Can the festive cheer warm her heart again? October 1941. Despite the hardships of life during wartime, Bobby Bancroft has never been happier. Engaged to her airman sweetheart Charlie, living in the beautiful Dales village of Silverdale and gainfully employed at The Tyke magazine, her life seems to be going exactly the way she always hoped it would. As the festive season approaches, Bobby is recruited to help produce a Christmas pantomime for the evacuee children billeted in the village. The project introduces her to some new friends, including a handsome Canadian, Flying Officer Ernie King, and her friend Topsy’s upper-crust cousin Archie Sumner. However, fresh troubles arise when Charlie discovers his RAF training is to be cut short and he must prepare to join the fight imminently. What’s more, his upcoming leave has been cancelled, leaving him to spend a lonely Christmas in his barracks. Can a miracle bring Charlie and Bobby together for Christmas? An absolutely captivating, heart warming and uplifting festive saga that fans of All Creatures Great and Small, Gervase Phinn and Maggie Mason will adore. Readers can’t get enough of Wartime Christmas in the Dales: ‘This was such a heartfelt story of a beautiful story in the wartime of Christmas. All the feel good, but all the honest feels also. It was wonderful!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘A wonderful tale set during wartime. While the war is serious the characters’ antics and the festive season keep the story lighthearted.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘This is a delightful read set during WW2. ... What could possibly be better than snow, Christmas with diverse characters and an amusing extraordinary engagement party?’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘Such a heartwarming read. Written with feeling.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘I loved this latest instalment in Bobby Bancroft's story...Plenty of detail make wartime life in the Dales feel very real.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘Amazing storyline, loved the setting and the characters and as always Betty has come up trumps, once you start you can’t put it down.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review ‘I love the setting and likeable characters.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review

For those who lived through wartime Christmases the celebrations during those years had an especially poignant flavour. This unique anthology recreates those times of heartache and brief moments of pleasurable escape and happiness. Share with wartime veterans and their families memories of Christmas under fire; read about the gift of a pig for POWs' dinner from the Japanese emperor and how Glenn Miller's disappearance almost ruined the AEF Christmas show; enjoy ENSA veterans' anecdotes of Christmas concerts in the most awkward situations. From Christmas on the Russian Front, on board ship in heaving seas and a soldier's experiences in Egypt, 'It ain't arf hot' pantomimes and the Archbishop of York's Christmas message in 1940, to an account of life in the Warsaw ghetto, here is a collection of what made Christmas special during the years of the Second World War. Illustrated throughout, A Wartime Christmas showcases the hope, warmth and colour that the occasion inspired during those bleak times.

Diane Allen's The Yorkshire Farm Girl is a heartfelt novel of a family dreaming of a better life when WW2 looms on the horizon. September 1939. Friends Maggie Shaunessy and Lizzie Taylor are heartbroken to be evacuated from their Liverpool homes to rural Yorkshire. Lizzie is sent to live with a vicar in the village of Gargrave, while Maggie finds herself delivered by chauffeur to Hawith Hall and Lady and Lord Bradley. Both girls at the hall and the vicarage are far different to what they are used to – and both are very homesick. Though Maggie finds friendship too in the form of Alice, a young servant at the hall who takes Maggie under her wing. But change is coming to the Dales too, leaving the girls feeling harboring desperate plans of run away, back to Liverpool . . .

**Don't miss Jenny Holmes's latest wartime series, The Air Raid Girls. Part 3 - The Air Raid Girls: Wartime Brides - is available now!** --------------------------------------------- A heart-warming, romantic story of friendship, camaraderie and triumph over adversity that fans of Donna Douglas, Daisy Styles and Call the Midwife will adore. Winter, 1942. Brenda and Joyce are just two of the girls who have joined the Women's Land Army and are doing their bit for the war effort. But after months working on farms in the Yorkshire Dales, they're looking for a fresh challenge. Despite the bitter cold of their new billets high in the remote fells, their fear for those away fighting, and concern for family and friends, there is warmth to be found in faces old and new, and plans for a jolly Christmas are afoot. But when a child evacuee goes missing in the snow and tragedy strikes close to home, can their dearest wish - that all their loved ones stay safe this Christmas - possibly come true? --------------------------------------------- Readers love Jenny Holmes: 'There wasn't anything I didn't like about this book' 5 star review 'I couldn't put this book down' 5 star review 'Loved the whole story' 5 star review 'This is a totally absorbing book' 5 star review 'An excellent read put together in fine style' 5 star review

Robyn Bloom thought Ash Barnes was the love of her life – until one day he announced he was leaving her to fly halfway across the world. Months later, Robyn is struggling to move on – but then she has a brainwave: The Never Have I Ever Club. Her handsome next-door neighbour Will helps her bring their fellow Yorkshire villagers together for some carpe-diem-inspired fun. From burlesque dancing to Swedish massages, everyone has plenty of bucket-list activities to try, but it doesn't take long for Robyn to realise what – or who – her heart truly desires: Will. There's just one problem: he's Ash's twin brother. Make that two problems: Ash is moving home... and he wants Robyn back. Mary Jayne Baker is the recipient of the RNA Romantic Comedy Award for A Question of Us.

In 1940 the Chinese writer Chiang Yee arrived in Oxford as a refugee from the London Blitz, his lodgings having been bombed. He came to Oxford, he writes, in rather a turmoil. What was meant to be a brief escape turned into a five-year stay, an affectionate relationship with the city, and the fifth in the hugely successful Silent Traveller series. Looking at the city and its historic university with the curiosity and openness of a complete stranger, Chiang Yee paints a revealing picture of Oxford's particular atmosphere, its rituals and traditions. He mixes with undergraduates and dons, visits pubs and restaurants, witnesses Union debates and punting on the river, all with a gentle astonishment and perceptive eye for detail. Chiang Yee explores the colleges and other student haunts, but also the city and its surrounds, from Port Meadow to Headington and Hinksey. First published in 1944, The Silent Traveller in Oxford evokes a wartime city of shortages and blackouts. It also captures an earlier age of university life, when students drank sherry and scaled college walls to escape prowling Bulldogs. Throughout Chiang Yee draws parallels between Oxford and his native China, compari

**Don't miss Jenny Holmes's latest wartime series, The Air Raid Girls. Part 3 - The Air Raid Girls: Wartime Brides - is available now!** --------------------------------------------- 'Calling All Women!' It's 1941 and as the Second World War rages on, girls from all over the country are signing up to the Women's Land Army. Renowned for their camaraderie and spirit, it is these brave women who step in to take on the gruelling farm work from the men conscripted into the armed forces. When Yorkshire mill girl Una joins the cause, she wonders how she'll adapt to country life. Luckily she's quickly befriended by more experienced Land Girls Brenda and Grace. But as Christmas draws ever near, the girls' resolve is tested as scandals and secrets are revealed, lovers risk being torn apart, and even patriotic loyalties are called into question . . . With only a week to go until the festivities, can the strain of wartime still allow for the magic of Christmas? A wonderful, festive tale of friendship, romance and triumph over adversity that fans of Daisy Styles, Donna Douglas and Call the Midwife will adore.

Honest and Outspoken Advice Helps Plan Your Next Trip Written by Washington, D.C.’s Renee Sklarew, this is the insider’s guide to Washington at its best with more than 50 restaurants and nearly 100 hotels reviewed and ranked for value and quality—plus secrets for getting the lowest rates. With advice that is direct, prescriptive, and detailed, it takes the guesswork out of travel by unambiguously rating and ranking everything from attractions to rental car companies. The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C., digs deeper and offers more than any other guide. With an Unofficial Guide, you know what’s available in every category, from the best to the worst. Step-by-step detailed plans allow you to make the most of your time in Washington, D.C. There’s a reason why more than 6 million Unofficial Guides have sold: these books work! The guides have been cited by such diverse sources as USA Today and Operations Research Forum.

May, 1941. Meet the Air Raid Girls: three young women keen to do their bit during the Yorkshire blitz. Connie's life has taken an unexpected turn since her husband died - she's living at home and working in the family bakery - but night shifts as an ARP Warden give her a firm sense of purpose. Her younger sister Lizzie is eager to play her part too, perhaps as an ambulance driver. Her fiance refuses to support her decision... but does he really know what's best for her? Twenty-year-old Pamela has led a sheltered life, but when her family's home is destroyed in a raid she must learn to stand on her own two feet - helped by new friends. As bombs fall and fires rage, the young women face the destruction of everything they've ever known. Can their fighting spirit prevail? And what of their families and the men they love? A thrilling and heartwarming new story of friendship, love and duty in wartime by the author of The Spitfire Girls, for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Hendry. **Don't miss the next two instalments in the series. The Air Raid Girls at Christmas and The Air Raid Girls: Wartime Brides are available now!** --------------------------------------------- Readers LOVE the Air Raid Girls series: 'There wasn't anything I didn't like about this book' 5 star review 'In all the women at war series of book I have read so far, I think this is the best' 5 star review 'I couldn't put this book down' 5 star review 'Loved the whole story. Hated it coming to an end' 5 star review 'Just the kind of book I like' 5 star review