In the first of the Todd Family books, we saw Ursula Todd live different lives over and over
through the two world wars of the 20th century. Now—in the second book—we see the lives
of Ursula’s sensitive younger brother, Teddy, as he becomes an RAF bomber pilot in World
War II.
— Michael Main
He had never met the farmer’s daughter in the yard, feeding the geese. Wasn’t there a
nursery rhyme in there somewhere? No, he was thinking of the farmer’s wifem wasn’t
he?—cutting off tails with a carving knife. A horrid image. Poor mice, he had thought
when he was a boy. Still thought the same now that he was a man. Nursery rhymes were
brutal affairs.