A Flight of Angels

by Geoffrey Trease

Sheila and her friends solve a 400-year-old mystery while exploring the caves under their historical city of Nottingham for a class project.

Genres: Childrens

115 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Robert Geoffrey Trease (1909-1998) was a prolific writer, publishing 113 books between 1934 (Bows Against the Barons) and 1997 (Cloak for a Spy). His work has been translated into 20 languages. His grandfather was a historian, and was one of the main influences towards Trease's work.

He is best known for writing children's historical novels, whose content reflects his insistence on historically correct backgrounds, which he meticulously researched. However, with his ground-breaking study Tales Out of School (1949), he was also a pioneer of the idea that children's literature should be a serious subject for study and debate. When he began his career, his radical viewpoint was a change from the conventional and often jingoistic tone of most children's literature of the time, and he was one of the first authors who deliberately set out to appeal to both boys and girls and to feature strong leading characters of both sexes.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

You always get a well-crafted story with Geoffrey Tease and he must be acknowledged as a writer who opened up new trails in promoting female protagonists and children from ethnic minorities. The way he deals with race here is awkward and patronising with the benefit of hindsight but at least he had Asian and West Indian characters playing a positive role in this story. The multi-cultural mixing of the children, notwithstanding its faults, is a strength of the book. The opening up of a window (or in this case a cave) on history is always done well in Trease's books. His knowledge and love of the city of Nottingham comes through.

Not his best book but well worth a read.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story for its setting (Nottingham) and the way it shows the children researching their local history with the help of their public librarian. The history of the caves and the alabaster and wood carvers in the city was interesting too. However, I thought it lacked... oomph. It was too plodding. It needed a little more action or something.

[Naomi McCullough · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel dreadful, rating one of Trease's novels with only two stars but I just couldn't finish it.
The historical aspect is all there, and very interesting; but right in the first chapter, we have several remarks of situations in history that the school children find fun to expound on like they're tabloid papers. There's too much an air of modern humor or lack thereof, to suit me. I'll stick to his works set in older times.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one almost garnered a four-star vote from me, so I suppose I would call this one a 3.5 star rating. I loved the history and the effort made by the author to be inclusive in his choice of characters. I just adore that this is a 400-year-old mystery that takes place in a part of England that the author obviously knows and loves. I am grateful for these youth mysteries that keep falling into my lap, they are just what I need to break up the more heavy reading that I need to slog through in my life right now. (And, yes, for those who know me, as I was reading I was remembering that stone smell that one can only smell in really old stone buildings. This is an odor I adore.)