Home for Christmas — Annie Groves

A stunning tale of four young women thrown together by war.

Finding freedom and independence â€" as well as love, passion and heartbreak â€" for the very first time, a unique bond is formed as the hostilities take their toll on Britain.

It's September 1940 and the German blitz on London has just begun. The four young girls who live at No. 13 Article Row live under its constant threat. But life must go on…

Tilly and Sally both work at Barts Hospital where they witness the cruelty of war first-hand.

Agnes volunteers to work extra hours at her underground station to help with the nightly influx of people seeking safety from the bombs.

Dulcie, with her broken ankle, tries to make peace with her mother, following the news of the death of her sister Enid. But her grief-stricken mother doesn't want to know.

Sally returns to her painful past in Liverpool. But it's not seeing the man she once loved, nor her father and ex-best friend's child that hurt most…

As Christmas approaches, the arrival of the handsome young American Drew, ignites new life in the heart Tilly thought was broken.

As the bombs continue to rain down on a frosty London, perilous challenges lay around every corner. And all anyone wants this year is to be home for Christmas.

Reviews

Praise for Annie Groves:

‘An engrossing story' My Weekly

‘A stirring and heartrending family saga…Against a backdrop of change when the suffragette movement was coming to the fore, the choices and dreams of a generation of women combine to create this passionate story' Liverpool Daily Post

‘Heartwrenching and uplifting in equal measure â€" a tragic indictment of what can happen when you swap passion for duty. Roll on the sequel!' Take a Break

‘Written from the heart' My Weekly

About the author

Annie Groves was born and lived in the north-west of England all of her life. She was the author of the Pride family series, Ellie Pride, Connie's Courage and Hettie of Hope Street, for which she drew upon her own family's history, picked up from listening to her grandmother's stories when she was a child. Her next set of novels was the World War II series Goodnight Sweetheart, Some Sunny Day, The Grafton Girls and As Time Goes By. These were followed by the Campion series, Across the Mersey, Daughters of Liverpool, The Heart of the Family, Where the Heart Is and When the Lights Go on Again, which are also based on recollections from members of her family, who come from the city of Liverpool. My Sweet Valentine follows on from Home for Christmas and London Belles and is the third in this series, which introduces a set of glorious characters living in Article Row in Holborn.
Annie Groves, whose real name was Penny Halsall, also wrote under the name of Penny Jordan and was an international bestselling author of over 170 novels with sales of over 84 million copies.
Sadly, Penny Halsall died in 2011. She left a wonderful legacy of heart-warming novels for many more fans to discover and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
The final books in the Article Row series, Only a Mother Knows and A Christmas Promise, will be published posthumously in 2013.