Christmas with the Spitfire Girls

Sep 22, 2024 4:40 AM

Author:Jenny Holmes,Colleen Prendergast

Brought to you by Penguin.

Yorkshire 1944: All they want this year is a truly happy Christmas...

The end of the war feels tantalisingly close, but Air Transport Auxiliary girls Bobbie, Viv and Mary have plenty more flights in their beloved Spitfires yet - battling everything from snow to enemy fire on their journeys.

Risking their lives doing their bit for their country, this Christmas they're determined to have some festive fun. But as they set about bringing good tidings for all, a stern and mysterious new flyer in the form of Peggy arrives. What secret is Peggy hiding?

Mary has a wedding to plan before her fiancé is sent away, then makes a devastating discovery so shameful she can't tell the other girls. Bobbie's beau issues an ultimatum, and Viv is wondering whether she wants a man at all...

With the big day around the corner and hope of peace on the horizon, can the girls find joy and love this Christmas after so many years of war?

A heart-warming story of friendship, camaraderie and triumph over adversity that fans of Elaine Everest and Nancy Revell will adore.

Readers love Jenny Holmes

'A delight to read'

'I highly recommend this book, great job Jenny!'

'Really enjoyed this book cant wait to read the next one'

'Lovely historical drama'

'I love reading these books on life in WW2'

'A book you can't put down'

Reviews

Praise for Jenny Holmes

—— :

Vibrant and heart-warming, Jenny Holmes makes Chapel Street come alive.

—— Sunday Express on The Shop Girls of Chapel Street

Gritty and uplifting, it's a tale of triumph over adversity

—— Choice on The Mill Girls of Albion Lane

In More Than I Love My Life he [Grossman] tells a sombre and affecting tale... [a] delicately crafted novel, crisply translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen.

—— Houman Barekat , Sunday Times

[Grossman gives] vivid voice to each of the characters as they navigate their pain, both present and past... Grossman's 12 previous novels and five volumes of non-fiction have brought him renown on both sides of the Atlantic. This book will earn him more.

—— Economist

[A] concisely devastating novel... [Grossman] has demonstrated again that the novel - elastic, expansive, amenable to painful fragmentation - can provide a space for the most harrowing and resistant material.

—— Alex Clark , Guardian

Nobody can see the political in the personal like David Grossman. He is an interpreter of hearts and an investigator of social forces. Every book he writes is a revelation.

—— Juan Gabriel Vásquez

A moving exploration of the power of love, secrets and forgiveness. A sweeping narrative rooted in a deep faith in humanity.

—— Hephzibah Anderson , Mail on Sunday

Grossman is surely now the greatest living Israeli writer. And his new novel, More Than I Love My Life, is arguable his best yet... what makes the book so powerful and complex is not just the daughters' refusal to forgive, but the way Grossman lets the story unfold.

—— David Herman , Jewish Chronicle

A meditation on love, on memory, and on the power of storytelling.

—— Ángel Gurría-Quitana , Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

The reader is invested from the start . . . So poetically elegant as to be breathtaking . . . Life Sentences is writing at its finest.

—— Claire Fullerton , New York Journal of Books

O'Callaghan's prose is mesmerising in its beauty . . . Profound, moving, sometimes shocking, [Life Sentences is] from the pen of a writer at the top of his game.

—— Anne Cunningham , Meath Chronicle

One of the most beautiful books of the year.

—— Sam Blake, #1 Irish Times bestselling author of the Cat Connolly trilogy

The novel I most look forward to is Billy O'Callaghan's Life Sentences.

—— Maggie Fergusson , Tablet *Highlights of 2021*

The accomplished writer . . . O'Callaghan has proved an empathic and expert diviner of the extraordinary in ordinary lives.

—— Marjorie Brennan , Irish Examiner

An absolutely stunning book . . . A truly beautiful read.

—— Sinéad Moriarty

A gifted storyteller.

—— Donal O'Donoghue , RTÉ Guide

A terrific family saga.

—— Village Bookshelf

A lyrical prose reminiscent of William Trevor, and a haunting family drama.

—— Times Literary Supplement

One of the most exciting literary talents to emerge in the last decade.

—— Irish Examiner

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