Victor Pemberton Libri

1944, north London. Fifteen-year-old Frankie Lewis feels as if the war will go on forever. But one night in the blackout, his life takes an extraordinary turn. Whilst playing a vindictive prank on the German-Jewish widow who lives nearby, Frankie finds himself hauled across her doorstep into a world of books and culture. Fascinated by Elsa's stories of life before the war and her late husband - a British officer - young Frankie becomes good friends with Elsa, helping her out in her shop and confiding his troubles to her - from his crush to his sister's unwanted pregnancy. So, when Elsa suddenly dies of a heart attack, Frankie is devastated. He is almost as shocked to discover that Elsa has left her shop to him - a legacy that her brother-in-law is determined to deny him...

Sarah and Beattie Melford have never understood each other. Beattie, raucous and fun-loving, sees her sister Sarah's quiet reserve as snobbery, and Sarah cannot understand why Beattie appears to upset their parents' comfortable Islington household at every opportunity. When Sarah discovers her younger sister's spiteful affair with the naval officer she'd hoped to marry, she is devastated, whilst the defiant Beattie's reputation lies in tatters. As London recovers from the trauma of the Great War the girls are forced into very different lives. But, through the child they both love, it seems there might be a chance that the tragedy that drove them apart might one day compel their paths to cross again...

It's 1939 when Hannah and Louie Adams wave goodbye to their mother and home in Holloway, leaving for the safety of the Hertfordshire countryside. The girls try to settle in with their new foster-parents, but the Bullocks are stern people, and when they send the homesick Louie to another family, the Beedles, Hannah is devastated. She decides there's only one way out - she must walk back to Blitz-torn Islington. Thirty-six hours later, a cold, weary and frightened girl arrives home to a shocking sight...