Never Forget You

Description

A stunning and heartbreaking new novel from Jamila Gavin, the bestselling and award-winning author of Coram Boy and The Wheel of Surya. England, 1937. Gwen, Noor, Dodo and Vera are four very different teenage girls, with something in common. Their parents are all abroad, leaving them in their English boarding school, where they soon form an intense friendship. The four friends think that no matter what, they will always have each other. Then the war comes. The girls find themselves flung to different corners of the war, from the flying planes in the Air Transport Auxiliary to going undercover in the French Resistance. Each journey brings danger and uncertainty as each of them wonders if they can make it through - and what will be left of the world. But at the same time, this is what shows them who they really are - and against this impossible backdrop, they find new connections and the possibility of love. Will the four friends ever see each other again? And when the war is over, who will be left to tell the story? A heartbreaking and gripping story of hope, fear and unbreakable friendship, for readers of Code Name Verity and When the World Was Ours.

Jamila Gavin was born in Mussoorie, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. With an Indian father and an English mother, she inherited two rich cultures which ran side by side throughout her life, and which always made her feel she belonged to both countries. The family finally settled in England where Jamila completed her schooling, was a music student, worked for the BBC and became a mother of two children. It was then that she began writing children's books, and felt a need to reflect the multi-cultural world in which she and her children now lived.

The Times Children's Book of the Year 2022 One of the Daily Mail's best children's books of 2022 "Jamila Gavin is one of our greatest writers" - S.F. Said "If there are any prizes left for children's books by the end of the year . . . then this thoughtful, engrossing new novel from Jamila Gavin should clean up . . . Gavin draws her characters with such care and detail that we root with all our might for each one as they use their free will to choose their own futures. Never Forget You is a novel to remember" - The Times "We never lose our sense of engagement with the many characters and events, and quotations add to the rich debate about whether war is justified. An exceptionally well-told and compelling account of friendship, courage and love" - The Sunday Times "Based on the true story of a World War II British agent in France, this thrilling novel follows four very different teenage girls thrown together at boarding school in 1937. As fascism rises in Germany, each girl makes life-changing decisions about her role in the conflict as the romantic dreams and hopes of adolescence are crushed by hatred and violence. Unmissable." Daily Mail