Author:Daisy Styles
Fans of Katie Flynn, Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife will love this heartwarming page-turner set on the home front during WW2 . . .
In the Phoenix Munitions Factory everyone has their secrets . . .
As WWII rolls across Europe, Kitty boards a ship set for England; leaving her cruel father for war work in a munitions factory. She hadn't wanted to leave Ireland, but the money sounded too good to resist. And money is what she really needs right now, what with tiny baby Billy back in Dublin without a father.
In Lancashire Kitty settles into the hard work and soon makes new friends; the dazzling Gladys who is a talented musician, and the beautiful but nervous Violet who seems to be nursing a secret of her own. And then there is motherly Edna at the local chippy, always there for a cup of tea and a good natter when she yearns for home.
Working hard in the day and playing in the Bomb Girls Swing Band by night, on the surface, life seems to be looking up.
But Kitty has kept a secret from her friends. Something she needs to figure out. And when a letter arrives from home, she realises she might need their help before it's too late and she loses her baby forever . . .
Praise for Daisy Styles:
'All the ingredients for a cracking story with truly endearing characters' Annie Murray, bestselling author of Now The War Is Over
'An absolute joy to read' Kate Thompson, bestselling author of Secrets of the Sewing Bee
In the Phoenix Munitions Factory everyone has their secrets . . .
—— from the publisher's descriptionPraise for Daisy Styles
—— -This book brought home wonderfully the vivid camaraderie wartime women shared and their immense sacrifices on the Home Front. Well done Daisy for creating characters that are real women in the best sense. Funny, scheming, loyal and witty, but about all, hardworking and proud. An absolute joy to read
—— Kate Thompson, bestselling author of , Secrets of the Singer GirlsA great read that I think will appeal to fans of wartime sagas and authors like Donna Douglas . . . From dances to disasters, encounters with handsome Yanks, rationing and relationships, The Bomb Girls has all the ingredients of an excellent wartime drama and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
—— Onemorepage.comThe story is full of drama, love, heartbreak, friendship and in some parts comedy . . . It's full of twists and turns and is a real page turner
—— LaurahbookblogA devastatingly human story...savage, sordid and hauntingly believable
—— GuardianThe book has a controlled hushed quality, like that of a Morandi still life, which only serves to heighten the terror and pity of the tale
—— John BanvilleColm Tóibín turns Greek Myths into flesh and blood..The writing is characteristically elegant, spare and subtle. ..The scenes between Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus darkly sexy
—— The TimesAn extraordinarily sympathetic and intimate portrait
—— Literary ReviewIn Toibin's careful hands, the story of Clytemnestra, who avenges her daughter after her husband Agamemnon sacrifices her to secure safe passage from Troy, is told with such a vivid grasp of the emotional pulse that even those who know the story well will be transfixed.
—— Claire Allfree , Daily MailWhat is truly miraculous, though, is how Tóibín has made us sympathize with people who do terrible, unthinkable things
—— Boston GlobeA dramatic, intimate chronicle of a family implosion set in unsettling times
—— Publishers' WeeklyIf there is a more brilliant writer than Tóibín working today, I don't know who that would be
—— Karen Joy FowlerThis is a novel about the way the members of a family keep secrets from one another, tell lies and make mistakes.. .
—— Literary ReviewTóibín's retelling is governed by compassion and responsibility, and focuses on the horrors that led Clytemnestra to her terrible vengeance. Her sympathetic first-person narrative makes even murder, for a moment, seem reasonable (...) Tóibín's prose is precise and unadorned, the novel's moments of violence told with brutal simplicity. But its greatest achievement is as a page-turner. In a tale that has ended the same way for thousands of years, Tóibín makes us hope for a different outcome
—— The Economist[An] intense, thought-provoking and original novel . . . Toibin's book transforms this ancient story into a lyrical, melancholy meditation on closeted desire, which implicitly comments on the aftermath of the Irish Troubles'
—— Emily Wilson , TLSGraphic, vicious, beautiful retelling of ancient myths.... Ultimately the book is a stark, timeless and brilliantly rendered tale of power in a world, as ever, riven by conflict.
—— 'I' NewspaperIn a novel describing one of the Western world's oldest legends, in which the gods are conspicuous by their absence, Tóibín achieves a paradoxical richness of characterisation and a humanisation of the mythological, marking House Of Names as the superbly realised work of an author at the top of his game.
—— Daily ExpressA spellbinding adaptation of the Clytemnestra myth, House of Names considers the Mycenaen queen in all her guises: grieving mother, seductress, ruthless leader - and victim of the ultimate betrayal.
—— VogueA haunting story, largely because Tóibín tells it in spare, resonant prose...
—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , New StatesmanA Greek House of Cards... Just like Heaney at the end of his Mycenae lookout, Toibin's novel augurs an era of renewal that comes directly from the cessation of hostilities.
—— Fiona Macintosh , Irish TimesThe book's mastery of pacing and tone affirm the writer as one of our finest at work today.
—— John Boland , Irish IndependentA daring, and triumphant return, to the Oresteia... bleakly beautiful twilight of the Gods.
—— Boyd Tonkin , The Arts DeskIt couldn't have been done better
—— ScotsmanA visceral reworking of Oresteia
—— ObserverThe escalation of violence and desire for revenge has deliberate echoes of the Irish Troubles
—— Observer Books of the Year