War Farm

Cambridgeshire - March 1939. As the clouds of war begin to gather in Europe, the Talbot family of rural Blackberry Farm will be torn apart, just as so many families all over the world will be. Life will never be the same again. Whilst in London, the Salmons family will feel the pain of parting and loss. Brought together by war, the two families become intertwined and, as the outlook looks bleak, they must draw on each other’s strength to fight through the hard times.

If you refuse to believe me, I will no longer consider you my son... Daniel believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement on a remote farm in Sweden, the country of his mother's birth. But with a single phone call, everything changes. Your mother... she's not well, his father...

A Richard and Judy Book Club Selection.
Shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award, 2005.
After 200 years of farming in Yorkshire, the Benson family was forced to sell up. They found, like so many, that the land could no longer support them. While the farming way of life never came naturally to Richard Benson, a point that sent him running to London, he still feels his parents' loss and returns to do what he can to help.

West Yorkshire, 1914. Newly married to Noah Jackson, Beth is happily content working on her family's market stall while Noah fulfils his dreams of being a teacher. When war erupts, Beth's peaceful life is shattered by events beyond her control. Noah enlists to fight alongside his brothers. A devastating accident occurs that changes all their lives. Once a loving home, Beaumont Farm becomes Beth's responsibility.

What would you sacrifice for a new life? Ambitious businesswoman Mae Yu runs Golden Oaks - a luxury retreat transforming the fertility industry - where women get the very best of everything, so long as they play by the rules. Jane is a young immigrant in search of a better future. Stuck living in a cramped dorm with her baby daughter and her shrewd aunt Ate, she sees an unmissable chance to change her life. But at what cost?

After 200 years of farming in Yorkshire, the Benson family were forced to sell up. They found, like so many other farmers, that big business was wiping out a way of life they had known for generations.

This book contains the following works: The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, The War of the Worlds by Herbert George Wells,The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Call of Cthulhu by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald.

Historians have long asserted that during and after the Hannibalic War, the Roman Republic's need to conscript men for long-term military service helped bring about the demise of Italy's small farms and that the misery of impoverished citizens then became fuel for the social and political conflagrations of the late republic. Nathan Rosenstein challenges this claim, showing how Rome reconciled the needs of war and agriculture throughout the middle republic.

The book begins by biographically following the couple's small town Kansas courtship. Autobiographical comments are added from Tommy Johnson, now 94, as he reflects back on his romance with Margaret, his wife of 50 years. The letters shift from college to entering the fight after Pearl Harbor, then flight school, naval training, and eventually to his dive bombing missions in the South Pacific. Until, at last, the final letter that he is gratefully coming home to drive her around town in a Buick convertible.