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fuzzydream's review against another edition
5.0
I will always cherish this novel. I will always keep my cop sacred and pass down to my kids and hopefully their kids too.
agatha_hopkins's review against another edition
I wanted to finish this book, but I just stopped reading and never got back to it. At some point I kinda just forgot nearly everything that happened plot-wise
Content Warnings
Minor: War
crystxlxsxd's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“Frightened men make gods…”
stewg's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
yorkslass70's review against another edition
5.0
I really don't know why it took me so long to get round to reading this book, but I wish now that I'd done it sooner. A classic children's story of wartime England, a small black cat and the many lives she touches on her journey to find her owner. I know I said this was a children's story but it's one of those books that should be read be every one, at times it brought a tear to my eye, I loved it.
kiwii091's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A very sweet story overall, especially as cats are not usually shown to be particularly loving or loyal animals in many other books I've read, so it was nice to see one shown as such. I also really like how it shows the impact animals can have on people as Lord Gort goes on in her travels, helping many people without even realising or meaning to.
I was a bit disappointed when I finished the book to find that Lord Gort doesn't really spend much time in Blitzed Coventry as the title and blurb suggested. It gave me the impression that she would spend a large part of the story helping people and going in and out of blitzed areas. The ending also felt a little anticlimactic considering how much the cat went through as well, but I feel it is a lovely read overall.
I was a bit disappointed when I finished the book to find that Lord Gort doesn't really spend much time in Blitzed Coventry as the title and blurb suggested. It gave me the impression that she would spend a large part of the story helping people and going in and out of blitzed areas. The ending also felt a little anticlimactic considering how much the cat went through as well, but I feel it is a lovely read overall.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, War, Death, and Blood
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Animal death
blueyorkie's review
5.0
Lord Gort is an ordinary cat: she has no magic powers and rarely does anything more than what other cats can do. When her master leaves home to fight the Germans in World War II, Lord Gort sets out to track him down. A lonely volunteer in the Observer Corps has befriended the black cat, a maverick sergeant, an old carter, and a young war widow in her travels. Adopted by the rear gunner of a bomber plane, Lord Gort flies on numerous missions over enemy territory. After many successful flights, the fearless feline's luck runs out; she and the rear gunner forcing to bail out over occupied France. With the help of the Spanish and French resistance movements, the man and the cat return to England, where Lord Gort has reunited with her master. Each of these glimpses of men and women in wartime is as perfect as a pearl; Lord Gort's journey is the single black thread on which the precious beads had strung.
backonthealex's review against another edition
5.0
Robert Westall’s novel Blitzcat has remained one of my favorite books about WWII, and I enjoy each rereading. It is the story of a female black cat named Lord Gort* who travels across England during the war in 1940-41 in search of her special owner and of the people she meets along the way. It is based on the phenomenon of psi-trailing. This is the ability of animals to find their way back to their owners, even over thousands of miles when they have become separated from one another for some reason.
Lord Gort and her family have moved from Dover, Kent to Beaminister, Dorset because her owner Geoff Wensley, a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF), has been transferred there but is now flying missions in France. But Lord Gort hates her strange new living situation and she instinctively knows that her special person is far away in the west and she decides to find him: “Somewhere ahead, there was endless happiness again. And she knew how to get there.” (page 8)
On her journey to happiness, Lord Gort has many experiences. Her instincts help warn a lonely, disabled plane spotter in the Observer Corps when an enemy air attack comes. Later, she finds herself at a train station where she stays because the trainloads of soldiers returning from the evacuation of Dunkirk, believing black cats are lucky, feed her well for the chance to rub her back: “’Christ, look, a bloody black cat. That’s the first bit o’ luck I’ve seen since Abbeville…’ And suddenly they were reaching out, stepping on to the platform to touch the lucky black cat. “(Page 31)
But when the trainloads of soldiers stop after 4 June, Lord Gort ends up on a trainload of soldiers heading for Dover. Back in Dover, she senses that her real person is now far away towards the east (He has indeed been transferred.) Nevertheless, she stays there a while in the billet of a Sergeant, and again her instincts warn of an air attack. Eventually, she and the Sergeant get separated in Crewe, Cheshire while traveling to Scotland and the cat begins another journey back to Dover. On the way, she has a litter of kittens on a farm outside Coventry, where she witnesses the devastating bombing of Coventry on 14 November 1940.
When it is time for her to move on, one of her kittens follows. During a bitter cold snowstorm, they wind up in the barn of a suicidal woman whose husband has been killed in the war. Leaving her kitten with the woman, she resumes her search in the spring. En route, Lord Gort unknowingly get too close to a UXB, which goes off, causing her to temporarily lose her sense of smell, sight and hearing. Getting all but her hearing back, she continues on and lands at an RAF base, where she becomes a companion of a lonely rear-gunner named Tommy. Because of her deafness, she is able to fly many successful missions with him. The pilots believe she is good luck until she refuses to fly a plane, which crashes on takeoff. After that, they turn on her and try to get rid of her. She manages to sneak on a plane headed for Germany, but she and Tommy end up parachuting out of it over France. They eventually make it back to England, and Lord Gort continues her journey, making one more stop at the home of a NSPCA worker, where she has another litter of kittens. One day, she senses her real owner is near, towards the south-west in the direction of Dorset and she sets off again on a last journey.
This is only a bare-bones outline of Lord Gort’s adventures, and there is so much more to each person’s story, including that of her real owner and his family, giving the reader a well rounded picture of life during the war. Westall manages to successfully convey the sense of fear, loss and pathos war brings to people, as well as the tenacity and strength the people of Britain must have had in order to endure and carry on.
To his credit, Westall never wavers from keeping Lord Gort a cat that acts on her instincts and senses, and does not endow her with human qualities or abilities. It is one of the things that make Lord Gort so endearing. But this is definitely a YA novel because descriptions within the story can be a little raw at times, but it is definitely worth a read.
*Lord Gort (her owner thought she was a male kitten) was named for the real Lord John Gort, who was the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces that ultimately ended up being evacuated from Dunkirk just before the fall of France.
Lord Gort and her family have moved from Dover, Kent to Beaminister, Dorset because her owner Geoff Wensley, a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF), has been transferred there but is now flying missions in France. But Lord Gort hates her strange new living situation and she instinctively knows that her special person is far away in the west and she decides to find him: “Somewhere ahead, there was endless happiness again. And she knew how to get there.” (page 8)
On her journey to happiness, Lord Gort has many experiences. Her instincts help warn a lonely, disabled plane spotter in the Observer Corps when an enemy air attack comes. Later, she finds herself at a train station where she stays because the trainloads of soldiers returning from the evacuation of Dunkirk, believing black cats are lucky, feed her well for the chance to rub her back: “’Christ, look, a bloody black cat. That’s the first bit o’ luck I’ve seen since Abbeville…’ And suddenly they were reaching out, stepping on to the platform to touch the lucky black cat. “(Page 31)
But when the trainloads of soldiers stop after 4 June, Lord Gort ends up on a trainload of soldiers heading for Dover. Back in Dover, she senses that her real person is now far away towards the east (He has indeed been transferred.) Nevertheless, she stays there a while in the billet of a Sergeant, and again her instincts warn of an air attack. Eventually, she and the Sergeant get separated in Crewe, Cheshire while traveling to Scotland and the cat begins another journey back to Dover. On the way, she has a litter of kittens on a farm outside Coventry, where she witnesses the devastating bombing of Coventry on 14 November 1940.
When it is time for her to move on, one of her kittens follows. During a bitter cold snowstorm, they wind up in the barn of a suicidal woman whose husband has been killed in the war. Leaving her kitten with the woman, she resumes her search in the spring. En route, Lord Gort unknowingly get too close to a UXB, which goes off, causing her to temporarily lose her sense of smell, sight and hearing. Getting all but her hearing back, she continues on and lands at an RAF base, where she becomes a companion of a lonely rear-gunner named Tommy. Because of her deafness, she is able to fly many successful missions with him. The pilots believe she is good luck until she refuses to fly a plane, which crashes on takeoff. After that, they turn on her and try to get rid of her. She manages to sneak on a plane headed for Germany, but she and Tommy end up parachuting out of it over France. They eventually make it back to England, and Lord Gort continues her journey, making one more stop at the home of a NSPCA worker, where she has another litter of kittens. One day, she senses her real owner is near, towards the south-west in the direction of Dorset and she sets off again on a last journey.
This is only a bare-bones outline of Lord Gort’s adventures, and there is so much more to each person’s story, including that of her real owner and his family, giving the reader a well rounded picture of life during the war. Westall manages to successfully convey the sense of fear, loss and pathos war brings to people, as well as the tenacity and strength the people of Britain must have had in order to endure and carry on.
To his credit, Westall never wavers from keeping Lord Gort a cat that acts on her instincts and senses, and does not endow her with human qualities or abilities. It is one of the things that make Lord Gort so endearing. But this is definitely a YA novel because descriptions within the story can be a little raw at times, but it is definitely worth a read.
*Lord Gort (her owner thought she was a male kitten) was named for the real Lord John Gort, who was the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Forces that ultimately ended up being evacuated from Dunkirk just before the fall of France.
mimi503's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book in the sixth grade and for some reason I always remembered it, so I was excited to read it again. Such a lovely little book, although heartwrenching at times. Such a different way to look at the Blitz, so it makes sense we read it in school- so much more interesting than a typical historical account!
psalmcat's review against another edition
5.0
I started reading this with my son in May (I think), taking turns: he read a page, then I read a page. Now that I finished it--alone--I realize that in every way, it's way ahead of him. Westall is categorized as a YA author, but this book needs to be read by someone who knows an awful lot about the events around WWII in England. Probably not too many teens have that knowledge. I can see it being used as a literature component in a history class, though.
Anyway. The story follows Lord Gort, a cat whose owner has been sent over to the Continent in the early months of the war, before Dunkirk. The cat can sense her owner's location, and spends most of the book trying to find him. Along the way, she is cared for, and brings good fortune to, many people. "Good fortune" isn't really the right word, just that she's sort of a talisman for postivism instead of all the awfulness of war.
In spite of being a minor WWII buff, I don't know that much about the war years in England (beyond the Land Girls movement), so this was a surprisingly educational book. The cat spends some of her time in Coventry, and I won't spoil the effect she has on that city's tragedy, but it is moving.
I finished this just before going to England. At both York and Lincoln, chapels have been created to honor the veterans and servicemen killed in the RAF and USAAC bombing raids that began in that area. I was reminded over and over while in the U.K. of this book. And it was all just happy accident that I was reading it the day we left. I almost want to read it again now that we're home so that I can pay closer attention.
Good book.
Anyway. The story follows Lord Gort, a cat whose owner has been sent over to the Continent in the early months of the war, before Dunkirk. The cat can sense her owner's location, and spends most of the book trying to find him. Along the way, she is cared for, and brings good fortune to, many people. "Good fortune" isn't really the right word, just that she's sort of a talisman for postivism instead of all the awfulness of war.
In spite of being a minor WWII buff, I don't know that much about the war years in England (beyond the Land Girls movement), so this was a surprisingly educational book. The cat spends some of her time in Coventry, and I won't spoil the effect she has on that city's tragedy, but it is moving.
I finished this just before going to England. At both York and Lincoln, chapels have been created to honor the veterans and servicemen killed in the RAF and USAAC bombing raids that began in that area. I was reminded over and over while in the U.K. of this book. And it was all just happy accident that I was reading it the day we left. I almost want to read it again now that we're home so that I can pay closer attention.
Good book.