Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Vera Fletcher is Edie's mother — the steady heart of the Bethnal Green house and the voice in the letters that reach Edie in Devon. Hers is the hardest decision in the whole story, and it belongs to the prequel, The Last Ordinary Summer: whether to send her only child away to keep her safe. Warm, dry, and braver than she looks, she stays in London through it all and keeps home standing — in every sense — for a daughter far away.
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…
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…
What is in the books, who they are for, and a copy of the England companion novella to read together.