in a world that is in turmoil? Or, simply put, how shall I survive?
Julia Green’s story centres on three children. Isabella knows about society but needs to learn about food. About shelter. About finding fresh water. Rowan and Kelda can teach her these things, but they have lived outdoors for so long, and kept hidden away, to the extent that they are afraid even to talk to another child. Younger Kelda has never written her name or drawn a picture. Isabella can teach them things too. What Isabella shares with Rowan and Kelda enables them to rethink their approach to the future.
As an adult reader I was struck by the differing responses of Isabella and her father. While Isabella collects eggs and plants seed potatoes, her father’s mood declines until he no longer manages to live from day-to-day.
This novel is beautifully written and perceptive. My generation will, if things keep getting worse, mourn our childhood and the world we thought we were going to inherit from our parents and grandparents. But where does that leave today’s children? It also opens conversations between children and adults about how they feel when faced with current events.
The Children of Swallow Fell asks big questions about survival and human impact on the planet. Difficult themes are handled with hope and kindness and the reader is left optimistic that they will live good lives. That their contribution will make the planet a fairer place. It is a story about the near future written for our times.
- The Children of Swallow Fell by Julia Green is available now from Oxford University Press. RRP. £6.99
