photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Alexander McCall Smith is a popular highly prolific writer but I found The Good Pilot Peter Woodhouse, a romance set in World War II, to be what I would call a bit of fluff.

Val is a landgirl who works on a farm close to home. A nearby airport and an American desire for eggs in rationed England sees her meeting an American pilot, Mike. They of course fall in love. Her mentally challenged cousin frees an abused dog on the farm he is working and the dog eventually makes it to the airbase where he becomes a mascot for the forces stationed there. Mike and Peter Woodhouse fly off on a mission only to go missing in action, where in reality they are being sheltered in a Dutch village aided by a German soldier Ubi. Val by this stage is pregnant.

I won’t tell you the entire story in case you read this book but needless to say Mike and Ubi’s life criss cross after the war is over as do the lives of their wives Val and Ilse. It does give a good impression of what life was like for Germans at the end of the war – and that I found the most engaging feature of this book.

Would I recommend this book – it wasn’t for me but I read it to the end. My Mother enjoyed it. If you want some light reading that doesn’t require all your concentration and give you sleepless nights you may find this book fits the bill.