Fenella Woolgar

London, 1841. Two hundred Englishwomen file aboard the RAJAH, the ship that will take them on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world. They're daughters, sisters, mothers - and convicts. Transported for petty crimes. Except one of their number is a secret killer, fleeing justice. When a woman is mortally wounded, the hunt is on for the culprit. But who would attack one of their own, and why?

Cherry, Maggie and Rose are mother, daughter and granddaughter, each with their own hopes, dreams and even sorrows. They have always been close, so when, in a moment of impulse, Cherry buys a gorgeous but rundown pub in the village she grew up in, it soon becomes a family affair.

All three women uproot themselves and move to Rushbrook, deep in the heart of Somerset, to take over The Swan and restore it to its former glory. Cherry is at the helm, Maggie is in charge of the kitchen, and Rose tends the picturesque garden that leads down to the river.

Before long, the locals are delighted to find the beating heart of the village is back, bringing all kinds of surprises through the door.

Could Cherry's impulse purchase change all their lives - and bring everyone the happiness they're searching for?

It is 1932, and after the First World War, Violet Speedwell, mourning for her fiancé, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. A new life awaits her in Winchester, where she falls in with the broderers, a group of women charged with embroidering kneelers for the Cathedral, and is soon entwined in their lives and their secrets. As the threat of a second Great War looms, Violet collects a few secrets of her own that could just change everything…

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. She is sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers. Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.