Alice's Girls

It's 1943 and the country is at war. An unlikely group of land girls are finding out about life, love and loss, forming surprising friendships along the way. When Alice Todd's husband runs off with another woman, she is forced to find a means to provide for herself and her young son. Accepting a position as a hostel warden at an old Devonshire farmhouse, Alice finds herself looking after ten volunteer land girls. The job is not as easy as it first seems.

January 1946 and writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a man in Guernsey, who has found her name written inside a book. As they exchange letters, she is drawn into the eccentric world of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which boasts a charming cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

1943. A German aircraft crashes into a house in Worthing, and causes complete devastation to the local community. Three strangers meet for the first time that day - Pip, Stella and Lillian. Lillian's little girl, Flora, has been hurt in the crash and is rushed to hospital. As she comes through her ordeal, she finds her mother and her two new ‘aunties’ by her bedside.   

Lillian is distraught - she must register for compulsory war work. Emily is also furious - her dream job as a chef will have to be put on hold, whilst Alice must abandon her plans of college. Staring at an identical letter, Elsie feels a kindling of hope, and down in London Agnes is packing her bags with a smile. Sharing grief and joy, lost dreams and gained opportunities, the five new bomb girls will find friendship and strength that they never before thought possible.

It's 1939, and the Brogan family of London's East End are ready to show Hitler what for. But things don't seem so rosy when rationing, evacuation and air raids start to put this larger-than-life family to the test. When a mysterious young man arrives at the Brogans' local parish church, he provides just the dazzling distraction they need - and, for eldest daughter Mattie, the promise of more than she'd ever wished for. But as the pair fall deeper in love, they are drawn into secret dangers, rife on the very London streets they call home.

The war is over, but trouble is brewing.... Wynsdown, 1949. In the small Somerset village of Wynsdown, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married and now feels settled in her adopted home after arriving from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during the war. Meanwhile, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to the village with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming...and harbouring secrets. After meeting during the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past....

Call the Midwife meets Dr Barnardo's in this gritty drama that will appeal to fans of Katie Flynn. St Saviour's will never turn a homeless child away.... When there is nowhere else to turn, St Saviour's will give them hope.... It's 1948, and London's East End is still a bombed-out landscape. Sister Beatrice, who runs the St Saviour's Children's Home, knows that life is still a precarious existence for many children, and it seems that there is no end to the constant stream of waifs and strays who appear at their door....

Cliffehaven, June 1944. As the planes continue to circle over Cliffehaven, Peggy Reilly’s sister, Doris, must seek refuge after a V-1 blast destroys her home. Rita, Sarah and the other residents at Beach View Boarding House quickly find their peace disturbed, and it’s not long before even Peggy loses her patience. But with more bad news to come, will Doris finally be forced to swallow her pride? Meanwhile Peggy’s father-in-law, Ron Reilly, is delighted when his sweetheart, Rosie, returns home. Until a heartbreaking confession suggests things may never be the same between them. 

As death and destruction fall from the skies day after day in the London Blitz, Australian ambulance driver Lily Brennan confronts the horror with bravery, intelligence, common sense and humour. Although she must rely upon her colleagues to carry out her dangerous duties, Lily begins to suspect that someone at her ambulance station may be giving assistance to the enemy by disclosing secret information.

As London goes up in flames during the Blitz, two sisters from Bermondsey find their lives changed out of all recognition.... When a bombing raid destroys nearly everything she holds dear, May joins the ATS and becomes a gunner girl. Peggy, May's elder sister, is trapped in a stifling marriage, yet amid the chaos of war, a route to freedom beckons. From war will come hardship and tragedy as well as new, unexpected friendships and love affairs.

From the best-selling author of Miss Appleby's Academy comes a gritty saga perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Nadine Dorries. Prue's heart beat hard - she had heard of the low seams of the mines of Northwest Durham, and she had always had a fear of being enclosed. This was her job, she told herself; this was what she had wanted. She must do it. So she picked up her bag and followed them to the cage which carried the miners belowground, praying that the man did not die, that she need not produce some miracle....

Sunderland, 1940, and the women go to the shipyards to do their bit for the war effort. Polly never dreamed she would be able to work in the shipyards like the men in her family but times are tough and her new job ends up giving her more than she ever expected when she meets enigmatic dock diver Tommy Watts. During the day, head welder Rosie teaches her fledgling flock of trainees their new trade, but at night she hides a secret life. And mother hen Gloria signs up to escape her brutal husband, but finds she cannot run....

December 1940: All that Audrey Barton wants is her family together for Christmas. But the war changes everything.... The Barton family bakery in Bournemouth has been at the heart of the town for generations: Audrey and Charlie Barton have never been rich, but their bread and cakes – and their love and advice – have enriched the lives of others in the town for many years. When war breaks out, it doesn't take long for trouble to arrive on the bakery doorstep.

Cliffehaven, May 1944. The tension is rising for Peggy Reilly and the inhabitants of Cliffehaven as the planes continue to roar above the town, and there is still no news of the long-awaited Allied invasion into France. There seems to be no end in sight of this war, which has scattered her family and brought conflict right to the door of Beach View Boarding House, but Peggy cannot work miracles, and the toll of the war is beginning to weigh on her slender shoulders.

Seventeen-year-old Muriel Dearlove has weathered the Blitz unscathed, earning her keep in Miss Chapman's grocery shop. But with her sweetheart, Bill, away fighting and her friends conscripted into the WRENS and WAAF, life has become tedious for Muriel. Then one day an old friend returns from a stint in the Land Army. She is rosy cheeked and looks healthier than ever. Desperate for the chance to broaden her horizons, Muriel signs up to become a Land Girl.