Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Joan Pengelly is Tom's older sister, on the edge of grown-up when Edie arrives — a careful politeness that keeps a newcomer at arm's length. As the war pulls the older ones away into service, she takes up her own share of the work. Reserved where the others are plain, she gives Edie the warmest thing anyone in Devon says to her, precisely because she is the last to say it for nothing.
Bill Fletcher is Edie's father — an East-End dockman who signs on with the merchant navy and sails the…
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…
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.