Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Bill Fletcher is Edie's father — an East-End dockman who signs on with the merchant navy and sails the Atlantic convoys through the war. Mostly he is an absence: a voice on a crackly trunk-call, a card from a far-off port, a danger Edie feels through the shipping news on the wireless and the long gaps between letters. He is the quiet, steady man who gave his daughter a key and told her she'd come home.
Edie Fletcher is ten years old when the war sends her away — a London girl put on a train with a label round…
Hettie is the Pengelly farm's most disagreeable hen — big, rusty, bad-tempered, and nobody's friend, and the…
Joan Pengelly is Tom's older sister, on the edge of grown-up when Edie arrives — a careful politeness that…
Mr Pengelly is the farmer who takes Edie in — large, undemonstrative, and kinder than a wary London girl…
Mrs Hooper is Vera's neighbour and friend in Bethnal Green — the Fletchers' London anchor, all sharp opinions…
Mrs Pengelly is Edie's billet host — the gruff, fair, unsentimental Devon farm wife who is the hardest person…
What is in the books, who they are for, and a copy of the England companion novella to read together.