Spain, 1936. Felix, a spirited young nurse, runs away from London to help the cause of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. But she is also following Nat, a passionate young man from the Jewish East End who has joined the International Brigades to fight Franco. And George – familiar George from home –…

A Book of the Year (2013) for The Independent and Lovereading Romney Marsh, July 1940. When invasion threatens, you have to grow up quickly. Sixteen-year-old Peggy has been putting on a brave face since the fall of France, not least for the sake of her anxiety-prone younger brother Ernest.  But now the enemy is overhead, and the rules are…

A Telegraph Best YA Book of 2015 Paris, 1871.  Nearly 40 years after the events of Les Miserables, a new revolution is brewing . . . Though the Franco-Prussian war is over, life through the siege has been tough, and peace proves bitter.  On the edge of despair, Zéphyrine finds inspiration in the hope offered by the…