THE city of Birmingham may not now be Annie Murray’s home
territory but its people, its streets and its past have become an integral part
of her life.
It’s nearly 28 years since Murray (pictured below) published Birmingham Rose,
her first Birmingham-based novel, and as her new heartwarming tale of secrets
and lies, mystery and drama is published, she invites us to immerse ourselves
once again in the wartime life and times of this historic city.
Wartime for the Chocolate Girls is the fourth book in her
tasty Chocolate Girls series which follows the lives and loves of the women and
girls who worked at the famous Cadbury factory at Bournville in Birmingham.
It’s April of 1941 and after almost losing her life in a
bomb blast while serving in the Women’s Volunteer Service, Ann Gilby has been
forced to take stock of what is really important... her family. With daughters Sheila back home, and Joy still working munitions at the Cadbury factory and
engaged to her soldier sweetheart, home life feels more settled too.
The problem is that Ann has secrets of her own and one day
soon she knows she will have to tell her youngest child, Martin, who his father
really is...
Murray, whose home was in Birmingham when she began her
writing career, invests hours of local research and her own powerful gift of
imagination into her action-packed, family-based stories, and her genuine
affection for the city and its people always shines through.
And this warmhearted and gritty chapter for the Chocolate
Girls packs in all those ingredients – relationships, romance, the
uncertainties of wartime and human compassion – which have made this series
such a delicious treat for all saga fans.
(Pan, paperback, £7.99)
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