Otis Hewetson is 17 years old, pretty but unconventional and rebellious. She spends the summer of 1911 on a glorious holiday with her parents, and on a quest for independence. But little does she realise how her new friendships with Jack and Esther will change her life forever. Their paths are destined to cross as they grow from adolescence through to marriage, the fight for women's rights and the bitter blood spilling of the War...
Poverty and factory work have filled Lu Wilmott with a determination to make something of herself. The call to Spain is irresistible: she can live up to her ideals and finally be the woman she's always wanted to be. Signing up as a driver, Lu leaves her past and becomes Eve. One of the few women in charge of heavy vehicles, faced with constant danger, she falls for Spain. But here 'Eve' encounters an old love. Can she find room in her stretched new life for romance? Amidst death and disease, fear and chaos, with food running low, we find a formidable woman is formed from the spirited, naive girl who left Portsmouth...
An enthralling drama of courage, love and determination in time of war from master storyteller Betty Burton.
As World War Two breaks over Europe, Eve Anders is already a veteran from the Spanish Civil War. But now she's called to a very different kind of action: to come home to train for the newly-formed SOE. When Eve left her home town of Portsmouth, she'd never intended to return. Poor housing, poor wages and poor opportunities forced her to make a clean break. But the experience gained as a driver in Spain, desperately fighting for the Republic, enabled her to reinvent herself and to gain a confidence and maturity far beyond her years. She has become her own woman. Which makes her a very attractive prospect in more than one sense to David Hatton, who is charged with selecting highly unusual, independent and intelligent candidates for the Special Operations Executive. This mysterious woman from his past is obviously suitable - as is her current lover, a captain from the Soviet Secret Service. For in the war that lies ahead, one thing is certain: brute force won't be enough.
Praise for the Author: "She places strong heroines in tough situations and creates gripping tales. She's good." BOOKSELLER
Everyone remembered the summer of '39 as golden and strange. Golden because it was the driest on record; strange because people were burrowing holes and roofing them with iron. Waiting for the bombs...
In the Hampshire town of Markham, Georgia Kennedy wakes on her husband's last day in Civvy Street and feels elated. Conventionally married to the pompous Hugh, she discovers liberation during the war. Like other women, she embraces the camaraderie previously held back by gender and class. For Georgia, for rich, spoiled Eve, for salt-of-the-earth Dolly, life will never be the same again.
