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Rebecca Bryn
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The Dandelion Clock: A wish to end all wishes. The war to end all wars. (Tales of Love and War) Kindle Edition

by Rebecca Bryn (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 52 ratings
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Families torn apart by the Great War. Can promises be kept?

When war is declared in August 1914, Bill, is plucking up his courage to ask his sweetheart, Florrie, to marry him. Bill and Florrie’s dreams are dashed when Bill is sent to fight in Gallipoli, Egypt, and Palestine taking with him a horse, Copper, volunteered for service by the 7th Duke’s young daughter, Lady Alice. Bill makes promises before he leaves: to marry Florrie if he survives and to bring his beloved warhorse home safe to Lady Alice.
While Bill fights Turks and Germans in appalling conditions, Florrie fights her own war with rationing, poverty, the loss of her menfolk, and her father’s drunken temper. As WW1 proceeds, fearful and with her resilience faltering, her feelings of self-worth plummet, and she turns to her dandelion clocks for reassurance. ‘He lives? He lives not? He loves me? He loves me not?’
When Bill returns to England six months after the armistice in November 1918, both he and Florrie have been changed by their personal journeys. Has their love survived their wartime romances, spending five years apart, and the tragedies they’ve endured? Can Bill keep his promises to Florrie and Lady Alice?

An insight into the military history of the 1914 1918 war as fought by the Royal Buckinghamshire Hussars and the Queen's Own Worcestershire Yeomanry - some of the 'PALS brigades'. At first thought, 'not real soldiers' by the regular army, the Royal Bucks and the Worcester Yeomanry fought with great courage and suffered huge losses. In fact, the Worcesters sustained more losses than any brigade in any war, and the PALS earnt the respect of all those who fought with them. Although Military Fiction, it is a story inspired by real people and based on real events that doesn't forget the role of strong women in the Great War or their need for a wartime romance - love where they could find it.

'Bryn is, without doubt, one of the best writers of historical fiction writing in English today. In The Dandelion Clock you will not just read about the horrors of war, you will live them in all their stark reality.' - Frank Parker, author of Called to Account

'She truly captured what it was like to be a soldier but also what it was like for loved ones left at home. It is a story of courage, of duty, of heartbreak and of promises made, not to be broken, no matter what the emotional cost. This book had me in tears, in parts, the writing so compelling. It deserves to be read. I strongly recommend.' - Amazon

'Towards the end of the novel, Bill turns to the last remaining of his comrades and reflects on the experiences of the past four years. "Best not to dwell on it," he says. "It'll send you mad." Rebecca Bryn has been brave enough to dwell on it, and to offer us the opportunity to immerse ourselves for a while on the shameful, pointless 'sin of war' as Bill describes it. Some books are good. This one is great. The author's best to date. Totally compelling and unmissable.' - GoodreadsConnection Magazine Readers' Choice Award winner 2017

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  1. Part of series
    Tales of Love and War
  2. Print length
    377 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    September 5, 2018
  5. File size
    3.9 MB
  6. Page Flip
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  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

'It is a story of courage, of duty, of heartbreak and of promises made, not to be broken, no matter what the emotional cost. This book had me in tears, in parts, the writing so compelling. It deserves to be read. I strongly recommend.' - Amazon reviewer
'A man determined to keep his promises. A novel you will never forget
Read this book because you will rarely read another that moves you in quite the same way.
Rebecca Bryn has a consistent flair for scouring out your heart with her painfully honest accounts of heartbreak, loss, and courage in the face of unspeakable horror, as I first discovered when reading Touching the Wire. I therefore should have known I would read much of The Dandelion Clock in tears, held to the insistent narrative by an aching empathy for all the people who came so vividly alive within its pages - only for some of them to become even more memorable by their tragic deaths. So often it was impossible to know what the eventual outcome for Bill and Florrie might be. My grandfather came back from the front at the end of the First World War a changed man, so I was told. He took to drink and regularly beat his wife when he was drunk - something for which some of his seven children never forgave him. He would never talk about his experiences and unfortunately died of lung disease, related to having been gassed in the trenches, when he was only 63. I was 8 then, too young to know the questions to ask to unlock his trauma. Reading The Dandelion Clock answered some of those questions and renewed my connection with my grandfather, as well as bringing it home to me that many of those boys sent off to war were the same age as my three grandsons shortly going off to university.
Rebecca Bryn's descriptions of place and of the appalling conditions suffered are masterful. Let me give you some examples: 'September, and a crescent moon hung in a Turkish sky and shone on dead men.' 'He shivered.The moaning of the wind in the trenches wailed like the tortured souls of dead men.' 'Rolling, turf-covered downs bejewelled with wildflowers...' 'The sin of war spread out across the world to engulf him.' There is page after page of descriptions that took my breath away, brought further tears, and made those foreign landscapes utterly real.
But not only is this a novel that focuses on the hardships, loss, and love between comrades-in-arms in appalling circumstances. It also speaks of the experiences of the families left behind to wait, often in ignorance, for brothers, sons, and sweethearts who might never return. Bill is a man determined to keep his promises - to Lady Alice whose horse, Copper is as precious to him as anyone, and whom he is determined to bring back to England at the end of the war; and to the two very different women who capture his heart.
Poor Florrie - the woman he is promised to - suffers the fate typical of so many working-class women at that time, locked into unrelenting servitude in a family with a brutish, abusive father, trying to survive and scrape a living while her brothers endure the terrors and wounds to mind and body inflicted by war. My heart felt full of sadness for her, and for the impossibility of her life. Would her relationship with Bill survive?
Towards the end of the novel, Bill turns to the last remaining of his comrades and reflects on the experiences of the past four years. "Best not to dwell on it," he says. "It'll send you mad." Rebecca Bryn has been brave enough to dwell on it, and to offer us the opportunity to immerse ourselves for a while on the shameful, pointless 'sin of war' as Bill describes it. Some books are good. This one is great. The author's best to date. Totally compelling and unmissable.' - GoodreadsConnection Magazine Readers' Choice Award winner 2017

From the Author

Like my historical trilogy, For Their Country's Good, this story was inspired by my family history. My grandfather fought in Egypt and Palestine during the Great War while my grandmother waited at home, bringing up her siblings with an abusive alcoholic father. Times were hard during the war years and researching this story brought me a greater understanding of my parents and grandparents. Most of us will have forebears who went to war or waited at home, and it helps to put life in perspective, I think, to read about other people, times, and places, and to realise that this did happen and this fictional story is firmly based in fact. Writing this tale broke my heart so many times, and yet it also mended a part of me I hadn't realised was broken.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07FW8LBXN
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ (September 5, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3.9 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 377 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 52 ratings

About the author

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Rebecca Bryn

Rebecca Bryn

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Rebecca lives near Britain's smallest city, St Davids, in the far west of Wales. Surrounded by stunning coastal and moorland scenery, she also loves to paint. She inherited her love of stories from her grandfather, who told stories with his hands: stories with colourful characters and unexpected endings. Her fascination with what makes people who they are, and the belief that life is many shades of grey, informs her writing. A Native American Indian proverb reads, 'Don't judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.' Rebecca has based her life on this tenet: it is certainly core to her writing. 'We may not condone what a person does, but sometimes we can understand and maybe come to forgive.' In 2019, she won the IAN Fiction Book of the Year prize, the IAN Outstanding Historical Fiction prize, and the Readers' Favorite Gold Medal for Historical era/event Fiction.

Her books have been awarded Readers' Favorite 5-star reviews.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
52 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging with many well-developed characters. They describe the story as heartwarming, exciting, and realistic. The writing quality is praised as good, with thorough research and a wonderful read.

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4 customers mention "Character development"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging characters.

"...As always her characters are so real that they become people you know and feel for as you follow Bill from his country upbringing to World War 1...." Read more

"I liked the characters and story set in WWI. I wish the characters were more flushed out." Read more

"...She portrays many engaging characters, but the main storylines are those of Bill, a young man who joins the local yeomanry and finds himself willy-..." Read more

"Wow! What a phenomenal work! I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of characters, life styles, predicaments, I fell in love with them a!l...." Read more

4 customers mention "Heartwarming story"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the heartwarming story set in World War I. They find the book realistic and exciting, with an interesting historical setting. The storytelling is rich yet uncomplicated, and readers appreciate the characters and storyline.

"...Realistic, fact-based and heart-wrenching amidst duty and promises make for difficult choices during and following the end of the war...." Read more

"I liked the characters and story set in WWI. I wish the characters were more flushed out." Read more

"...The story-telling is rich yet uncomplicated, the author has evidently researched her subject matter deeply, both recounting the military campaigns..." Read more

"A war story to touch your heart..." Read more

3 customers mention "Writing quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the writing quality. They find it well-written with good research and a wonderful story.

"Well-written with text-book style research surrounding a British country boy's experience (Bill) and his brother's experiences during the Egyptian..." Read more

"Rebecca Bryn has written a wonderful and heart-rending story of ordinary people during the First World War...." Read more

"A wonderful read!..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Valeria Salvemini
    5.0 out of 5 stars A moving and exciting historical novel with much about the Egyptian campaign in WW1
    Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Rebecca Bryn has written a wonderful and heart-rending story of ordinary people during the First World War. She portrays many engaging characters, but the main storylines are those of Bill, a young man who joins the local yeomanry and finds himself willy-nilly fighting in the Dardanelles then in Egypt and Palestine, and his sweetheart Florrie, who faces a grim life back in England.
    The story-telling is rich yet uncomplicated, the author has evidently researched her subject matter deeply, both recounting the military campaigns as the private soldiers must have experienced them, and describing village life at home with its hardships and suffering. In a postscript we learn that Ms Bryn has built the story round the real personae who were her grandparents, which emerges also in the love and empathy she has for her fictional characters.
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  • Rita Lee Chapman
    5.0 out of 5 stars A war story to touch your heart
    Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2018
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    This is not a genre I would have chosen to read - I do not usually read stories that are based mainly on the war, but I love Rebecca Bryn's writing. As always her characters are so real that they become people you know and feel for as you follow Bill from his country upbringing to World War 1. His bond with his horse Copper and their journey together is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the book. A young man whose promise is his word, never to be broken, suffers the hardships caused by lack of water, food, clothing, fear and long days of fighting and burying the dead with only the love of the girl back home whom he has promised to marry to sustain him. Meanwhile she is back in England struggling to feed her younger siblings since their mother's death on the meagre earnings of her abusive father.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Booklover
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Realistic and in-depth WWI novel
    Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Well-written with text-book style research surrounding a British country boy's experience (Bill) and his brother's experiences during the Egyptian campaign of WWI. In-between are the love letters and storyline between him and the two young women he left behind; one he made promises to and another he met during training. Florrie, his intended, has had to raise her siblings while enduring abuse from her drunken father once her mother died at his hands. A favorite horse, provided by the Duke's daughter, Copper, remains his emotional support throughout, promising its safe return at the end of the war. No one could predict the horrors, hardships nor the length of the war and the changes and toll of those involved or left behind. Realistic, fact-based and heart-wrenching amidst duty and promises make for difficult choices during and following the end of the war. A highly recommended must-read for history buffs who wish to learn about lives affected by WWI through a realistic and in-depth perspective.
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  • Cheryl Blanchard
    4.0 out of 5 stars good historical novel
    Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2020
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    I liked the characters and story set in WWI. I wish the characters were more flushed out.
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read!
    Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2019
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    Wow! What a phenomenal work! I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of characters, life styles, predicaments, I fell in love with them a!l. You took me there! What a gift you have!
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  • Tom
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fact-based-fiction at its best
    Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2018
    There are no winners in war, which is highlighted at several levels in this superb tale of love, loss, abuse, conflict, courage and devotion to duty. In this story, the conflict, courage and devotion to duty are not only on the battlefields but also on the home-front. A vivid picture is created of life for all concerned during a major war.
    Try if you will, to go without food for a day, or a decent hot drink, or sleep … having worn the same clothes for days on end in a range of temperatures and weather. What could be worse? Place yourself in adverse conditions and introduce a few ground-shaking bombs and an enemy firing at you. Have you considered the ability to clean and service your rifle and equipment? How about aiming and firing back at the enemy from a water-filled, muddy trench.
    Combine these things with the remorseless ‘duty-bound’ attitude of your leadership—now you have a tiny vision of life in The Great War.
    I served in a modern war in the desert. I lived with the constant attention of flies, the heat of the days, the cold of the nights, and the knowledge that it might all end badly for me. I knew the comfort of comradeship but also that I was a tiny part of an overwhelming force and our human losses were minimal. My few months of trepidation and discomfort pale in comparison to this war which should have ended all wars.
    In our modern warfare, ‘Trench Foot’ is called Immersion Foot, and ‘Shell-shock’ has been replaced by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)—now recognised as a mental condition. During the First World War, thousands of young men on both sides lost their lives to disease, and ‘desertion’ was dealt with by summary execution—the firing squad. Belated pardons are all very well, but young lives were destroyed in so many ways by an international conflict which spiralled out of control.
    The young men in the First World War had little respite, and it became matter-of-fact that men who had become friends would die alongside you. Week upon week, and month after month the pressure was applied—and the upper hand was in the balance many times.
    Highlighted in this story is the part played by the horses, which had no choice in the proceedings but they proved as courageous and tenacious as their riders—suffering from hunger, thirst and tiredness, and dying horribly in thousands of cases. There is nothing natural to a horse about galloping headlong into a line of men who are firing rifles. These brave animals became comrades in their own way, and must also be considered as war veterans.
    Rebecca Bryn takes you into the hearts, minds and physical conditions of those at home and those in the various theatres of the war. There is no glorification, no tales of derring-do to inspire, but instead, a fictional tale loosely based on factual information. The reader will feel the pain of loss at home and away, juxtaposed to the frustration of the ‘not knowing’, a syndrome which affects those on the battlefield and loved ones, waiting, praying, and hoping for the best outcome.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Mr. F. Parker
    5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Engagement with Sufferiing
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2018
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    It's only a century since the first world war came to an end. It's easy to forget that the conduct of warfare was then still heavily dependent upon horses. Cavalry regiments still formed the backbone of the British army.

    Bryn's grandfather served in such a regiment and it is that fact that inspired her to write this epic tale. But she does not limit herself to the rigours faced by serving men. She takes a close look at the lives of those left behind in England. The older generation of men whose labours kept 'the home fires burning' and the women of all ages who shouldered the burden of clothing and feeding everyone whilst worrying about the fate of their young male relatives in far flung corners of the world.

    Another factor that sets this book apart from many others set in World War I is the way it concentrates on an often forgotten theatre of war. This is important because the events that Bryn relates reverberate a century later. After describing pre-war rural life, with shades of Downton Abbey, the story moves to the period of training that volunteer soldiers underwent. This enables Bryn to introduce us to a romantic triangle as her protagonist and a young woman, with whose family he is billeted, develop a fondness for each other that leaves him agonising about his espousal to someone in his home town.

    The action then moves to the ill fated expedition to the Dardanelles and, thence, to Egypt and the Holy Land. Through all the minor victories and set backs that characterised these campaigns we see not only the suffering of the men but that of the horses. Copper, a horse belonging to the daughter of the 'big house', is an important character in this story. His suffering, and that of the other horses, will break your heart. Bryn has stated that she wept frequently whilst writing such scenes. It is that emotional engagement with the suffering of all her characters – back home in England the relationship between the principle female protagonist and her father goes from bad to worse to terrible – that makes Bryn's writing such a roller coaster ride for the reader.

    I've read several of Bryn's books and am an unashamed fan. I had the privilege of access to an early draft of this one and found it to be the best yet. Because she is self-published this book will not get the sales it so richly deserves. That is a shame because Bryn is, without doubt, one of the best writers of historical fiction writing in English today. In The dandelion Clock you will not just read about the horrors of war, you will live them in all their stark reality.
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars WOW ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.
    Reviewed in Australia on August 13, 2023
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    Absolutely brilliant, i couldn't put it down.
    How does Rebecca Bryn do it ?
    I haven't read one bad book, and i know i won't- I read it in four day's. She is the author of " Touching The Wire ", another brilliant read, at the time it came out, was Book of the Year.
    Everyone should read her books.
    High recommend reads.
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  • Bookaholic
    5.0 out of 5 stars "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not ... He Lives, He lives Not"
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    'The Dandelion Clock' by Rebecca Bryn is inspired by harrowing events which affected her grandparent's, Bill & Florrie, during World War 1.

    Bill, a young farm boy - seeking adventure & courage to request/demand the hand of his steady girlfriend, Florrie, in a bid to rescue her from her domineering father - decides to join the Yeomanry alongside his brother, Ernie. However, Bill's best laid plans are fraughted when England declares war and he has to kill or be killed, watch friends suffer horrible deaths & know that his brother has been blinded by shellshock. His willpower & determination to survive is strengthened by the letters he receives from his family, Florrie, and a young girl, named Martha, whose family he billeted with at the start of the war.

    Florrie, whose mother has passed away, not only cleans, cooks and cares for her siblings but tries to keep them safe from their abusive, alcoholic father. Sadly, she is so adept at covering her father's ill treatment that the extent of her father's abuse goes almost undiscovered - even Bill, her beloved, only knows a fraction of her suffering. Florrie's stress and self-doubt is further fuelled when she receives a letter from Bill, intended for Martha. Could she blame Bill if he no longer thought her worthy of his love? Trying to make sense of her life, Florrie often finds comfort by blowing the seeds of a dandelion - "He loves me, he loves me not ... he lives, he lives not".

    Bryn leaves no stone left unturned as she walks us through the horrors that our men faced during the war, & the hardships their loved ones, back at home, had to endure.

    I would recommend 'The Dandelion Clock' as a must-read to scholars learning about WW1, & fans of historical fiction stories, or biographies.
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  • SGS
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I have read this year
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I've had my eye on this book ever since it was published. Intuitively, it felt it was going to be a very good book and I wasn't disappointed. This is a really good book and a well-told story. As I read it I wasn't sure whether it is based on someone's memoirs or just well research by the author, but every turn of this story comes across genuine and real. It is like an illustrated true story: illustrated not by pictures but with rich imagination and well-researched detail. There were some parts where it seemed so real that I became fully immersed in the scene and was actually full of adrenaline feeling I was there: the battle of Sulva, near Gallipoli being such a place.
    There's more than one protagonist in this book and for each, their story is related with an empathy that helps you understand that it wasn't just the front line soldiers being put through ordeals. I think the trials of the war-horse Copper was a wonderful addition to the story.
    There is so much story here, in Flanders, Turkey, Egypt, and Palestine, as well as back in Northamptonshire: more than enough for two books. Putting it all in one risks making the story too long, yet it adds to the feeling that you are reading an epic. And it is - it's an epic for sure that has truly captured the spirit of the normal people who found their world turned upside down and thrown into chaos by the war. If it was based on memoirs retold from people who are now passed on, then I know they would be very proud to see their story told. If it is based on a writer's imagination and research, then kudos to the writer.
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  • barbara
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommend
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I don’t usually read stories featuring wars, but having read other books by this author, I knew I would not be disappointed. This author has an amazing way of making you feel you are living the experience with her characters, and some of the experiences in this book are quite upsetting. The story of the first world war needs to be told and, although fictional, the author built this book around facts she knew about her grandfather and lots of research which came alive on the page. She truly captured what it was like to be a soldier but also what it was like for loved ones left at home. It is a story of courage, of duty, of heartbreak and of promises made, not to be broken, no matter what the emotional cost. This book had me in tears, in parts, the writing so compelling. It deserves to be read. I strongly recommend.
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