World War Saga

Peace has finally been declared in the Far East, but for those living at Beach View Boarding House, the news brings mixed emotions. Peggy Reilly is devastated that her husband, Jim, will not be coming home for Christmas. And Sarah and Jane, who have lived at Beach View throughout much of the conflict, dread what they will find when they go back to Singapore. Life in Cliffehaven is in a whirlwind of change as the men return from the war and Peggy’s evacuee chicks begin to spread their wings and start new lives in different corners of the world.

1940, Jersey. When Nazi forces occupy Jersey in the English Channel Islands, Céline Huber, who is married to a German, must decide where her loyalty lies. Love for her island and fear for her Jewish friend Rachel soon propel her into a dangerous double life. Meanwhile, Céline’s husband Fred is conscripted into the Wehrmacht in occupied France. Horrified by Nazi acts of atrocity and torture, he soon becomes a double agent for the French Resistance.

1942. Evie Sinclair has enlisted in the ATS to serve her country. Her mother disapproves, wanting her to stay and help run the household, but her father supports her bid for independence. Though conditions are austere and the training is intense, Evie is proud to become a qualified gunner girl, part of the team operating the anti-aircraft batteries. When she meets RAF bomber pilot Matt Goodwin at a dance, it's not long before they fall in love. But then tragedy strikes. Matt is killed on a mission, leaving Evie bereft - and expecting a child.

From autumn 1941 to the first months of 1942, the war continued to affect the lives of the Adams and Somers families. It was not so much the war, however, as a succession of tragic domestic events that brought a sad and lonely little girl called Phoebe into the care of Susie and Sammy Adams, reminding them of the entry of Rosie as a child into the lives of Boots and Emily. Much needed to be done to cure little Phoebe of her sadness, and it proved a difficult time for Susie and Sammy.

As the novel opens, Kitty and Louise Heaney say good-bye to their boyfriends Julian and Michael, who are going to fight overseas. On the domestic front, meat is rationed, children participate in metal drives, and Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller play songs that offer hope and lift spirits. And now the Heaney sisters sit at their kitchen table every evening to write letters.

England, 1937: After a devastating childhood at Blakely Hall Orphanage, 15-year-old Sandra is released. She finds work as a housemaid, finally able to put her past behind her. But the start of World War Two throws the country into turmoil, and her brother, Alf, is sent away to fight, leaving her completely alone. Germany, 1939: Eleven-year-old Frieda is about to board a ship bound for England with her brother, Kurt. But at the last moment, as Frieda stands on the deck crammed with frightened children, she spots her brother jumping off, back to land.

It’s 1943, and the district nurses have two new recruits. As the country ramps up for D-Day, the new nurses are getting to know their patients on their patch in London’s East End. Lily is quite sure of herself and doesn’t believe she has anything new to learn. She’ll find out the hard way that anyone can be made a fool of when she meets a man who promises her everything.

Abandoned when she was tiny, Maisie Reynolds was separated from her twin brother and forced to grow up in Holly Bush orphanage - a place where she has never known love or kindness. But with the world at war and Hitler’s devastating bombs coming ever closer, fate has other plans for Maisie, and a secret from her past changes everything. When she meets handsome Canadian paratrooper Cam, Maisie learns that love might not be lost to her after all - but not before her past life and D Day bring a tragic twist to her happiness.

1939. When the man Georgie has always loved is sent to France on a secret mission, every knock of the door fills her with dread. Beth is determined to do her bit for the war effort. Caught up in a whirlwind romance, she marries only to become a war widow. Desperately trying to make her way back from Paris to her family in England, a fateful and tragic encounter brings Hetty to Chateau de Faubourg, where she joins the resistance.

Set in a luxurious grand hotel just outside Lisbon, at the height of the Second World War, Estoril is a delightful and poignant novel about exile, divided loyalties, fear and survival. The hotel's guests include spies, fallen kings, refugees from the Balkans, Nazis, American diplomats and stateless Jews. The Portuguese secret police broodingly observe the visitors, terrified that their country's neutrality will be compromised. The novel seamlessly fuses the stories of its invented characters with appearances by historical figures.

When Jess bumps into Milan unexpectedly, sparks are reignited, and she wonders if she made a mistake finishing with him in Amberton. But matters are complicated when a film company arrives at Bentley Priory to make a morale-boosting film about the RAF. The lead actor is none other than Leonard Steele, a man from Jess’ past who could ruin everything she has worked so hard to build.

After failing to help evacuee siblings whom she witnesses being separated, May wishes she’d had the confidence to speak up. When Jess suggests a pantomime to boost morale on the station, May is desperate to help - but is held back by her own insecurities. With her low self-esteem also affecting her relationship with Squadron Leader Peter Travis, May is fed up with being her own worst enemy and decides to take charge of her destiny. But the past she ran from, plus a crisis with one of the evacuees, throw May into the midst of a drama that will test all of her newfound confidence.

Hanna Tillich cherishes her work as an archaeologist for the Third Reich, searching for the Holy Grail and other artifacts to bolster evidence of a master Aryan race. But when she is reassigned to work as a museum curator in Nuremberg, then forced to marry an SS officer and adopt a young girl, she begins to see behind the Nazi facade. A prayer labyrinth becomes a storehouse for her secrets, but as she comes to love Lilly as her own daughter, she fears that what she’s hiding—and what she begins to uncover—could put them both in mortal danger.

In 1913, in a quiet corner of London, the three Fry sisters are coming of age, dreaming of all the possibilities the bright future offers. But when war erupts, their innocence is shattered and a new era of uncertainty begins.

As a hospice nurse, Zara Mitchell has already seen more death than most people will experience in a lifetime. So when her older sister asks her to help care for their ailing grandmother, Zara agrees - despite strained family relationships. Though pale and tired, Nonna has lost none of her sharp mind. She’s fixated on finding something long forgotten, and she immediately puts Zara to work cleaning out the attic. Amid the tedium of sifting through knickknacks and heirlooms, Zara also reconnects with a man she’s attracted to but whose complicated past makes romance seem impossible.

During World War Two, Churchill declared that 'beauty was duty'. But for the women working at the Yardley cosmetics factory in London's East End, it's friendship and family. Nineteen-year-old Lily Gunn runs the conveyor belt in the factory's Lipstick Room with tight reins, though of all the women working there it's her 16-year-old sister who gives her the most trouble. Especially when Rene's new boyfriend Ronnie gets called up to fight, leaving Rene alone and with a big problem....

It is 1940s coastal Lincolnshire, and Carolyn Holmes is keen to do what she can for the war effort. Raised on the family farm, she battles with her mother to further her education, although nothing is too good for her brother. Phyllis Carter, a bitter widow from the Great War, lives close by with her son, who works on the farm. When Peter decides to volunteer, a distraught Phyllis blames Carolyn, who leaves to join the ATS where she meets Beryl. Carolyn and Beryl are posted to Beaumanor Hall in Leicestershire as ‘listeners’, the most difficult of signals intelligence gathering.

Hitler has surrendered. The Nazi flags, which once hung throughout the city, striking terror in the hearts of Polish citizens, have been torn down. It seems that Warsaw should be rejoicing in its new-found freedom. But Warsaw is not free. Instead it is occupied by the Soviet Union, held tightly in Stalin’s iron grip.

The war in Europe is over, but for Peggy Reilly and the residents of Beach View Boarding House the effects of the conflict are still far-reaching. Cockney evacuee Ivy and her sweetheart, Andy, are saving to get married and fulfil their dream of returning to the East End. But when tragedy strikes, Ivy is faced with a life-changing dilemma that only she can resolve. Rita also faces an impossible choice when her sweetheart, Peter, proposes and asks her to live with him in Australia - just as her widowed father returns from the fighting in Europe.

Desperate to save the man she loves, Etta leaves behind the life she has made for herself in Capri and enters the decadent world of Parisian society with all its secrets and scandals. Celie’s new life on the Canadian prairies brings mixed blessings – a daughter to adore, but a husband who isn’t the man who holds her heart. In Egypt, Jessie’s world is forever changed by a devastating loss.