#Blogtour A Child for the Reich by Andie Newton

 It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour A Child for the Reich by Andie Newton.

About the Author 

Andie Newton is the USA Today bestselling author of The Girls from the Beach, The Girl from Vichy, and The Girl I Left Behind.

She writes gritty and emotional war stories about strong women. Andie holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in teaching. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, her two boys, and one very lazy cat.

You can find book club discussion questions on andienewton.com. Follow on Twitter: @AndieNewton FB: Andie Newton Author Page – Instagram: andienewtonauthor

About the book

Rumours of the Nazis coming for Czech children swept through the villages like a breeze through the trees, and the story was always the same… They wanted our children to raise as their own.

Since her husband, Josef, joined the Czech resistance three years ago, Anna Dankova has done everything possible to keep her daughter, Ema, safe. But when blonde haired, blue-eyed Ema is ripped from her mother’s arms in the local marketplace by the dreaded Brown Sisters, nurses who were dedicated to Hitler’s cause, Anna is forced to go to new extremes to take back what the Nazis have stolen from her.

Going undercover as a devoted German subject eager to prove her worth to the Reich, the former actress takes on a role of a lifetime to find and save her daughter. But getting close to Ema is one thing. Convincing her that the Germans are lying when they claim Anna stole her from her true parents is another…

Review

It’s probably a lesser-known fact or atrocity committed by the Nazi regime, the kidnapping of children, and it is one that has been used by other regimes to reinvent, brainwash and shape into people more amicable to their own agendas. During the Nazi regime over 200,000 Polish children and an unknown number of children from of other ethnicities were stolen and reprogrammed to forget their own cultural background and identity, to then be inserted into German families.

I remember watching a programme about survivors who remember being taken, and those who lost children. Not all of them survived the programmes – the special nurseries for instance – reluctant children for instance found themselves with a one-way ticket to death. Imagine how many cuckoo children never found out that they are victims of the natural selection, the most important criteria being the right physical appearance – the physical attributes of an Aryan child. It’s so cold and calculated.

It’s the heart of this premise. A small Czech family, who have the misfortune in this case to be the mothers of Aryan looking children who are on the hit list. They will do anything to keep them safe or in this case get them back from their kidnappers. Easier said than done in an environment where you can trust no person and betrayal has become the daily occurrence.

It’s a story that will refresh memories of forgotten victims of that period in time. IT’s also a story that speaks volumes about family relationships, loyalty and survival. It does have the dramatic voice of screenplay or screen version, with scenes drawn out for the emotional pauses and perfect shot. It’s a question of how each reader falls in tune with that particular feeling or voice.

It’s war, it’s about family, and it gives a voice to the invisible victims. 

Buy A Child for the Reich at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: ‎One More Chapter pub date 9 Dec. 2022. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour One Woman’s War by Christine Wells

 It’s my turn on the Blogtour One Woman’s War by Christine Wells.

About the Author

Christine Wells writes historical fiction featuring strong, fascinating women. From early childhood, she drank in her father’s tales about the real kings and queens behind popular nursery rhymes and she has been a keen student of history ever since. She began her first novel while working as a corporate lawyer and has gone on to write about periods ranging from Georgian England to post World War II France.

Christine is passionate about helping other writers learn the craft and business of writing fiction and enjoys mentoring and teaching workshops whenever her schedule permits. She loves dogs, running, the beach and fossicking for antiques and lives with her family in Brisbane, Australia. Follow @ChristineWells0 on Twitter

About the book

From the author of Sisters of the Resistance comes the story of WWII British Naval Intelligence officer Victoire Bennett, the real-life inspiration for the James Bond character Miss Moneypenny, whose international covert operation is put in jeopardy when a volatile socialite and Austrian double agent threatens to expose the mission to German High Command.

World War II London: When Victoire “Paddy” Bennett first walks into the Admiralty’s Room 39, home to the Intelligence Division, all the bright and lively young woman expects is a secretarial position to the charismatic Commander Ian Fleming. But soon her job is so much more, and when Fleming proposes a daring plot to deceive the Germans about Allied invasion plans, he requests the newlywed Paddy’s help. She jumps at the chance to work as an agent in the field, even after the operation begins to affect her marriage. But could doing her duty for King and country come at too great a cost?

Socialite Friedl Stöttinger is a beautiful Austrian double agent determined to survive in wartime England, which means working for MI-5, investigating fifth column activity among the British elite at parties and nightclubs. But Friedl has a secret—some years before, she agreed to work for German Intelligence and spy on the British.

When her handler at MI-5 proposes that she work with Serbian agent, Duško Popov, Friedl falls hopelessly in love with the dashing spy. And when her intelligence work becomes fraught with danger, she must choose whether to remain loyal to the British and risk torture and execution by the Nazis or betray thousands of men to their deaths.

Soon, the lives of these two extraordinarily brave women will collide, as each travel down a road of deception and danger leading to one of the greatest battles of World War II

Review

I often wonder, especially after reading stories like this one, regardless of whether they are fictional or not, how many people are still bound by the Official Secrets Act and the operations they took part in during the war. How many secrets have died with brave people who risked everything for their country or did things in the name of patriotism.

How many men and women who just melded back into society as if nothing had ever happened, knowing that their stories who probably go untold forever. I think abiding by the rules of stumm is possibly even more impressive, than having a secret past as a spy, operative or an invisible face who steered events in a certain direction.

Paddy is used to a life of privilege and perhaps luckily also gifted with the talent of being able to improvise on the spot, which comes in handy when she is stranded on the other side of the channel on the cusp of France surrendering to the Nazi regime. A path that leads her into the inner sanctum of secret operatives fighting to keep the country and its people safe.

Simultaneously Friedl is being forced to choose between keeping her loved ones safe or betraying a country she knows little about. The women cross paths and are drawn into a dark world of suspicion, secrets and double bluffs.

It’s an interesting venture into historical war fiction. Fictional, and yet believable.

Buy One Woman’s War at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: William Morrow – Harper360, pub date 4 Oct 2022. Buy at Amazon com.

#Review Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish

 A great story based on real events during WW2 – Operation Moonlight by Louise Morrish. ‘Wartime France. A newly trained agent. A deadly mission.’

About the Author

Louise Morrish is a Librarian whose debut novel won the 2019 Penguin Random House First Novel Competition – chosen from over 4000 entries – in partnership with the Daily Mail. She finds inspiration for her stories in the real-life adventures of women in the past, whom history has forgotten. She lives in Hampshire with her family. Follow @LouiseMorrish1 on Twitter, Find out more about Louise at linktr.ee/louisemorrish

About the book

1944: newly recruited SOE agent Elisabeth Shepherd is faced with an impossible mission: to parachute behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied France and monitor the new long-range missiles the Germans are working on. Her only advice? Trust absolutely no one. With danger lurking at every turn, one wrong move for Elisabeth could spell instant death.

2018: Betty is about to celebrate her 100th birthday. With her carer Tali at her side, she receives an invite from the Century Society to reminisce on the past.

Remembering a life shrouded in secrecy and danger, Betty remains tight-lipped. But when Tali finds a box filled with maps, letters and a gun hidden in Betty’s cellar, it becomes clear that Betty’s secrets are about to be uncovered . . .

Nostalgic, heart-pumping and truly page-turning, Operation Moonlight is both a gripping read and a novel that makes you think about a generation of women and men who truly knew what it meant to survive.

The inspiration for Operation Moonlight – The real-life SOE heroines of WW2

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a clandestine government organisation, authorized by Winston Churchill in 1940 to ‘set Europe ablaze’, which recruited and trained over 400 secret agents, 39 of them women. Only a handful of these female secret agents have been remembered for their brave achievements.

In 1942, in an unprecedented move, women were recruited into the organisation. The decision shocked and angered some people, not least because if women were given the right to bear arms they would no longer be protected by the Geneva Convention. This meant that if they were caught by the enemy, they could not expect to be treated as prisoners of war.

Nevertheless, 39 French speaking women, some of them wives and mothers, their ages ranging from 19 to 51, from a variety of backgrounds, were recruited. Once recruited, the women embarked on a 4-stage course, training alongside their male counterparts.

If the agents passed the stringent criteria, they were then sent to paramilitary training in Arisaig, Scotland. Here, they learned to survive in the beautiful, yet wild and unforgiving Scottish landscape. On the remote beaches and secluded moors, they were taught the rudiments of demolition and sabotage.

The second stage of the agents’ course was parachute training, which took place at Ringway Aerodrome in Manchester. Up until now, the women had endured everything the male agents experienced. But when it came to jumping from a plane, the women were only expected to make three practise jumps, their fourth being into France. The men, however, performed an additional night jump, and thus were awarded their ‘wings’.

The final stage of training was known as Finishing School, and took place at various Stately Homes such as Beaulieu in Hampshire. Here, the agents honed their skills in espionage, and undertook pseudo-schemes, evading capture by the Southampton police force, in readiness for their real missions in France.

Of the 39 women who risked their lives as agents, 12 were executed following their capture by the Germans, while one died of meningitis during her mission. The remainder survived the war.

Writing Operation Moonlight, Louise Morrish took inspiration from all the female agents of the SOE, but three women – in addition to Louise’s grandmother Betty – in particular: Noor Inayat Khan, Violette Szabo, and Odette Sansom Hallowes, whom Morrish researched in detail at The National Archives, at Kew.

Review

This is a dual timeline read – the reader is taken back and forth from 2018 and to the 1940s, as the secrets of an old lady who is about to celebrate a milestone birthday start to emerge. Betty still finds it hard to change old habits, which is to let sleeping dogs lie because you’ve been taught to never say a word, ergo periods of her life have been hidden from everyone around her. It also means there has never been any recognition for the her bravery.

You already low-key know you’re going to enjoy a book when you start casting the characters for the screen version shortly after starting the book. It has the emotional bonding of Home Fire with Bletchley House suspense, and I would very much like to throw in a pop culture reference  – it absolutely gave me Fall From Grace vibes.

It’s both tragically sad and disappointing that although we remember the casualties of war every year, we seem to forget the service and sacrifice of the living, during the same periods of time in history. It’s a strange phenomenon that those who returned were revered less than those who didn’t, to live forever in the shadow of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and yet is or was theirs not equally as great.

It’s a riveting historical fiction read, which is even more fascinating given the true events it is based on, and the author absolutely does her personal connection to the story justice. These women were incredibly brave, especially considering the lack of support they knew to expect if they were caught. It’s an incredible part of history that has taken a secondary place in comparison to the actions and deaths of others.

Buy Operation Moonlight at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Century, pub date 21 July 2022. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via Penguin Uk.

#BlogTour The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan

‘From the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir comes an unforgettable story inspired by the true events of a BBC-sponsored wartime cooking competition.’ It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan.

About the Author

Jennifer Ryan is the author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. She lives in Ireland with her husband and two children. Originally from Kent and then London, she was previously a non-fiction book editor. Follow @JenniferiRyan on Twitter

About the book

Two years into the Second World War, and German U-boats are frequently disrupting Britain’s supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio programme called The Kitchen Front launches a new cooking contest – and the grand prize is a job as the programme’s first-ever female co-host.

For young widow Audrey, winning the competition could be a chance to pay off her husband’s debts and keep a roof over her children’s heads. However, her estranged sister, Gwendoline, is equally set on success even if her own kitchen maid, Nell, is competing against her. And then there is Zelda, a London-trained chef desperate to succeed in a male-dominated profession – and harbouring a secret that will change everything . . .

Review

This story is fiction woven with facts, based loosely on programmes the BBC actually had during wartime and times of rationing. In an attempt to teach people how to create meals from less a cooking competition is started and includes four very different women who are determined to win. One of those women is the young mother and recently widowed Audrey.

Winning would mean being able to take care of her already vulnerable children, and you would think that her family would line up to be her biggest supporter, well everyone except for her sister who also has her mind set on winning. What follows is a healthy, funny and often emotional race to the finishing line.

The book is filled with the connection to food, the love of the one thing that brings all people together. My parents are ration babies and my father in particular has many stories to tell, and he is also capable of whipping up a meal out of anything at all. The most basic of ingredients with a tenfold ways of creating nourishing food.

The story is filled with the spirit of sisterhood and friendship, even though it takes a while to get there for some. The trauma of the times they live in call for extraordinary measures, and I think a lot of those have never really left certain countries. Stories are passed on, as are memories, and more importantly those ways and attempts to unify, comfort and support have been passed on also.

It’s contemporary read, despite the fact it is historical fiction. The important elements of humanity, friendship and even the more nuanced aspects of rivalry and competitions, all of these things resonate now as they did then. 

Ryan writes a jolly good yarn, one readers can connect with, whilst drawing parallels and feasting on memories and nostalgia. A Home Fires vibe, mixing the staunch upper lip and iron will to survive and persevere with the devastation of loss, change and new beginnings. It’s a read I think many will enjoy.

Buy The Kitchen Front at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Pan; 3 Mar. 2022. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton

 It’s my turn on the BlogTour The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton.

About the Author

Meg Waite Clayton is a New York Times bestselling author of six novels, most recently Beautiful Exiles. Her previous novels include the Langum Prize–honored The Race for Paris; The Language of Light, a finalist for the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction (now the PEN/Bellwether); and The Wednesday Sisters, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. 

She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Forbes, and public radio, often on the subject of the particular challenges women face. Follow @MegWClayton on Twitter, Visit megwaiteclayton.com

About the book

The New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to London revisits the dark early days of the German occupation in France in this haunting novel—a love story and a tale of high-stakes danger and incomparable courage—about a young American heiress who helps artists hunted by the Nazis escape from war-torn Europe.

Wealthy, beautiful Naneé was born with a spirit of adventure that transcends her Midwestern roots. For her, learning to fly is freedom. When German tanks roll across the border and into Paris, this woman with an adorable dog and a generous heart joins the resistance. Known as the Postmistress because she delivers information to those in hiding, Naneé uses her charms and skill to house the hunted and deliver them to safety.

Inspired by the real life Chicago heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who worked with American journalist Varian Fry to smuggle artists and intellectuals out of France, Meg Waite Clayton has fashioned a sweeping tale of romance and danger, set in a world aflame with personal and political passion. The Postmistress of Paris is the haunting story of an indomitable woman whose strength, bravery, and love is a beacon of hope in a time of terror.

Review

Naneé is woman who loves being one with the air and nature, and yet simultaneously also enjoys the way others embrace and then express the way they perceive life. As the evil ideology of the Nazi regime slowly encroaches upon her life and the lives of those around her, she makes a choice. She becomes part of the solution and part of the resistance.

A story born from an inspirational story leading into and during World War 2. The author takes that inspiration and creates an emotional, caring story around it. It’s not just about love, it’s about endurance and being willing to go that extra mile under extreme circumstances for the people you love or in this case people who are stuck in the eye of a deadly storm. The courage of individuals sometimes leaves the smallest footprint, but makes the most lasting and important impression.

It’s historical fiction with plenty of amusing and endearing moments, whilst giving the historical importance of this period in time due diligence. It also opens the door into less often discussed events during this period, especially in regards to the attitude and position towards the creative arts and their creators. 

Buy The Postmistress of Paris at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎ Harper pub date 30 Nov. 2021. Buy at Amazon com. At Harper Collins.

#BlogTour The Gathering Storm by Alan Jones

 It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Gathering Storm by Alan Jones.

About the Author

Alan Jones is a Scottish author with three gritty crime stories to his name, the first two set in Glasgow, the third one based in London. He has now switched genres, and his WW2 trilogy will be published in August 2021. It is a Holocaust story set in Northern Germany. He is married with four grown up children and four wonderful grandchildren.

He has recently retired as a mixed-practice vet in a small Scottish coastal town in Ayrshire and is one of the RNLI volunteer coxswains on the local lifeboat. He makes furniture in his spare time, and maintains and sails a 45-year-old yacht in the Irish Sea and on the beautiful west coast of Scotland. He loves reading, watching films and cooking. He still plays football despite being just the wrong side of sixty.

His crime novels are not for the faint-hearted, with some strong language, violence, and various degrees of sexual content. The first two books also contain a fair smattering of Glasgow slang.

He is one of the few self-published authors to be given a panel at Bloody Scotland and has done two pop-up book launches at the festival in Stirling. He has spent the last five years researching and writing the Sturmtaucher Trilogy. Follow @alanjonesbooks on Twitter, Visit alanjonesbooks.co.uk

About the book

Book 1 in the Sturmtaucher Trilogy: a powerful and compelling story of two families torn apart by evil.

‘Kiel, Northern Germany, 1933. A naval city, the base for the German Baltic fleet, and the centre for German sailing, the venue for the upcoming Olympic regatta in 1936.

The Kästners, a prominent Military family, are part of the fabric of the city, and its social, naval and yachting circles. The Nussbaums are the second generation of their family to be in service with the Kästners as domestic staff, but the two households have a closer bond than most.

As Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party claw their way to power in 1933, life has never looked better for families like the Kästners. There is only one problem. The Nussbaums are Jews.

The Sturmtaucher Trilogy documents the devastating effect on both families of the Nazis’ hateful ideology and the insidious erosion of the rights of Germany’s Jews. When Germany descends ever deeper into dictatorship, General Erich Kästner tries desperately to protect his employees, and to spirit them to safety.

As the country tears itself apart, the darkness which envelops a nation threatens not only to destroy two families, but to plunge an entire continent into war.’

Review

There is nothing that unusual about the way the Nussbaum and Kaestner family live, work and interact with each other. A German Jewish family and what would have been known as a pure Aryan German family. In the 1930s the hatred, discrimination and the political encroachment of the Nazi’s was well underway.

Aside from showing the cracks that appear in the once united families, the author also does an excellent job of showing the way the military and the lurking dictatorship bat heads to then be consumed by the illogical and insidious ideology. On top of that the military strategy used to take one European country after the other flows quietly throughout the story.

It’s an ambitious start to this historical fiction trilogy, which is certainly an in-depth study of fact combined with a enough fiction to fill in the blanks and create a fascinating read. Jones has clearly spent a lot of time researching the historical aspects of this period in German history and the maps, references and added information enhance the read.

I think it could have been shorter, however I embrace both the magnum opus aspect of the trilogy, and the fact the author wants to give due diligence to all the details surrounding the tragedy of the Holocaust, World War 2 and indeed 20th century history. Instead of concentrating on Ground Zero he draws the connections, consequences and cause and effect leading up to it, whilst keeping the read on a personal level by telling the story of a family directly impacted by all of the aforementioned.

Buy The Gathering Storm at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Ailsa Publishing pub date 19 Aug. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Deptford Girls by Patricia A McBride

Today it’s my turn on the BlogTour The Deptford Girls by Patricia A McBride.

About the Author

Patricia lives in Cambridge, England with her husband Rick. She first wrote non-fiction, mainly self-help books, but became inspired to try her hand at fiction. In addition to writing she volunteers for a local museum and Addenbrookes Hospital.

Follow Patricia McBride on Facebook, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Buy The Deptford Girls

About the book

A country at war. Friends in trouble. A fascist traitor. Stepping up can only lead Lily to danger. Rescuing friends or spotting spies; Private Lily Baker always gets involved.

While London burns she looks out for workmates and girlfriends but also uncovers a web of deception at the Depot where she works.

When the ruthless suspect knows she’s closing in, she must act fast to unmask the traitor and save her friends, herself, and the brave soldiers overseas whose lives are at risk.

The Deptford Girls is the fourth in the Lily Baker wartime series. This heart-wrenching story features courage, friendship, betrayal, compelling characters, and a captivating plot.

If you like vivid stories that take you right into the world of the characters, you’ll love The Deptford Girls. Cuddle up with a cuppa and enjoy this exciting, warm-hearted read.

Review

This is the fourth book in the Lily Baker wartime series. This can be read as a standalone novel but I would suggest perhaps reading the others for continuity of character stories.

As London is turned into complete chaos and the person next to you can easily become the next victim, Lily is still alert and invested in keeping those around her safe, even if it is difficult at times. She uses her gut instinct, which serves her well in this story, and yet also never loses her empathy for others, despite the difficult and often challenging circumstances.

The sub-plot of Lily’s friend is indicative of the time – plenty of women and children became tragic casualties of old-fashioned rules and societal norms. Scandals that often led to lifelong regrets, damaged individuals and traumatised women.

McBride captures the brutality of living in a country at war. The repercussions of battle on soldiers, who often suffered from conditions, which were yet to be correctly examined or diagnosed. How those left in Britain coped with being a target of vicious bombings. The evacuation of their children, the destruction and death around them. The loss of their loved ones.

On top of that considering the implications of the enemy working from the inside out to weaken the strategy of the opposition, and those who chose to put profit above safety and hide in the chaos of wartime. It certainly shows the reader that life goes on regardless of what is going on around them in a greater context.

It’s a quick pleasant read that delivers, drama, action and the emotional turmoil of the genre.

Buy The Deptford Girls at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

#WartimeClassics #BlogTour Green Hands by Barbara Whitton

Today it’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour for another book reprinted and published by the  Imperial War Museum.

The Wartime Classics Series was launched by the Imperial War Museum in September 2019 to great acclaim. The novels were all written either during or just after the Second World War and are currently out of print. Following the IWM’s commitment to tell the stories of those who experienced conflict first hand, each novel is written directly from the author’s own experience and takes the reader right into the heart of the battle or their experience of war, which doesn’t always include combat.

About the Author

Margaret Hazel Watson (writing under the pseudonym Barbara Whitton) was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1921. She was educated at the Church High Girls School in Newcastle, and later sent to St Leonards School in St Andrews. Due to study Art in Paris, her training was curtailed by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Having volunteered for the Women’s Land Army (WLA) in 1939, she worked as a Land Girl for around a year before moving to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) and later joining the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a driver, where she remained for the duration of the war. Her novel Green Hands is a fictionalised account of her time spent as a Land Girl, detailing the back-breaking hard work and intensity of her experience with good humour and an enchanting lightness of touch. During her time with the ATS she met her husband Pat Chitty and they were married in 1941. After the war, she wrote a number of accounts of her wartime experience and retained an interest in art, literature and horticulture throughout her life. She died in 2016.

Buy Green Hands at Amazon Uk

About the book

It is 1943, and a month into their service as Land Girls, Bee, Anne and Pauline are dispatched to a remote farm in rural Scotland. Here they are introduced to the realities of ‘lending a hand on the land’, as back-breaking work and inhospitable weather mean they struggle to keep their spirits high.

Soon one of the girls falters, and Bee and Pauline receive a new posting to a Northumberland dairy farm. Detailing their friendship, daily struggles and romantic intrigues with a lightness of touch, Barbara Whitton’s autobiographical novel paints a sometimes funny, sometimes bleak picture of time spent in the Women’s Land Army during the Second World War.

Review

This story is a fictional account based on the real experiences of Margaret Watson, during World War 2. In 1943 the 17000 women who had already volunteered to help on the homefront were supplemented by adding conscription to the mix. This meant single women had to play their part in winning or fighting the war.

I think we can agree that no matter whether they opted to join the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force), ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), WRNS ( Women’s Royal Naval Service) – work in a wartime factory or join the Land Girls as a member of WLA (Women’s Land Army) – the propaganda looks and looked different from the reality.

Even now when I look at the posters and literature I can absolutely see the nostalgic feeling, but most importantly the emotions of pride and sense of belonging it would have evoked. The emotional bond and thread it would have created between the men giving and risking their lives for their country, and those left behind doing their part.

If anything at all Bee’s story, and indeed that of her friends, serves to prove how hard it actually was, and that it wasn’t the way it is often portrayed on television. As jolly young women with headscarves doing their bit and making great lasting friendships and romances at the same time.

Instead it was hard labour and environments full of misogynists, chauvinists and sexist men, who were perhaps disappointed at their own homeland role instead of being overseas with their fellow brothers.

I really enjoyed this eye-opening look at an experience that is always made to look romantic, fun and something every girl would sign-up for – the propaganda worked I’d say. It’s important the women played their part and proved equality isn’t or wasn’t a fictional prospect, although they had to return to secondary roles after the war ended, but it is equally important that their roles are portrayed and written about in a truthful manner.

Buy Green Hands at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Imperial War Museum; pub date 10 Sept. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Read my reviews of these Wartime Classics – Warriors for the Working Day, Patrol, Eight Hours from England, Trial by Battle and From the City, From the Plough.

Buy Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob

Buy Patrol by Fred Majdalany

Buy Eight Hours from England by Anthony Quayle.

Buy Trial by Battle by David Piper.

Buy From the City, From the Plough by Alexander Baron.

About the Imperial War Museums – IWM

‘IWM (Imperial War Museums) tells the story of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the First World War.

Our unique collections, made up of the everyday and the exceptional, reveal stories of people, places, ideas and events. Using these, we tell vivid personal stories and create powerful physical experiences across our five museums that reflect the realities of war as both a destructive and creative force. We challenge people to look at conflict from different perspectives, enriching their understanding of the causes, course and consequences of war and its impact on people’s lives.

IWM’s five branches which attract over 2.5 million visitors each year are IWM London, IWM’s flagship branch that recently transformed with new, permanent and free First World War Galleries alongside new displays across the iconic Atrium to mark the Centenary of the First World War; IWM North, housed in an iconic award-winning building designed by Daniel Libeskind; IWM Duxford, a world renowned aviation museum and Britain’s best preserved wartime airfield; Churchill War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall; and the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast.’

#BlogTour Wartime for the Shop Girls by Joanna Toye

Today it’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Wartime for the Shop Girls by Joanna Toye.

About the Author

Joanna Toye joined the production team of The Archers after reading English at Cambridge University, and became a scriptwriter for the programme for over twenty years. She has written a number of spin-off books about the long-running radio drama. On television, she has written for Crossroads, Doctors and Eastenders.

Follow @JoannaToye on Twitter, on Instagram, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Buy Wartime for the Shop Girls

About the book

It’s 1942 and as shortages of staff – and goods – begin to bite, young Lily Collins is thrilled to step up to sales junior in her job at Marlow’s department store.

But bombs are still falling and Lily and fellow shop girls Gladys and Beryl need a stiff upper lip to wave boyfriends, husbands and brothers goodbye, especially with a baby on the way and grim news on the wireless. When Jim, who works with Lily at the store, seems restless, things are bad enough, but nothing can prepare Lily for the secrets that come tumbling out when her favourite brother comes home on leave…

Somehow, she must keep smiling trough. Community, family and friends rally round as her home town – and the whole country – is tested once again.

Review

This is the second book in a new series set in the fictional department store Marlow’s. Both books can absolutely also be read as standalone novels.

The charm of this series is the normality of it all, well as normal as it can be when you’re writing about World War II. Instead of delving into the horrors of that period in history Toye gives the readers the war at home. The changes, the coping and the new structures needed to sustain everyone on the homefront.

How everyone comes together to support Beryl while she is feeling vulnerable and Gladys becomes brave enough to speak her mind. The way Lily deals with a secret that brings grave consequences with it. All of them know that they are stronger together, as opposed to letting themselves be ripped apart by the tragic losses and fear they experience.

The focus is on a few characters, family and friends and the way they deal with the heartache and the fear. It gives it a warmer feel – emotions and situations the reader can relate to. It could be your family, which is exactly what the strength of the series is.

It’s historical fiction set in Britain during World War II. Toye uses the department store to show the changes and difficulties during that time on a small scale, which makes it easier to imagine and comprehend all of it on a national scale. Women stepping into the roles of men to ensure that the country, and the war machine kept running. Families having to deal with the uncertainty of their loved one being in the midst of dangerous conflicts. Hoping every day that a death or MIA message wouldnt be delivered to their door.

The author captures all of that in this heartfelt story, which is ultimately about family and friendships holding each person together in the most difficult time of their lives. It will be interesting to follow Lily, Beryl and Gladys as their stories continue in the third book of this series.

Buy Wartime for the Shop Girls at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HarperCollins pub date 23 Jan. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce

Emmeline Lake is ambitious. She wants to be a journalist, a woman in a man’s world, a Lady war correspondent. Someone who sniffs out the story and feeds it to the masses. When she answers an ad in the newspaper and gets the job she thinks all her eggs have hatched at once. Unfortunately she finds her new position is not only not at the newspaper it’s only as the typist for the formidable agony aunt of a women’s magazine with low readership.

Emmeline decides to see it as a temporary situation, a stepping stone to the bigger world of journalism, but she hasn’t bargained with Mrs Henrietta Bird. Never has she met a more cantankerous, narrow-minded and prudish woman. The poor young girls and women who write to Mrs Bird aren’t aware that their letters are judged and discarded within a moments notice. Never shall there be a mention of anything in any way scandalous or inappropriate.

Emmeline finds herself drawn to the worries, questions and concerns of the women. She makes an impulsive decision, which could potentially end her budding career. 

This all takes place in London during WW2 and the heavy bombing of the town by the Germans. Trauma and fear play a poignant part in this story, and also the bravery of the men. women and children who tried to survive in the bomb plagued areas of England.

In a way this book puts the whole agony aunt column into perspective, well actually it shines a completely different light on it. That it might be a way of crossing the boundaries of oppression when it comes to topics which may be controversial or being the confidante for people who have no other person to confide in.

I wonder how many of us would do the same thing as Emmeline given half the chance. The possibility of easing the worried minds of a few women here and there, and of course the act of defiance against the patriarchy of society. Just the simple feeling of knowing that one isn’t alone with a problem, be it a mundane one or one of a more serious nature. Women supporting other women.

It’s amusing, and yet also a tale of bravery at the same time. Mrs Bird is an endearing story of hope, spontaneity, determination and courage.

Buy Dear Mrs Bird at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Picador; pub date Paperback Dec 2018. Buy at Amazon com.

Follow @ajpearcewrites, Visit ajpearce.com