Beryl Kingston Livres

A heartening tale of unity and courage. The Jackson family's peaceful south London life is shattered when World War Two breaks out. Sixteen-year-old Mary is immediately evacuated, and the rest of the family sets about combining daily life with wartime duties in the nation's capital. The war is gruelling and heart-breaking for Londoners, and Rosie and Jim Jackson are no exception. But their close family bonds and the warmth of friends and neighbours see them through, as the ups and downs of family life - marriages, births and deaths - continue as they always have, despite the conflict that rampages around them. Until one day, a tragedy that nobody had dared to consider, strikes a devastating blow. And as the war gradually comes to a close, the Jacksons find themselves facing the future with a family - and a country - that have been irrevocably changed. Citizen Armies combines the qualities of an absorbing family saga with acutely observed and beautifully written social history, and is bound to please lovers of fiction and history alike.

A saga first published in 1989, which paints a picture of the lives of both the poor and the privileged in Georgian England. From the author of TWO SILVER CROSSES, MAGGIE'S BOY, ALIVE AND KICKING and LAURA'S WAY.

It is 1936 and the headmistress at Roehampton Secondary School, pioneer and suffragette Octavia Smith, is steering her pupils towards success as her exemplary girls' school moves from strength to strength. But as Europe rumbles towards war, Octavia finds herself caught up in covert plans to rescue Jewish families from the Nazi advance.

As D-Day looms, fiery redhead Barbara Nelson meets Steve Wilkins, who represents everything that King's Lynn and the fishermen's slum she grew up in is not. And to him, Barbara is the most astonishing woman he has ever seen. Will their lifelong commitment to each other survive the strain of war?

Nach dem Tod ihres Mannes beschließt Gwen MacIvor, endlich zu leben. Sie ergreift radikale Veränderungen, darunter eine neue Frisur und ein Haus am Meer. Besonders ihre Tochter Eleonor ist entsetzt, da sie ihre Mutter als Babysitterin für ihr ungeborenes Kind eingeplant hatte. Gwen will ihre Wünsche nun in den Vordergrund stellen.