The Meadow Girls: A heartwarming World War I saga

Description

A warm-hearted and nostalgic family saga from the bestselling author of The Winter Baby and The Nursemaid's Secret. August 1914. Twelve-year-old Mattie and her little sister Evie lead an idyllic life in the Suffolk countryside, playing in the meadows and picking watercress in the streams. Living with their family in Plough Cottage, little do they know that this perfect childhood will soon come to an end with the start of the First World War. As the years pass the girls go on to live very different lives. Mattie travels from Suffolk to Plymouth and then to Canada and America, whilst Evie remains in England and pursues her career. But through marriages, deaths, births, war, heartbreak and distance, their bond remains strong. More than fifty years later, will the two sisters finally be re-united to have their time in the meadows again?

Sheila Newberry was born in Suffolk and spent a lot of time there both before and during the war. She wrote her first 'book' before she was ten - all sixty pages of it - in purple ink. Her family has certainly been her inspiration and she has been published most of her adult life. She spent forty years living in Kent with her husband John on a smallholding, and has nine children and twenty-two lively grandchildren. They retired back to Suffolk where Sheila still lives today.

The Meadow Girls is a beautiful, thoughtful tale exploring life's unexpected twists and turns, and the sacrifices, separations, loves and friendships that we encounter along the way. Full of rich period detail and nostalgia, and written with Newberry's natural empathy and insight into what it meant to live through times of upheaval and war, this gently uplifting story is a saga to savour....this charming, drama-filled novel certainly packs in all the warmth, wisdom and heartfelt emotions that were the trademarks of her writing....Newberry's enchanting and heartwarming story is a delicious and wonderfully poignant read for long summer evenings. * Lancashire Evening Post * This charming, drama-filled novel certainly packs in all the warmth, wisdom and heartfelt emotions that were the trademarks of Sheila's writing. * My Weekly *