A Long Dark Rainbow: a love story for all ages

6th June 1944. Ted Tappenden and an elite glider-borne force successfully attack and capture the vital Horsa and Pegasus bridges in the first allied assault of D-Day. Ted returns from the war apparently unscathed and a hero, but as he tries to ease his way back into mundane suburban life with the sweetheart of his pre-war youth, he is haunted by the terrors of battle. Domestic life too is not without its threats...
 

Florrie is relieved to have her Ted back, but like many of her neighbours, she sees a distance in her husband where once there was joy and passion. Neither husband nor wife can explain their suffering to anyone, least of all each other, and they soon find themselves inhabiting different worlds under the same roof.

Based on the true life of Ted “Ham and Jam” Tappenden, Pegasus to Paradise is an ode to both the extraordinary efforts of ordinary men and women during the Second World War and a moving portrait of trauma, survival and the power of love in post-war Britain.

"Tappenden creates some beautiful descriptions even in the midst of tragedy" KIRKUS Reviews