Orphans of War
Published on 24. October 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
624 pages
978-1-84756-355-2 (ISBN)
Description
The ones you leave behind are the ones that stay with you forever...
When Madeleine Belfield loses her family and her home in the Blitz, she is sent to love with relatives in the relative safety of the Yorkshire Dales.
On board the steam train Maddy befriends Gloria Conley and her brother Sid, abandoned by their desperate mother. Although Maddy and Gloria are chalk and cheese, they soon vow to be 'forever friends'.
Maddy slowly adjusts to Brooklyn Hall and her new family, especially Aunt Plum. Eager to help with the war effort, Plum has opened up a home for 'difficult' evacuees and Maddy and Gloria quickly become bound together in friendship and mischief with a motley crew, including headstrong Greg and flighty Enid.
The friendship endures into adulthood, until a tragic experience tears them apart. Desperate to escape her memories, Maddy flees to London.
Years later, chance reunites her with Gloria and Greg. But a visit back to Yorkshire reveals the truth about the past - a revelation with unimaginable consequences.
When Madeleine Belfield loses her family and her home in the Blitz, she is sent to love with relatives in the relative safety of the Yorkshire Dales.
On board the steam train Maddy befriends Gloria Conley and her brother Sid, abandoned by their desperate mother. Although Maddy and Gloria are chalk and cheese, they soon vow to be 'forever friends'.
Maddy slowly adjusts to Brooklyn Hall and her new family, especially Aunt Plum. Eager to help with the war effort, Plum has opened up a home for 'difficult' evacuees and Maddy and Gloria quickly become bound together in friendship and mischief with a motley crew, including headstrong Greg and flighty Enid.
The friendship endures into adulthood, until a tragic experience tears them apart. Desperate to escape her memories, Maddy flees to London.
Years later, chance reunites her with Gloria and Greg. But a visit back to Yorkshire reveals the truth about the past - a revelation with unimaginable consequences.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Leah Fleming:'A beautiful, almost poetically-written tale of love and tragedy in the Yorkshire Dales mainly set during the Second World War. The characters are real flesh and blood and the reader shares their ups and downs with genuine empathy.'
Maureen Lee, bestselling author of Mother of Pearl.
'An epic tale of hardship and tragedy straddling the Second World War.'
The Bookseller
'A touching tale.'
Closer
'An absolute joy to read , full of warmth, and colour and hope.'
Warwickshire Telegraph
'A good read to curl up with.'
Lincolnshire Echo
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 200 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
428 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84756-355-2 (9781847563552)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Leah Fleming
Orphans of War
E-Book
05/2016
1st Edition
AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
€2.99
Available for download
Leah Fleming
Orphans of War
E-Book
06/2009
AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
€4.69
Available for download
Previous edition
Leah Fleming
Orphans of War
Book
10/2008
AVON, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
€27.43
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Leah Fleming was born in Lancashire of Scottish parents, and is married with four grown-up children and five grandchildren. She usually writes full-time from a haunted farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales but is currently taking a gap year for grown-ups and living on the slopes of an olive grove in Crete.