Lilian Harry

Return to Burracombe in this warm and charming prequel to Lilian Harry's Burracombe series and journey back to where it all began . . .Devon, 1943. In the village of Burracombe, 'Dig for Victory' is more than just a wartime slogan. While the young men are away, everyone at home knows the war effort needs them too. Whether it's Land Girls on the farms, wives and mothers having to make do and mend, or the villagers knowing how to stretch rations to keep spirits bright, there is always something to be done to help.When the Barton is requisitioned as a children's home for war orphans, all of Burracombe rallies round to welcome their newest arrivals, particularly little Maddy Simmons. Still reeling from losing her mother and brother in the Plymouth blitz, and her father being killed at sea, now in a cruel twist, Maddy has been sent to a different children's home to her beloved sister.As Maddy explores the village and makes new friends, she begins to feel at home and realises that Burracombe is the kind of place where you will always have someone to turn to, even when times are hard. Could this be somewhere she could finally call home?This heart-warming story gives a different perspective to the village as it adapts to the struggles of wartime and explores the story of a much-loved character in the wonderful Burracombe series.

The day that Hilary and David have been waiting for has finally arrived and as the church bells ring out for the arrival of the bride, everyone's fingers are crossed for the day to go without a hitch. The festivities set the tone for the year ahead and there's more love in the air in Burracombe as planning continues for both Dottie and Joe's and Frances and James's nuptials. There's nothing like a wedding to bring the village together.Times are changing in Burracombe and as young and old embark on new adventures it's time to say goodbye. But with friends like these, a goodbye is rarely for ever, so instead we'll say a very fond farewell.Return to Burracombe in Lilian's next book, A Child in Burracombe, a prequel to the series that will show you where it all began...

Hilary Napier has had enough of secrets. Her engagement party is a chance for her and David to finally celebrate their good news. But with obstacles springing up on all sides, there may be more than the dress and venue to arrange before she can consider walking down the aisle. Frances and James are doing their best to ignore their feelings for each other as they organise the school play. Can Frances find a way to let herself love again?Amid all the drama, old friends are always on hand, and when Dottie falls ill, a familiar face comes back to Burracombe to lift her spirits and perhaps change her life.With surprises around every corner, life is never dull in this beautiful Devonshire village . . .

Through the hard times and the good, true friends stand side by side. Set in Devon, the terrific new novel in the feel-good Burracombe series.The latest book in the Burracombe series, CELEBRATIONS IN BURRACOMBE draws together many threads of life in the little Devonshire village where triumph and tragedy have always rubbed shoulders.It's the late 1950s, and change is in the air. For the Napier family, up at the big house, the old ways are shifting. Hilary must discover if reaching out for a chance of happiness must mean breaking away from the life expected of her, while Patsy, their young housekeeper's help, is facing motherhood without her own family around her.Down the hill from the Napiers, villagers young and old are setting out on adventures - Stella and Felix begin married life, change comes to the village school and the Tozer family continue to find surprises in their midst. Warm, poignant and heartfelt, CELEBRATIONS IN BURRACOMBE serves up another delicious slice of country life.

A heart-warming visit to the village of Burracombe where, whatever life might throw at you - strangers, surprises, love, change - you can always rely upon your neighbours and friends.

It may be winter, but in the Devonshire village of Burracombe there is always warmth and friendship, no matter what troubles arise...In the village of Burracombe, nothing stays secret for long and behind the peaceful, rural charm there's always a scandal to uncover, a newcomer to the village to set tongues wagging, a happy occasion to celebrate or friends to help their neighbours through the tough times.It's December 1953 and for Stella Simmons, recovering from a car crash, the winter wedding that she and her sweetheart had planned seems impossible. Elsewhere in the village, Jackie Tozer is dreaming of America and Hilary Napier, who thought the war had robbed her of her chance of happiness, has to ask herself if she could ever imagine leaving her life at the big house for the sake of love and adventure. The darkest time of the year finds everyone asking questions with no easy answer.As snow falls softly on the village, Burracombe proves once again that there's always a surprise just around the corner.

Come home to Burracombe - the village where life is full of surprises...A seemingly sleepy Devonshire village, Burracombe is in fact full of intrigue and drama. Family secrets, budding romance, cruel twists of fate and amazing friendships all play out against the backdrop of the beautiful countryside.It's autumn 1953. The village is delighted when Joe Tozer - who left Burracombe as a young man in 1919 - returns to visit his family. His life since emigrating to the States has been a world away from rural Devon, but coming home, he falls in love with the place (and one particular person) all over again. With him is his eldest son, Russell. He sets hearts fluttering in the village - but will there be anyone on his arm when he catches the boat back to America?

There's nowhere quite like Burracombe - a village full of warmth and intrigue...

A warm and compelling tale, part of Lilian Harry's terrific Dartmoor-based series.The village of Burracombe is looking forward to the Coronation, but 1953 is to prove to be a year of heartbreak as well as celebration. While Stella begins to plan her wedding, her sister Maddy is only just coming to terms with the loss of her own fiancé; Val and Luke are wondering if they will ever become parents, and Hilary's chances of marriage seem at first to come closer, then to recede. The Tozer family also face anxiety. As grandmother Minnie fights for her life, Tom and Joanna's premature twins battle with their own crisis and Jackie, working and living in Plymouth, is determined to live her own life.Meanwhile, the life of the village goes on, with all its ups and downs, its feuds and differences. Bossy Joyce Warren tries to organise everything and everyone, Miss Kemp and Stella plan yet another event for the school, Jacob Prout strives to keep Burracombe looking its best for the festivities - and romance comes from a quite unexpected direction...

April Grove and Burracombe characters are linked in this touching Lilian Harry novel.It is December 1952. A wedding is being planned in April Grove, Portsmouth, and Jess and Frank Budd want to bring together all their friends and neighbours. They even invite Stella Simmons and her sister Maddy, who now live in the Devonshire village of Burracombe.Dan and Ruth Hodges attend, together with Dan's son Sammy, who immediately falls in love with his childhood playmate Maddy. But Stephen Napier, son of the Squire of Burracombe, proves a strong rival and Maddy is not yet ready to make such a momentous decision about her life. Meanwhile, Ruth's niece Lizzie and her husband Alec seem to have overcome the problems they encountered when Alec returned from the POW camp which almost broke him. But their happiness is threatened when a face from Lizzie's past reappears in her life and turns everything upside down.

Tragedy threatens the Devonshire village of Burracombe...There's trouble afoot in Burracombe...Hilary Napier is upset and angry when her father brings in a new manager for the family estate which she has been running for the past year. Even though she cannot help liking Travis Kellaway, she resents his presence. But before long, she begins to appreciate Travis's strength and compassion, and she finds herself drawn to him.Meanwhile, life in the village is enlivened by the new drama club, formed by energetic young curate Felix Copley. Almost the entire village becomes involved in the pantomime he decides to organise - with results they didn't quite plan for! Then tragedy strikes, making everyone realise exactly what is important in their lives...

A beautiful tale in the bestselling series set in a Devon village in the 1950s.Like the rest of the nation, the Burracombe villagers are shocked when King George the Sixth dies suddenly in 1952. But in the midst of their grief, the arrival of a stranger in the village on the very same day goes almost unnoticed, as the villagers have their own concerns...Farmer's daughter Val needs to find a home before she can marry her sweetheart; Hilary is struggling to come to terms with her new responsibilities, and Stella is still getting to know the sister she thought she had lost during the war. While the children at the village school are as lively and inquisitive as ever, there are still conflicts and feuds among the long-standing residents of Burracombe.Then a search for a family draws the whole village together, and more than one person is led to question their own ideas about families and what they mean.

From the outbreak of the Second World War to the evacuation of Dunkirk, GOODBYE SWEETHEART follows the fortunes of the people who live in a working-class street in Portsmouth.Like any street, April Grove in Portsmouth has its good and bad neighbours, its gossip, scandal and romance. But the outbreak of war in 1939 changes everything - especially for the children. Uprooted from their familiar urban existence they are evacuated (some happily, some not) to the country. Then there are the teenagers, whose first loves are accelerated and intensified by the threat of separation; and men and women, too old to fight, who hold the life of the street together. Based on the author's own childhood memories of growing up near Portsmouth, this is a novel which shows us what England was really like then - a story told with such nostalgia and charm that you leave the world it describes longing for the chance to return.

A powerful and evocative saga - the sequel to A GIRL CALLED THURSDAY.When Thursday Tilford returns to Haslar Hospital after two years serving as a VAD in Egypt, she finds many changes. With the town packed with troops waiting to leave for the Normandy beaches, and Haslar on standby for the wounded, Thursday's thoughts go to the two men who are vying for her heart: Connor Kirkpatrick, the naval doctor she met at Haslar in 1940, and army doctor Mark Sangster, who travelled with her on the troopship to Egypt. Although she longs to keep her promise to Connor, Thursday's feelings for Mark force her to consider the nature of promises and even, in the end, the nature of love itself. It is only as the war ends and she is presented with an ultimatum that she understands the truth about love, about promises - and about herself.

Continuing the powerful Second World War saga about the lives, hopes and fears of the families in April Grove.May 1941 - and the people of April Grove, Portsmouth are beginning to feel the war will never end. Families are being torn apart, not only by the separations and loss of war, but by more unexpected frictions, as wives and daughters play new and independent roles and children are forced to grow up too fast. Betty faces conflict at home over the man that she loves; Carol is desperate to escape her carping mother; and Micky nearly brings tragedy to them all. Yet as the war irredeemably changes their lives, the families of April Grove learn to endure - and even to keep smiling through.

A vivid wartime saga of colour and authenticity capturing both the harshness and the warmth of life during the dark days of the Second World War.Dan Hodges is devastated when his wife Nora dies during the early days of the war. Working long hours in a Portsmouth shipyard, how is he to look after his two sons, Gordon and Sammy? Then Gordon, something of a tearaway, is sent to an approved school, which leaves young Sammy alone in the house until neighbours in April Grove intervene and Sammy is evacuated to Bridge End, a village near Southampton. Ruth Purslow, a young childless widow, takes him in, her compassion aroused by his plight. Slowly, as they grow closer, Ruth begins to dread the time when Sammy must return to Portsmouth...

A terrifically compelling wartime story of love and loss from the author of A SONG AT TWILIGHT.Born at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, Mary and Walter Tilford's baby daughter is named Thursday. It was meant to be a message of hope for the future - but they could not foresee that by the time Thursday celebrated her twenty-first birthday, Britain would once again be at war with Germany. Thursday is determined to help in the war effort and volunteers as a Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. She is attached to the Royal Navy, and begins her service at Haslar Hospital on the shores of Portsmouth Harbour. The realities of war are brought home to her when the casualties begin to arrive from Dunkirk and Thursday begins to understand the true meaning of courage. While experiencing all the natural hopes and dreams of any young woman, finding pleasure and joy as well as sorrow in her work, Thursday is given her own opportunity to show strength and bravery in the face of war - and find a lasting love.

A powerful novel from bestselling author Lilian Harry, set in and around a Devon airfield during the Second World War.It is 1943, and the quiet of Harrowbeer, in Devon, is disrupted by increased activity at the nearly airfield built at the beginning of the war. Among the squadrons moving in are pilots from Britain, Canada and Poland. The airfield, with its noise and its population, has a massive impact on the peaceful villages nearby - an impact that will affect some inhabitants for the rest of their lives.Alison, married to a pilot and newly pregnant, soon makes friends with the locals, particularly with May, who finds herself caught up in the life of the RAF, watching and waiting as the pilots and crew carry out their dangerous missions.Then, on the night when Alison's baby is born, her husband is reported missing and Alison and May find themselves facing a dilemma all too familiar to the wives and sweethearts of those who flew the Spitfires, Hurricanes and other aircraft to protect their country during this time of war.

The second novel in the April Grove series, following the lives of working-class families during the Second World War.It is 1940, and the neighbours in April Grove are close knit, patriotic and proud - but the onset of the Blitz tests their loyalties and courage as never before. Betty Chapman meets a devastatingly attractive man in the Land Army, who upsets all her settled ideas; Olive Harker, just married, must now decide whether to risk motherhood; and Nancy Baxter offers comfort to lonely serviceman while her son runs wild... Their stories are played out against the backdrop of a great seaport at war: the horror of the air raid sirens, the naval dockyards buzzing with activity and the overwhelming desire to survive the city's darkest hour...

Set in a Lyons Corner House in London, this is the third compelling novel in the series set against the backdrop of the Second World War.The war is progressing for the Nippies, the girls who work at the Lyons Corner House in Marble Arch. With the air raids, rationing and blackouts, life no longer has the carefree attitude it used to have. But new pain and pleasure await as everyone decides what effort they can make towards victory. Jo yearns for Nick, but the burns he sustained when he was shot down are life-changing and need the new procedure of plastic surgery. Will their marriage ever go ahead? And does Jo want it to? She loses herself in her new role as lumberjill, one of the women hewing timber for the war effort. Meanwhile, Phyl has been selected, along with some other trusted Nippies, for secret work. Far from family and friends, she works with munitions and tries to forget her desire to be a Wren. Her husband is far away but she never loses faith that one day they will be reunited...