A Doctor's Occupation, The dramatic true story of life in Nazi-occupied Jersey


John Lewis - 1982
    Possessed of great warmth, wit and, above all a humanity which informs every word in this extraordinary account of Jersey life during the German Occupation, he served the island community with unfailing resourcefulness and not a little courage for five long and stressful years. However, despite the awfulness of the time, Dr Lewis infuses his account of it with an irrepressible joie de vivre which is utterly delightful. It is an uplifting story of winning against the odds, by turns hysterically funny and then unbearably sad. Above all it has an immediacy which takes the reader right into the heart of the Occupation, you can smell the fear, feel the pain, suffer the loss, sense the victory as do the characters in this history and they are many and varied. You will meet the good Jersey folk like the brave and tragic Mrs Gould from St Ouens and the not so good Jersey folk in the shape of the collaborators and informers or the “Jerry bags” like the exotic Ginger Lou. Here too you will meet some of the most wretched victims of the war, the Russian Todt workers who were hidden and helped by the locals and of course the many sorts of Germans who made up the occupying force. It is a story of compelling interest.I had the good fortune to meet John Lewis and his wife in 1991 at his lovely Jersey home. He talked for hours that seemed like minutes of his life during the war years. He was just as I’d hoped he would be - endlessly kind, witty and understanding. I came away from that meeting feeling happy, elated and much wiser, as you will surely do after reading of the Doctor’s Occupation. John Nettles

The Lorraine Campaign


Hugh M. Cole - 1950
     They had raced four hundred miles across northern France, from the beaches of Normandy to the banks of the Moselle River, in less than one month. Facing them were the German forces that held the territory between the Moselle and the Sarre Rivers. Having had such success in the invasion of France the men of the Third Army were confident that they could smash their way into Nazi Germany. Yet, almost immediately, their progress was halted. A drastic shortage of fuel slowed the advance to a crawl, giving time for German reinforcements to arrive from across Germany and Italy. New Panzer divisions also arrived to support the Nazi forces and drive back the Allied forces. Over the next three and a half months Patton and his men fought against these battle-hardened troops and brutally powerful tanks in operations that have become subsequently known as the Lorraine Campaign. Hugh M. Cole’s The Lorraine Campaign is the definitive history of these bloody months of conflict. It records each phase of the campaign in brilliant detail, including the initial days when Patton’s army was brought to a halt at the banks of the Moselle, the Battle of Metz, and the offensive across the Saar River towards the Siegfried Line before the Germans launched their counteroffensive in the Ardennes. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the European Theater of World War Two and how Patton and his Third Army were able to overcome huge obstacles in their drive to reach Berlin. Hugh M. Cole was an American historian and army officer, best known as the author of The Lorraine Campaign and The Ardennes: Battle of the Bulge, two volumes of the U.S. Army official history of World War II. During the Second World War he was assigned as a historical officer on the staff of General Patton's Third Army, with whom he participated in four campaigns in northern Europe. The Lorraine Campaign was first published in 1950. Cole passed away in 2005.

A Place to Call Home


June Francis - 2005
     But there is more to Alexander Armstrong than meets the eye. When it becomes clear his intentions are pure, she is determined to help him on his quest. But will the looming threat of the Second World War ruin everything... or will Greta finally find love?

Cockney Orphan


Carol Rivers - 2006
    The Isle of Dogs, heart of London's docklands, suffers the first terrible night of a nine-month Blitz. But for Connie Marsh, the discovery of an orphaned baby boy amongst the rubble brings a glimmer of hope to a time of darkness and suffering. She also finds herself falling in love with handsome Vic Campion, the man who helped her rescue the child they've named Lucky. But Connie's happiness is not to last. When his call-up papers arrive, Vic leaves for the navy - and Connie knows she might never see him again. And when a sinister figure emerges, claiming to be Lucky's grandfather, she is terrified of losing the child, too. Will she turn for comfort to Clint Hershey, the dashing GI who makes no secret of his admiration for her? Will she stay true to Vic, the man she really loves? Previously published with the title Connie of Kettle Street.

"Where's Sylvia? The Story of an American Child Lost in Nazi Germany"


Linda LaMura McFadden - 2011
    They are supposed to bring her back before school starts in the fall. They don't. They can't. It's Autumn of 1939; Hitler's Blitzkrieg is in motion. Europe is at war! Sylvia is going to have to wait a lifetime. A US citizen, she will become an Enemy Alien when America enters WWII. Through the duration she lives with another aunt, a nun in a convent, has to go to German schools in the Rhineland then run east to Bavaria where her uncle is drafted into the German Army. Alone with Betty and her two babies she must survive the Allied invasion, her only hope of rescue. Her mother, deserted by her husband will go years without any knowledge of her only child. Everyone is waiting and wants to know, "Where's Sylvia?".

Carousel Of Secrets


Anne Baker - 2006
    When a scruffy black and white collie follows Greta home one day, Kenny wants to keep the animal, but they can't afford to feed him. And so Greta tracks down the owner: Mungo Masters, a wealthy man who runs funfairs in three towns. Mungo falls for Greta, though he's her mother's age, and doesn't bother to tell her that he's married already. When Mungo gives Greta and Kenny jobs at one of his fairs, it seems life is looking up. But Mungo is not good news, and there will be many hurdles to cross before Greta can find happiness.

Falcons: A Siege of Malta Novel (The Bluebirds Trilogy Book 3)


Melvyn Fickling - 2020
    The stresses of combat flying in England's summer skies during the Battle of Britain, and night-fighting in the icy darkness of The Blitz, together with the loss of friends and a shattered heart, have left him broken and grounded. Fortress Malta, and the unrelenting Nazi siege that aims to grind it away, will be the furnace that forges him anew...

Prisoner in the mud: A young German's diary from 1945


Herwarth Metzel - 2020
    The front lines are collapsing all around, bombs are falling. On Thuringia too, a state in the centre-east of Germany. The Second World War is nearing its end. Boys of fifteen and sixteen from the Jungvolk and Hitler Youth movements set off in the belief that they can still save the fatherland – they are determined to defend it, bravely and loyally. Inadequately armed, however, they are forced to retreat from the advancing enemy in an entirely pointless march. They are taken prisoner and transferred to one of the infamous camps near Bad Kreuznach. Conditions in the camp are tough. The diarist is fortunate enough to survive and to be released relatively early, at the end of June 1945. Germany, spring 2005. The fatherland too has survived and has been reunified. It is a year of commemoration days, of monuments and memorials, and in the run-up to the sixtieth anniversary it is already being declared by all the media as a year of remembrance of the downfall of the ‘Third Reich’. Inspired by this, the diarist, now seventy-five years old, remembers the notes and diary entries kept at that time by his fifteen-year-old self. Originally written on scraps of toilet paper, he copied them out after his fortunate return in July 1945, and has not looked at them since. The notes are very personal and honest and, above all, authentic. They give an insight into the experiences and the thoughts of a young boy who by his own admission left as a ‘proud soldier’ and returned home as a ‘pitiful vagabond’. It is a historical document. It is not the story of an individual fate. Thousands had the same experiences. That is why the diarist decided, with some hesitation, to publish his diary as a part of the historical truth, even if there already existed numerous reports and publications about the camps in Bad Kreuznach, Bretzenheim, Dietersheim, Bingen, Heidesheim and the other ‘Rhine Meadows camps’. All these records are testament to the fact that tyranny often abounds when one group of people is given unchecked power over another. According to Livy, as many as 2400 years ago the Gaulish king Brennus called to the defeated Romans: ‘Vae victis!’ – woe to the vanquished! Herwarth Metzel

A Sister's Tears


Meg Hutchinson - 2009
    . . may the devil tek him! Her knows his temper, felt his fist many a time. And there be others as knows, women he's paid to keep silent about the blows they've suffered, for it tek more'n a roll in bed to satisfy Fenton Gilmore. Emma Lawrence has reason to fear the base cruelty of the man she must call uncle. She and her sister Rachel had been taken into the Gilmore household on the death of their parents and have known nothing but unkindness at the hands of Fenton and his wife. And now Rachel is dead, brutally raped and strangled, and Emma must dry her tears and flee if she is to escape the same fate. Emma falls in with two other orphans, and Timothy and Lily become as dear to her as her own departed sister. But Fenton Gilmore does not give up so easily. His evil ambition is to own a brothel and Emma is vital to his perverted plan.

The Lost Lyra


Richard Clark - 2019
    When musician Sarah Piper’s beloved grandfather dies, he bequeaths her a gift that will change her life forever. Travelling to the sun-drenched island Crete to discover the truth about her grandfather’s past, she finds her own future. From bestselling travel writer Richard Clark, this debut novel is a captivating and joyous read. Praise for Richard Clark’s travel books. ‘Clark is particularly good on the colours, flavours and scents of Greece. He has got under the skin of the place in a way few outsiders have been able to.’ Mark Hudson, winner of Somerset Maugham Award, Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, Samuel Johnson Prize 'Richard Clark captures the spirit of Greece I love. His books make me long to see the places he describes.’ Jennifer Barclay, author of Falling in Honey and An Octopus in My Ouzo 'There is poetry in Richard Clark’s words and through his eyes. I recommend anyone missing Greece, visiting Greece or just wishing they could go to Greece to take a look!’ Sara Alexi, author of The Greek Village Series ‘Thanks, Richard, for adding your great eye to your gifted pen in service to sharing the essence of Greece with the world!’ Jeffrey Siger, bestselling, award-winning US crime writer ‘Richard Clark writes with great authority and a deep affection for his subject, which comes from his long association with Greece… excellent.' Marjory McGinn, author of Things Can Only Get Feta, Homer’s Where the Heart Is, A Scorpion in the Lemon Tree and A Saint for the Summer

THE DUSTY ATTIC: Where The Future Meets The Past


Susan Elaine Pfeiffer - 2021
    

This Could Be Us But You Playin' 3


Cachet - 2016
    She finds out that the happy life she once thought she lived was nothing but a façade when it comes to light that her fiancé, Deondre has been anything but faithful. Not only has he been cheating, but he had been doing so with the people who are closest to her. Overcome with grief from the shocking new information, Dominique lashes out the only way that she knows how, and finds herself in a world of trouble. As she’s carted off to jail, she reflects on her life and decides that she is through playing the fool. The only problem is, Deondre isn’t used to losing, and he doesn’t plan on letting her go that easy. Kaleb is tired of playing the backup boyfriend, and choses to step away and allow Dominique to work on her family life. Now single, he realizes that he was a fool to put his love life in jeopardy over something that he knew deep down would never be. Like all men he wants his old thing back, and tries to repair the relationship that he had with Tiera. When she reveals that he is going to be father, Kaleb vows to right by his child. Things are great between the two of them, until Dominique comes back around. Will Kaleb keep his word and stay away, or will his love for her cause him to lose everything?

Escape: Billionaire Island


Helen Hardt - 2021
    

U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima


Raymond Henri - 2020
    Marines of this tiny yet strategically important volcanic island. The book is based on each author's own observations while on the island, plus the experiences of dozens of men involved in various aspects of the intense fighting. Presented in chronological order, the battle unfolds from the initial D-Day air force bombings and naval barrage, to the amphibious assault, to the slow gains made each day as the Marines inched forward under heavy fire. Despite its small size, Iwo Jima was considered the most heavily fortified island in the world, supporting thousands of nearly bomb-proof shelters and caves, hundreds of reinforced machine-gun, mortar, tank, and artillery positions, and more than 20,000 fanatical Japanese defenders. Included is a roster of Marines killed or missing in the battle, plus 12 maps and 32 pages of photographs.

Harvest Moon


Judith Saxton - 1995
    But when Lady Clifton dies soon after giving birth, Sir George hands the child over to be brought up on Beeswing Farm. John Hoverton and Laurie Clifton are raised as brothers.