Showing results for "the girls" in 20th Century

Brought together by chance, bound together by secrets. A decade into the Depression, Millicent Green is a twenty-five-year-old "old maid" living with her marriage-obsessed mother and domineering older brother in the stiflingly small Jewish community of New Bern, North Carolina. Smart and prickly...

They were sent away to be forgotten. This is their story. In this electrifying historical novel about coming of age in tumultuous 1960s San Francisco, a pregnant teenager reckons with womanhood and agency after being sent to a home for unwed mothers. "Thrilling, propulsive, breathless, and...

London, 1941. The Blitz. When a Royal Navy memo arrives at head office, requesting female recruits to sign up as motorcycle dispatch riders, delivering highly classified orders across the country, three women jump at the chance to sign up for the most dangerous jobs in London.

Jane Hadley has nothing to lose when she runs away to join the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. Whatever faces her in war-torn London can't be any worse than staying at home with her abusive father. The city is nothing like she could have imagined, but she's soon on the move, travelling from base to base for her top-secret training. Making plenty of friends along the way, it doesn't take long for Jane to embrace her growing confidence - especially under the attentive eye of dashing Officer Oscar Stanton.

It is two years before the outbreak of World War 1, and the Oakley family are typical of their time. Andrew has been clerk at a City solicitors for twenty years. Alice, his wife, keeps the home fires burning. Their sons plan on becoming skilled apprentices. And Mabel, their daughter, says she would rather die than go into domestic service like her cousin. She is going to go to train as a secretary. Andrew Oakley little imagines, as he sets off for work one February morning, that their lives are about to change in the most dramatic and tragic fashion.

Nazi-occupied Prague, 1942: Amelia is hiding in her closet when flashlights blind her and she’s captured by the SS. Out on the cobblestone street, her heart shatters as her mother is shot before her eyes. She is shoved onto a freight train with hundreds of others—hours pass as they travel in darkness. Arriving in a concentration camp, Amelia fears for her life when she is led to a block by a soldier. He is her enemy, yet he secretly passes her a piece of bread; an act that saves her.

Berlin, 1989. As the wall between East and West falls, Miriam Winter cares for her dying father, Henryk. When he cries out for someone named Frieda - and Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo hidden under his watch strap - Henryk’s secret history begins to unravel. Searching for more clues of her father’s past, Miriam finds an inmate uniform from the Ravensbrück women’s camp concealed among her mother’s things. Within its seams are dozens of letters to Henryk written by Frieda.

When duty calls, East End girl Minnie Wolton isn’t afraid to do her bit. She’s excited to be joining the ATS girls and although she knows life at the barracks will be tough, she’s not one to quit! She just hopes the other girls are all good sorts. With her husband away fighting, Eileen Ruffel is glad of the break from her unhappy marriage. She just wants to make a success of the ATS girls and maybe find happiness too. Along with the other girls, Minnie and Eileen strike up a firm friendship. The training is hard, but they are determined to prove they are the best new recruits.

Can their friendship survive the darkest days of war? When Abigail arrives for a new start in Bristol in the late 1930s, she knows life won’t be easy - particularly as she is the unmarried mother of three-year-old Emily Grace. But as the war starts to take over the city and threaten their very existence, will Abigail’s new friends, Carrie and Eileen, be enough to keep herself and her daughter safe?

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.

May 1944. Hope and excitement is in the air when news breaks of the allied forces landing in Normandy. D Day has arrived. However, the day-to-day struggles for the Tobacco Girls continue. Peace is on the horizon, but will their wishes and dreams win through and bring them a happy ever after?

Gosport, 1943. Rita, Amelia, Ruby and Dorothy are all doing their bit to help Britain win the war. Their work at Priddy's munitions factory, is dangerous and gruelling, but undoubtedly necessary. However, when an explosion at the factory almost kills several of the workers, the girls decide it's time to find another way to contribute. Amelia sees an advertisement in the Evening News, seeking Hop Pickers in Kent, accommodation provided. Weeks later, they leave Gosport, ready for a new adventure.

Nineteen-year-old Libby moves to Berlin to escape her suffocating family - but instead of offering freedom, the city is under siege by the Nazis. Jewish books are burned, storefronts smashed and every day innocent people vanish into thin air. Libby cannot - will not - turn a blind eye. When Libby meets Harro, she knows there’s more to him than his dazzling smile and cornflower-blue eyes. The whip marks on his back, scars from the SS, tell his true story: He is a resistance fighter.

Combining “fast-paced historical fiction with a hint of suspense” (Booklist), this epic saga from Julia Kelly explores love, motherhood, and betrayal set against World War II. Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man...

Pearl has given up on her dreams of being a journalist after being denied a promotion because of her gender. Joining the WAAF as a radio telephone operator for Bomber Command, Pearl's new job at RAF Fenthorpe serves two purposes – providing an income for her grandmother, and keeping a close eye on her younger sister, Thea, an instrument repairer at another Lincolnshire bomber station.

Sometimes, the deadliest enemy lies within. It is 1942, and war is raging in Europe. Monika Ritter is in New York with her husband, Michael. Haunted by memories of her childhood in Germany and her father’s death at the hands of the Nazis, she longs to do her bit against Hitler’s rampaging armies. When Michael joins the new Army Air Force as a bomber pilot, Monika takes advantage of an invitation she receives to join the OSS, a fledgling group of spies with the mission to turn the war by gathering the most vital asset of all—information.

Sydney, 1941: Olive and Ivy may be identical twins, but they couldn’t be more different. While Olive is focused on marrying a man appropriate to her station, Ivy wants to do more, to be more. Joining the Australian Women’s Army Service is the perfect chance for her to escape her family obligations and make a real difference in the world. She doesn’t expect serving her country to lead to romance...or devastating betrayal and unthinkable grief. Sydney, 2008: Escaping her husband’s betrayal and an impossible personal loss, Madeline returns home to Sydney to nurse her broken heart.

Summer 1939 - When war breaks out, Sylvie is marooned with her cousin Nell's family in the Chiltern hills and cannot return to her Normandy home. During the early days of rationing, blackouts, and the threat of bombers in the skies, Sylvie and Nell have to grow up quickly. Yet as the war rages around them, it's the competition and jealousy between the two that dominates their lives. When the girls fall in love with the same man, their relationship is truly tested. But the war pulls them all apart and changes the course of their lives – until their secrets are revealed.

Discover the brand-new heartwarming and dramatic novel in the Steel Girls series now! 'Emotional and authentic' KATE THOMPSON 'Saga fans are in for a treat!' VICKI BEEBY 'Hopeful, joyous and uplifting' MILLY JOHNSON 'Wartime drama at its best, and the steel girls are my absolute favourite'...

Surrounded by beautiful gardens in the glorious Sussex countryside, Summerhayes House seems like a true hidden paradise, but behind its polished floors and perfect green lawns is a family divided. The Summer family’s beloved home is under threat, and 19-year-old Elizabeth Summer finds herself caught in the heart of the crisis.