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Flambards #3

Flambards in Summer

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Widowed during the First World War at the age of 21, Christina returns to Flambards in the hope of picking up the threads of the life she knew before her marriage. But the Flambards Christina returns to is not the same - the paddocks are a jungle, the house buried in ivy, and the once busy stables empty and desolate. Christina sets herself to the task of returning Flambards to its former glory.

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

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About the author

K.M. Peyton

109 books149 followers
Kathleen Wendy Herald Peyton MBE, who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults

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5 stars
281 (36%)
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289 (37%)
3 stars
178 (22%)
2 stars
27 (3%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
Profile Image for Kerri.
1,095 reviews462 followers
October 14, 2022
The third book in the Flambards series was originally the last, though K.M. Peyton added another more than ten years later, turning the trilogy into a quartet. Some readers prefer the original trilogy and greatly dislike Flambards Divided but I loved it, though I'll get into that more in the appropriate review! I mention it here, because Flambards in Summer does have a nice conclusion. I loved it, and found the hopeful note it ends on heartwarming, though perhaps a touch too neat and simple.

Christina has been widowed in the First World War and returns to a very different Flambards. Only two loyal staff members remain, Fowler in the stables (which are mostly empty, all the hunting horses taken for the army) and Mary, trying her best to care for that enormous house, which was a difficult task at the best of times. With Russell dying in the previous book, Will dead at the start of this one and Mark missing, presumed dead, Flambards is Christina's now. At first she hates being back, depressed and overwhelmed. When she realises she is pregnant, her focus renews.
She lay very still, appalled for this child. She saw it forlorn in the great wastes of crumbling Flambards, with a mourning mother and the ancient servants for sole company. The picture was so stark that Christina sat up in bed, pushing back her damp hair.
'Flambards
must come to life again. I cannot leave it to fall down. And I cannot sell it, for no one would have it.'

So she sets about using her fortune to restore it, and turn it into a working farm. She buys new horses. She becomes fixated on Mark's child (the one he fathered with Violet in the first book) and basically buys the boy off of Violet. She finds Dick and asks him to return to Flambards and help her run it. Sometimes it feels like she is atoning for ruining his life so thoroughly all those years ago. They settle into this quiet, busy life... and then Mark returns.

I absolutely loved this one, and I can see why many readers want to leave the story here, with Christina and Dick together, and a contentment that feels well earned. But I have to admit, I wondered if Dick and Christina were entirely suited, and whether it was so easy to move on from bereavement and war, especially since Christina hardly gives herself a moment to think or process. I also couldn't help thinking that it's one thing to have a sweet, almost romance with someone as a teenager, but quite another to marry them as an adult. She lets Mark leave with Dorothy, and I wished she hadn't.

These qualms were why I adored the next book so much, but also probably why people who didn't share share my reservations might not care to have the story continued.

Updated after 2022 reread:

I covered my feelings accurately in my earlier review, so I am just adding a mention of my deep admiration for K. M. Peyton's writing. I have been gradually building up my collection of her novels, and she is an author I will be focusing on for a while. I still remember reading "Fly-by-Night" the first time, when I was seven, and been utterly astonished by how beautifully rendered a fairly straight forward story about a girl and a pony could be. "Flambards" and "Stealaway" were read in a similar time period, and I have adored her ever since. Reading and rereading her as an adult, I feel the same way, though perhaps with a greater appreciation of just how wonderful her stories are.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Erika.
821 reviews70 followers
December 23, 2018
Omläsning. Serien om Flambards blir bättre ju längre man kommer. Sommar på Flambards är den tredje delen och den jag tycker bäst om. Det här hade jag inte alls väntat mig när jag började min omläsning av de här tre böckerna.
Christina är nybliven änka och återvänder till det Flambards som är förfallet och mer eller mindre övergivet. Jag tycker mycket om att läsa om hennes försök att få gården på fötter igen, det praktiska arbetet, hur hon söker upp människor och djur som tidigare hörde ihop med gården och börjar samla en familj omkring sig igen.
jag var så förtjust i att läsa om Christina i denna tredje bok att jag egentligen skulle vilja läsa mer. Men jag har förstått att den fjärde delen, Flambards Divided, skrevs mycket senare än de tre första delarna och inte alls är lika bra. Kanske är det bäst att avsluta läsningen när serien är på topp.
Profile Image for Lori.
672 reviews29 followers
June 23, 2021
What a fine piece of writing ! Set in England in 1916 in the midst of the Great War, a newly widowed girl returns to her husband's farm to try to make decisions about her future. She finds the property run down and empty. Through intense work , some crops are scratched up , horse teams are bought and lives are restarted. Then , people from before the war show up as well.
Profile Image for Rosamund Taylor.
Author 2 books201 followers
December 2, 2021
After Edge of the Cloud, which focused too much on Will and aeroplanes, Flambards in Summer is back to form. In this pacey story, Christina returns to Flambards as a 21-year-old widower. The place is deserted, with only one horse left, and Christina is isolated and despondent. But events draw Christina out of herself, including the appearance of children, and of an unruly stallion named Pheasant, as well as the return of handsome groom Dick. It's a well-imagined, entertaining narrative, that is strangely believable despite the unexpected events. It's an easy read with unexpected depth, and excellent escapism.
Profile Image for Sarah.
569 reviews23 followers
August 15, 2021
What a lovely book series this is. It's so well-written that I have a hard time defining these as children's books. I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys early 20th century historical fiction. Off to watch the TV series now which I found on YouTube.
61 reviews1 follower
September 21, 2025
Christina starts to do things for herself (at last) but soon needs to be in love and have a man to deal with things. Overly romantic claptrap.
Profile Image for Julia.
3,025 reviews91 followers
February 8, 2021
Flambards In Summer by K.M. Peyton is the third book in the marvellous YA historical Flambards series. The books need to be read in order as they each follow on from the last.
The year is now 1916. The First World War is at its height using many young men as cannon fodder. “In 1916 a young woman dressed in mourning did not evoke a second glance.”
Not only were the young able bodied men at the Front, the domestic and work horses had also been commandeered. It took some clever thinking to be able to restore and run Flambards. Christina needs to harness whatever work force and animals she can.
Christina has grown into a fine young woman, still with a good heart and a compassionate nature. She seeks to right the wrongs of the past.
There is survivor’s guilt. “Sorrow doesn’t last forever, [she] thought, and was almost guilty.” It is not wrong to begin to live and laugh and love again.
The class system is starting to break down. “The war… made no such distinction, killing them in equal proportion.”
As Flambards is being restored and brought back to life, the reader witnesses’ characters mirroring this.
Family is important. Flambards is important. It is a family house and as such takes on its own personality.
I am loving this Flambards series. It is just as thrilling and exciting as it was when I first read it back in the 1970’s.
654 reviews9 followers
July 22, 2015
Here is Christina at the first flush of adulthood. And her life is sort of falling apart. After years of waiting, her marriage to Will is over almost before it began. She’s a young, pregnant widow, and with Mark missing, Flambards has come to be hers. I can feel and sympathize with Christina’s panicked scramble to find firm footing. And she goes about it as foolishly as anybody might. She finds Mark’s illegitimate child (conceived with Violet in the first book); and she finds Dick who was, and still is, in love with her, and she cobbles together a life for herself.

The ending is quite liberating. Christina’s life has come together as she’s made a family and a home for herself and achieved a degree of stability. She’s also flaunted the establishment and Victorian societal structures. And Flambards is really hers. After Mark is found, he plays the gentleman letting her have her home and leaving his unrequited love to marry the always vivacious Dorothy. All in all it’s like a fairy tale with its implication of happily ever after.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Tabitha Suzuma.
Author 6 books3,552 followers
February 3, 2013
Favourite childhood author who read my first attempt at a book when I was 17, despite having never met me!
151 reviews5 followers
January 15, 2024
This is the ending of the original trilogy. Maybe its because I now know that there is a sequel, that I often feel this is a transitory novel.
Acually today, I’d prefer all four published in one volume!

For me, despite the loss and midst of war, this often is a little too naive. Again, that’s possibly my current response to it. I think also for me development of the protagonist Christina seems to be less full than either in the previous or subsequent novel.

However, as a stepping stone, a tale of hope.
454 reviews2 followers
August 16, 2021
The original Flambards trilogy really reads like one book
This seems rather adult for YA novel with its descriptions of grief
My main quibble is that she falls in love again rather too quickly although I suppose she was really a little in love with both of them from the first book
271 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2019
Christina returns to Flambards after Will's death in WWI to find it in sad condition. She decides that she will work through her grief by restoring it to a working farm.
Profile Image for ropa.
89 reviews1 follower
June 25, 2021
i wasn’t expecting anything in this book.
Profile Image for Sasha Pinto.
41 reviews
October 19, 2022
3/4 The Dick and Christina you thought you were going to get from the beginning. Which, as with most romances, turns out to be a bit wetter than you’d hoped.
Profile Image for Charmaine Saliba .
279 reviews34 followers
February 22, 2019
This series is getting better with each book, I quite enjoyed this one too. I like the author style and was pleased that the novel took place in Flambards again. The author has managed to put in life this place and I could smell the country while I was reading and wishing that I could pack and live there. It is a fast-paced historical fiction set during the great war and I couldn't help myself to care for the main characters.
Profile Image for Seadaz.
482 reviews3 followers
January 27, 2017
Enjoyed this one, I didn't realise I had missed one of the series, so goes to show can ge read as a stand alone book (helps to have read the first one).

She returns to Flambards, Will has been killed at war, Mark is missing presumed dead. Only the Fowlers seem to have stayed at Flambards, which is in terrible repair now. The dogs and horses have gone.

She returns with her healthy inheritance from her dad, that she got when she turned 21 - no more being poor and needy for her. She sets about turning her hand and Flambards to a profitable farm, she gets the pack of dogs built up, well one dog Geraldine or Gertrude who has pups, she gets hold of some horses including one that is slightly nuts, so she gets him cheap, she loves him and he is a good horse for her, but bonkers for anyone elso.

She has a baby, adopts Marks's child from Dick's sister. Dick returns to work for her at Flambards - he too went to work, and was injured and got ill. Dick helps her work the farm, speaks German to ger German worker (POW?).

Mark returns briefly, still badly behaved, but now he's almost broke. He and Dick are still at war until a dreadful fire.

Imdid enjoy it, but not as much as the first one, I have the last one to read, but hesitant as a lot of reciews say it is not very good, and I just don't want to finish the series with a fizzer.
Profile Image for Deborah.
431 reviews23 followers
September 16, 2014
Things cheer up a bit in the last of the original Flambards trilogy, although this isn't immediately obvious. But Christina is forced to wake up and actually do stuff, to build her own life and make a success of it. This is by no means easy but it makes for a much more satisfying story than the previous two instalments.

Not that Christina isn't still annoying. She is. But at least now she's not encumbered by the Russells, just by their servants and children (sigh). And even when it turns out she's not entirely free of the Russells after all, it all works out.

If the story had ended here - if Flambards Divided had never been written - I would probably feel far more affection for the Flambards books than I do. Unfortunately ....
Profile Image for Felicity.
1,122 reviews28 followers
February 4, 2021
In the 3rd book, Christina has been widowed and goes back to Flambards which is falling apart. Although she feels lonely, she throws herself in to farming and when someone returns she realises she still has a chance to love.

I had forgotten most of this book and really enjoyed seeing Christina develop into an adult and taking responsibility for Flambards and people. Apart from a couple of nasty incidents this book is fairly upbeat which is what I needed after this week.

K.M Peyton writes beautifully and captures the struggle to find men to help with farm work during the war. A lovely read which can be read by children and adults.
3,285 reviews20 followers
March 11, 2015
Don't read this review if you haven't already read the previous books in this series! Otherwise the rest of this will serve as a spoiler.

Profile Image for Melody.
2,668 reviews309 followers
January 9, 2010
I liked this SO much better than the second in the series. Christina is herself again, although widowed and inexplicably sick to her stomach. Flambards is a ruin, and Mark is missing, presumed dead in the war. And there are horses at Flambards again, and I think Peyton is at her best when writing about them. I'm not a real romance fan, but once I'm hooked, I have to find out what happens next. So on to the last book I go...
Profile Image for Ajanta Rezwana.
340 reviews2 followers
June 28, 2021
For some reason, I have always been completely nuts about the Flambards series. I read it for the first time when I was in my early teenage years, and it made a lasting impression for me. This is actually the third book in a four-book series, but I am going to pretend that the series ended right here, with this book. Everything is perfect here, everyone is with who they should be with.
Book#4 doesn't exist for me, and I am very, very regretful that I read it.
Profile Image for Eryn.
62 reviews
February 26, 2016
This book is mostly about how Christina had to learn to be independent after she lost him. Glad that she made the decision to move back to Flambards and keep it. (due to a surprise) The story in this book made it seem that everything was going smoothly and they were going to live happily ever after. A really peaceful read compared to the sequel.
Profile Image for Trish.
366 reviews4 followers
August 28, 2014
This concluded the trilogy until the series was televised and shown on Masterpiece Theater here in the States. Afterwards, she added a 4th book, which destroyed the themes developed in the first three. This is a series I reread several times, and own (even #4).
7 reviews
March 14, 2015
In this book, I feel that it is full of worry and loss , as well as happiness and new love. I almost felt like crying at some parts. Although none of the books in the series measure up to the first one, this is still a great book.
2 reviews
July 29, 2016
Flambards in Summer

I loved this book because I loved Flambards (the first book in the series) and I am hoping to receive the rest of the series soon.
I loved Tizzy, the brief mention of Dorothy and Dick.
Profile Image for Flannery.
86 reviews24 followers
June 26, 2007
I remember this one being my favorite Flambards book.
Profile Image for CLM.
2,883 reviews204 followers
December 2, 2018
Sorrowful and lonely after Will's death as a WWI aviator, Christina returns to Flambards to try to rebuild her life, using the fortune inherited from her father.
Profile Image for Karen L..
410 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2012
This was the best in the Flambards trilogy! Lots of excitement and character depth in this last gem.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews

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