In 1942, Lale Sokolov arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was given the job of tattooing the prisoners marked for survival - scratching numbers into his fellow victims' arms in indelible ink to create what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust. Waiting in line to be tattooed, terrified and shaking, was a young girl. For Lale - a dandy, a jack-the-lad, a bit of a chancer - it was love at first sight. And he was determined not only...

It is 1940 in coastal Lincolnshire and Carolyn Holmes is keen to do what she can for the war effort. Raised on the family farm, she battles with her mother, Lilian, to further her education although nothing is too good for her brother, Tom. Phyllis Carter, a bitter widow from the Great War, lives close by with her son, Peter, who works on the farm. When Peter decides to volunteer, a distraught Phyllis blames Carolyn who leaves to join the ATS where...

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return. In the midst of mourning him, fresh recruits arrive to continue the war effort, among them charismatic Canadian Steve Allard. The months ahead will be long and hard, with danger a constant companion, and...

In the midst of World War II, the members of one village WI fight harder than ever to help the war effort. But behind closed doors, each is fighting a more personal battle. Pat Simms is reeling from her own role in her abusive husband's death, and the new freedom before her is daunting. Sarah Collingborne is struggling with the absence of her husband, who is stranded in a POW camp abroad, and trying her best to fill his treasured place in the village....

It's 1940 and Britain is at war with Germany. For Cora Stubbs and her younger siblings this means being evacuated to the safety of the English countryside. But little does Cora know that Hitler's bombs are nothing compared to the danger she will face in her new home, and she is forced to grow up fast. However, Cora is a fighter and she strives to carve out a new life for herself and her siblings. Time passes, and in the midst of grief and loss she...

A sweeping new novel from the number one Sunday Times bestselling author of The Tea Planter's Wife. In 1943, Contessa Sofia de' Corsi's peaceful Tuscan villa among the olive groves is upturned by the sudden arrival of German soldiers. Desperate to fight back, she agrees to shelter a wounded British radio engineer in her home, keeping him hidden from her husband Lorenzo - knowing that she is putting all of their lives at risk. When Maxine, an Italian-American...

February 1942. The Americans have finally joined Britain and its allies. Meanwhile, 23-year-old Francesca Fabrino, like many other women, is doing her bit for the war effort in a factory in East London. Her thoughts are occupied by her unrequited love for Charlie Brogan, who's recently married a woman of questionable reputation, before being shipped out to North Africa with the Eighth Army. When Francesca starts working as an Italian translator for...

Queenie Brogan wasn't always an East End matriarch. Many years ago, before she married Fergus, she was Philomena Dooley, daughter of Irish Travellers, planning to wed her childhood sweetheart Patrick Mahon. But when tragedy struck, and Patrick's narrow-minded sister Nora intervened, the lovers were torn apart. Fate can be cruel: when Queenie arrives in London, she finds that Patrick Mahon is her parish priest, and the love she had tried to suppress...

April 1941, Romsey, England. Josephine 'Jo' Fox hasn't set foot in Romsey in over 20 years. As an illegitimate child, her family found her an embarrassment. Now, she wants to return to what was once her home and uncover the secret of her parentage. Who was her father and why would her mother never talk about him? Jo arrives the day after the Luftwaffe have bombed the town. The local pub, The Cricketers' Arms, has been completely destroyed and rescue...

London, 1940. Winnie Berry is at the heart of the community in her pub, The Battersea Tavern. Her door is always open to those in need of a cup of tea and sympathy. Winnie's abusive husband has left and she finds herself foolishly falling in love with black market trader, Harry Hampton. But Harry is married and Winnie soon finds herself tied up in his web of secrets. Meanwhile Winnie's son is back in London - not to visit his own child, but to charm...