One of the great love stories of World War Two, this book is a window into Britain's secret wartime past. This is the first novel in the "None Stood Taller" series.
Two people united by the war but separated by the social divide that stands between them; Lily is from the East End of London, Edward is the Earl of Middlebourne.
They work together within SOE where their contribution towards the D-Day landings is enormous. However great their achievement, the chasm between them remains. Can Edward take that giant stride, will Lily declare her love? All the while, the war dictates their future.
The story takes place between March 1941 and D-Day in 1944. The second book in the series entitled "None Stood Taller The Final Year" begins on the day after D-Day and follows their lives until VE Day in 1945.
Lily's journey begins beneath the rubble of the London Blitz of 1941. Reduced to the ragged clothes she stands in, her unbreakable spirit propels her on a journey. That journey leads to the very top of the British wartime establishment, and to Edward. On the way she makes lifelong friends including her fellow Land Army girl, 'Dotty'. The third novel in the series "None Stood Taller The Price of Freedom" covers Dotty's life and loves throughout the same period, 1941 and 1945.
Lily's story is inspired by real people and events, in particular a group of women who contributed so much towards Britain's wartime intelligence and the SOE. Thirty-nine brave women served in Occupied France as SOE agents during World War Two. People like Vera Atkins who set up and ran Section F of the SOE, and Joan Bright, who ran the secret intelligence centre in the Cabinet War Rooms under Winston Churchill.
The SOE operations in my books may be fictitious, but the details are grounded in reality, as lived through by those thirty-nine brave and intelligent women. Viewed through Lily's eyes, the historic details of World War Two come to life in a way you haven't experienced before.
Don't just read about wartime Britain - experience it at first hand!
