You Are My Sunshine

by Judith Saxton

With her fiance about to leave England and her own duty with the WAAF about to start, Kay Duffield seizes happiness by getting married quickly and cultivating friendships with her coworkers.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

433 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 1998

About the author

Pseudonym of Katie Flynn.

Katie Flynn was born in Norwich and attended Norwich High School, where she was extremely happy and extremely undistinguished. Published at the tender age of eight, in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, she joined a Writers’ Circle as an adult, publishing short stories, articles, etc; only turning to novels in 1971 because the postal strike cut off her main source of income!
At first she wrote under several different names – Judith Saxton, Judy Turner, Lydia Balmain, Judith Arden – but her Katie Flynn books were a delight to write and proved far more popular than she had dreamed. She has now published nearly ninety novels, twenty-seven of which are Flynns. Her most recent titles are: Lost Days of Summer and Christmas Wishes.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books set in both World Wars and for many years read all the novels set in WWII that I could get my hands on. Judith Saxton (also writes as Katie Flynn), is a great writer of these and this is one of her best.
It's centred around Kay, Jo, Emily and Biddy, four girls who apply to work on the balloon sites and meet up and become inseparable friends. Kay is the real main character here. At times she annoyed me and I found it hard to sympathise with her. Biddy was my favorite. Out and out Liverpudlian and down to earth with a heart of gold.
There's some great information on the balloon sites here and a wonderful story.
Would recommend this to anyone who loves books in this genre.

[Vanessa-Ann Dowsett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very charming book book, it made me shed a few tears

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is so much like other books about women enlisting during WWII that I wonder if I have already read it. Saxton is a serviceable writer who knows her subject, without breaking any new ground, and this is a topic that I have always enjoyed - women doing their "bit" in wartime.

[Bionic Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unexpectedly enjoyable saga about female barrage balloon operatives - otherwise known as "BOPS" - in World War II.

[Ruth]

During the war , women handled balloons to help give cover for bombers.this book follows a group of these young ladies and their friendship and personal lives .

[Karol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up "Your Are My Sunshine" by Judith Saxton on a lark. I am trying to complete an A to Z reading challenge, for which I need to read at least one author whose name begins with a different letter of the alphabet. For "X" you are allowed to use an author that contains the letter anywhere within the name. After having tried a couple of books by authors whose names did begin with "X" but not being able to get through them, I began to think, "There must be authors with names like Saxton or Paxton . . . " and at my local library I did indeed find this novel.

The parts that made it not quite my cup of tea were the sections of soap-opera type romance. I'd like to think that I am a romantic at heart - yet romance novels per se have never been ones that I enjoy. I mean, why waste my time READING about such things when I can - Oh, well. Nevermind.

However, there was plenty that I did like about this book. One was the element of history I learned. I knew next to nothing about the balloons that England used in the first years of WWII to try and protect themselves from low-flying Nazi aircraft. The balloons would be set aloft with bombs attached to defend against those enemy planes. The work was hard, but as the war went on, they were apparently "manned" by the WAAF while the men were transferred to duty elsewhere. The balloon operatives (BOPS) were apparently the cream of the WAAF crop - strong and dedicated women to be sure. However, the dangers of their role were staggering. Eventually, the women were reassigned to other duties because of the high rates of serious injury and death. But at the same time, the balloons proved to lose effectiveness as the Germans developed different types of bombers. The author did an outstanding job of describing how the balloons were put up, showing the dangers and inevitable injuries and death clearly but without unnecessarily descriptive gore.

The other aspect of the novel I liked was that it showed how people from entirely different backgrounds can come together and become effective team members AND close friends. Each of the 4 main characters brought their own skills and outlooks that made the whole much stronger than its individual members. Having personally done some study on what makes diversity effective (or not) in the workplace, I found this part of the story interesting and quite well done.

So all in all, despite being a genre I typically would shy away from, I'm glad the A to Z challenge led me to this novel. There was certainly enough to like about the story, and it was worthwhile to learn a little bit about these brave women of the WAAF BOPs.

[Jenne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to a jolly sort of "us girls together for the war effort" type of thing, but this was strangely creepy and distasteful.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I read by Judith and loved it.