Posted to a newly-built Lincolnshire airfield, Robbie as a wireless operator on bombers and Fleur as a R/T operator in the watch office, their only escape is to the little cottage in the nearby village where Fleur is billeted with another WAAF, Ruth. The two girls become good friends, but Ruth, already hurt by the loss of one of the pilots, does not approve of wartime romances.And Ruth is not the only one to disapprove. When Fleur's mother hears Robbie's name she becomes hysterical and bans him from her home. The young couple are determined to grab their happiness where they can, but is it a kind Fate or a cruel one that has brought them together when secrets from the past threaten their future?Away from their families, there is fun and laughter, the aircrews determined to make the most of every day, every minute, but whenever they fly off into the night on a bombing raid, Fleur must keep watch until the early hours praying that Robbie's plane comes back . . .

    Jessica is married to Bertie, a mean, patronising man who she has stayed with purely for the sake of her two young children. To make up for the love and passion that is missing from her life, she spends the occasional afternoon at the local cinema, lost in romantic films. But when an unexpected glass of champagne is offered to her in a Liverpool hotel, the consequences turn out to be shattering.When Bertie discovers his wife's deceit, he is ruthless in his revenge. He sells their house and disappears with her beloved children, leaving Jessica devastated and alone. Then she is asked to visit Paris and help an old friend and her small daughters return to Liverpool before the onset of the war. But Jessica finds herself stranded in Paris under German occupation. With new friends and a small family to care for, she must find the courage that she never knew she possessed...

    She has a loving husband, two healthy children, a place of their own and a regular wage coming in. But it is the late 1920s, unrest is in the air, employers are putting on the squeeze, and when Matthew loses his job Polly’s life is thrown into turmoil.With no money coming in Polly decides that only drastic action can keep the family from starvation and in a desperate gamble she sells all the family goods and chattels and buys a handcart, from which she sells second-hand rugs and carpets. But struggling to deal with poverty and her husband’s hurt pride are only the start of her problems, for when tragedy strikes Polly has to do battle with the bigotry of a sour brother-in-law to keep herself and her family from falling apart.

    Life isn't great, but they have eachother, and family can get you through anything. Or...can it?Then, on the third day in September 1939, Britain declares war on Germany and their lives change forever.The children have to be evacuated, but daughter Mel refuses to go, and so Eileen says goodbye to het mother and sons, moves away from the street they love and faces a future without most of the people in her precious family.Thus begins a journey for them all. A journey filled with forbidden love, tragedy and the terrifying sounds of a city they love crumbling into craters left by the Luftwaffe.Their lives will never be the same again ...

    17-year-old Muriel Dearlove has weathered the Blitz unscathed, earning her keep in Miss Chapman's grocery shop. But with her sweetheart Bill away fighting and and her friends conscripted into the WRENs and WAAF, life has become tedious for Muriel. Then one day an old friend returns from a stint in the Land Army. She is rosy cheeked and looks healthier than ever, thanks to the outdoor work she has been doing on Northumberland's farms, and she comes with tales of dances with the troops stationed nearby and high jinks with her fellow Land Girls. Desperate for the chance to broaden her horizons, Muriel signs up to become a Land Girl. But getting back to the land is not all about making hay in the sunshine. Back-breaking work and rising before dawn are the least of their troubles when disagreements between town girls and locals arise, and their warden, Mrs Hubbard, is a hard-nosed slave-driver. Then Muriel meets Ernst, a German prisoner of war. And now Muriel has a choice to make. In fraternizing with the enemy, she breaks the law, but to never see Ernst again would break her heart.

    They lost. They lived. In the small Yorkshire town of Cottenly - dominated by the steel works and surrounded by beautiful countryside - Isaac Stanford lives with his wife Emily and their three lovely daughters, known locally as the Stanford lasses. Alice, the eldest, lives only for her work as a secretary and chapel on Sunday. Fair and loving Lizzie is content with her job making umbrellas - until she falls in love with George Crossman and all she desires is to be a wife and mother. And headstrong Ruth, the merry one, is intent upon marrying handsome charmer, Walter Wray, despite warnings from friends and family. Already emotionally damaged by a traumatic childhood, Alice struggles to lead a normal life. Poor but happy with her ever increasing family, with the onset of war, Lizzie faces the threat of losing all she holds dear. And Ruth soon realises she has made a terrible mistake in her marriage as she becomes trapped in a life of poverty and violence. As the years pass each sister is forced to confront her greatest challenge ...

    When Isobel Morton takes over the café in Lichfield’s market square, she has big plans. Soon renamed The Victory Café, with a  menu that delights despite rations, the girls who work at the Vic are swept away by Belle’s lust for life.   Among the regular customers  is a trio of soldiers from the nearby American base and waitress Dorrie Goodman soon befriends them, learning about jazz and romance in the process. But the stifling morality of a Midlands town in the 40s cannot accommodate such a friendship; jealously, hatred and the weight of public disapproval combine to precipitate a tragedy.  It is not until many years after the war that friendship and reconciliation can begin to heal the wounds of the past …Praise for Leah Fleming 'I enjoyed it enormously.It's a moving and compelling story about a lifetime's journey in search of the truth' RACHEL HORE 'A born storyteller' KATE ATKINSON

    Hitler's war machine has decimated the Allies and the people of Europe must now learn the terror of living under the Third Reich.For Gabrielle Conti, a young French girl working at her family's winery, such news seemed incredibly distant and abstract. Surely these events wouldn't impact her simple life in the French countryside?That was before the body of an SS officer was found in the basement.When her family becomes the subject of a brutal murder investigation, Gabrielle must match wits with SS Captain Hans Tiedemann, a veteran of the Russian Front who is hell-bent on singling out the killer. Gabrielle bets that if she can fool Tiedemann into thinking he is making progress, she just might buy enough time for her family to escape.But that will be no easy task. For as the Germans gather their clues, Gabrielle starts to learn more about her family's true involvement in the war--and saving them could spell the end of the French Resistance.

    But she joined the WAAFs instead, together with a very mixed company of girls - all of whom had joined for very mixed reasons.

    Life in a Liverpool tenement block during the Great Depression is a grim struggle for Martha Connelly and her poverty-stricken family, as every day renews the threat of homelessness, hunger and disease.Family warmth remains constant however, despite the misery and disquiet of the slum surroundings, and the indomitible neighbourhood puts up a relentless fight for survival.Helen Forrester’s poignant novel relays bleakness and hardships, but celebrates also the spirit of unified hope and the restorative values of the close-knit community.

    What more could you wish for than a poignant, heart-warming saga to read this Christmas? LIVERPOOL, 1943Yorkshire is the place Lana has always called home, but it’s now filled with painful memories of her fiancé, Dickie, who was killed at sea. When she accepts the challenging position of headmistress at a school in Liverpool, she hopes a new beginning will help to mend her broken heart.A BATTLE TO FIGHTNot everyone at Bingham School is happy about her arrival but Lana throws herself into the role, teaching children from the local village and the nearby Dr Barnardo’s orphanage. She thrives in her work, but soon finds herself falling for a man who she would once have considered the enemy – and is torn between what she knows is right, and taking a risk that might see her lose everything.THE STRENGTH TO HOPEThere are children that desperately need her help, and Lana must fight for everyone’s happiness, as well as her own. But one young girl in particular shows her that there is a way through the darkness – because even when all seems lost, there is always a glimmer of hope to be found…

    Set in the aftermath of WW2, this gripping saga is richly evocative of the period and shows the true grit of our heroine Ruby.

    But things don't seem so rosy when rationing, evacuation and air-raids start to put this larger-than-life family to the test.When a mysterious young man arrives at the Brogans' local parish church, he provides just the dazzling distraction they need - and for eldest daughter Mattie, the promise of more than she'd ever wished for. But as the pair fall deeper in love, they are drawn into secret dangers, rife on the very London streets they call home.As the young couple race to protect the East End as they know it, can their dreams survive the darkening backdrop of war-time...?

    It's no place for proud Queenie Logan and her daughter Gillyflower. And it seems Queenie's dreams of escape will come true. Transformed by Miss Hunter's School for Girls, Gilly opens a successful dressmaking shop. And though she always thought she would marry the boy next door, soon she is courted by one of the richest young men in the city.But they have made a terrible enemy, who lurks in the Liverpool slums and seeks his chance to destroy them. And in the respectable new world they have joined someone else will prove even more dangerous to Gilly and those she loves.

    She is the talk of Ryhope when she arrives there, aged seventeen, alone, seeking work and a home in the pit village. But Sadie is keeping a secret - that she is searching for her baby girl who was taken from her at birth to be sold by the child's wicked, battleaxe grandmother when Sadie was just fifteen years old. All that Sadie knows about the family who took her daughter is that they lived in Ryhope. And the only thing she knows about her daughter is that when the baby was born, she had a birthmark on one shoulder that resembled a tiny ladybird. But as Sadie's quest begins, a visitor from her past appears - one who could jeopardise the life she's beginning to build and could separate from her beloved child forever...