Rosie Archer

Rainey Bird, Ivy Sparrow and Bea Herron all love to sing. For Rainey, music has been a solace during the upheaval of starting a new life with her mother, away from her abusive dad. Bea finds a confidence when she sings that she cannot get from anything else. Ivy sees it as her best chance of making a life away from Gosport and a dead-end job. The three of them sing in a choir run by the strict but kind Mrs Wilkes. When war breaks out, though, dreams must be put on hold. That is, until a mysterious stranger arrives with a proposition that just might change their lives...

1944, Hampshire: Her face still bearing the scars from the explosion at the factory, Rita Brown nonetheless manages to keep calm and carry on with a little help from her friends. But when she discovers someone there has been leaking secrets to the Germans, Rita must work out who she can rely on - and fast.

Trixie and her fellow lumberjills are back in Scotland, newly stationed at the MacKay estate. When they arrive, they are shocked to find the place dilapidated and neglected and the taciturn and secretive Noah MacKay not at all happy to be meeting them.

It quickly becomes apparent that MacKay was expecting men from the forestry commission to take charge, rather than four young women. Trixie, Jo, Hen and Vi decide he needs to be proven wrong - after all, don't they have stamina, skill and strength?

But as the girls work to prove their worth, secrets from their own pasts threaten to follow them to Sutherland.

Book 2 in The Timber Girls series.

Autumn, 1944. Doodlebugs are the latest threat to war-battered southern England but at Priddy's munitions factory, Em Earle is about to suffer a threat from much nearer home. Local crook Samuel Golden is up to his old tricks, trying to find ways to exploit people's hardship for his own gain.

When Vee Smith starts work on Gosport's ferries, she soon makes friends with the other girls. But Vee has a secret: her real name is Violetta Schmidt, and she is half-German. If her true nationality is discovered, she and her mother could find themselves interned as enemy aliens...

The war is drawing to a close, but the munitions girls are still hard at work in the factory. An act of kindness towards a homeless teenager, provides Gladys with a new friend and lodger. But Goldie has run away from her dangerous family - can Gladys keep both of them safe while dealing with her own unexpected pregnancy?

For Pixie and Rita, the Munitions Girls, work is dangerous and the hours long but they are making the most of the war while trying to stay alive. Then Pixie falls pregnant and her life changes dramatically. Alone and unable to work, she has to rely on the kindness of friends to help her survive…

1942. When Trixie Smith sees a poster advertising the Women's Timber Corps she decides to sign up and she is soon on her way to Scotland for four weeks of training to become a Lumberjill.

On her journey north she meets Cy, an American soldier on leave. Their attraction is instant and they both feel that fate has brought them together. Although their time with one another is brief, they promise that they'll be together as soon as the war is over.

But training to become a Lumberjill is hard. Luckily Trixie quickly makes friends with three of her fellow Lumberjills. Each of them has different reasons for signing up and travelling far from home, but running away from your problems doesn't make them disappear.

Book 1 in The Timber Girls series.

1944, the darkest days of the war. Trixie and Vi are back in Gosport and doing their bit to help Britain win the war. Felling trees is backbreaking, but at least they know they're doing vital work.

Trixie has a new boyfriend, Eddie. He's charming, handsome, and always flush with cash - a real Gosport catch, though Vi isn't so sure. Something about Eddie doesn't seem quite right, and Vi will do anything to convince Trixie that she's making a mistake with this relationship.

Though Trixie loves Eddie, she finds it hard to forget Cy, the man she fell in love with at the start of the War, who was declared missing in action. As the bombs fall on Gosport both girls have big decisions to make.

Will their friendship carry them through the hardest days?