Böcker av Jessica Stirling

London in the Blitz - the story of The Wayward Wife continues in this compelling saga of love and war.Susan Cahill enjoys her job at the BBC - until a bomb destroys the building and brings unwelcome responsibilities and an autocratic new boss, Walter Boscombe. He has no time for ambitious young women from Shadwell and seems determined to break Susan's spirit - and her heart. Breda Hooper, Susan's widowed sister-in-law, and her small son are rescued from the East End's shattered docklands by Danny, Susan's estranged husband. Settled in a shabby caravan in the Vale of Evesham, Breda soon finds herself entangled in village affairs in more ways than one, with only her quick wits, her new friends and the ever dependable Danny to keep her out of trouble.For Susan and Breda, jeopardy comes not from the skies but in the terrible price each must pay for falling in love with men who are not all that they seem to be and who, even in the midst of all out war, will change their lives forever.

Set in wartime London, the second novel in The Hooper Family series continues the story that began with A Corner of the Heart: the saga of an East End clan that knows both the Shadwell docklands and the world of books and broadcasting.The war everyone dreaded has begun at last, but for Susan Cahill it is more an adventure than a tragedy. Helped by a white lie about her marriage to Danny she has a new job as a producer's assistant at the BBC and glamorous new friends, including one American war reporter who has made London his base and Susan his target. Danny is also working for the BBC, sharing a room in a freezing farmhouse in Evesham, working long hours monitoring German radio broadcasts - and worrying about Susan. Stuck in London when the blitz begins, Susan's sister-in-law, Breda Hooper, faces up to the worst with a small son at home and a husband in the fire service. Then her Italian father, hiding out from both the authorities and his former partners in crime, prepares to leave Breda a legacy as explosive as any German bomb.

Set in 1878, this is the story of Biddy and Innes, two young girls from a large crofting and fishing family on the Isle of Mull, whose world is thrown into confusion by the arrival of a handsome young shepherd. Tragedy follows when they both fall in love with the same man.

About fifteen years after the events in the last book Fay Ludlow, battered daugher-in-law of Innes, seeks refuge with her unknown mother-in- law on Mull with the abusive Tarrant men expected to follow her.

The compelling second novel in the Stalker Trilogy, which began with The Spoiled Earth and continues with The Dark Pasture, set in the Lanarkshire mining village of Blacklaw in the bleak 1870s. In Edinburgh, Drew Stalker studies law, determined never to return to the grinding poverty of his childhood.Mirrin, the most restless and vital of them all, takes to the road and begins her journey, from tinker's camp to hiring fair, to a glittering future on the music-hall stage. And the Stalkers who remain in Blacklaw join a violent and bloody riot when the mine-owner Houston Lamont pushes them, at last, too far. The Stalker Trilogy: 'Family ties, family strengths and weaknesses, ambition, greed loyalty and love . . . the story is compelling.' Daily Telegraph 'I would strongly recommend it to anyone with a taste for family sagas.' Scotsman

War has come to London once more and Holly Beckman, now a widow, is forced to find new depths of courage in the face of adversity. David Aspinall, her first lover, has come back after twenty years abroad. He still holds a fatal charm for Holly but only time will tell if she can finally trust him. A new generation defies convention in the face of death, as Holly's RAF pilot son Chris and David's niece embark on a whirlwind affair. Across the channel, Ritchie Beckman - his lucrative art business crumbling as the Germans advance on Paris - risks everything to outwit the Nazis, but his plan could mean tragedy for the whole Beckman family... 'She writes in bright colours with bold, confident strokes' Glasgow Herald