THE city of Birmingham may not now be much-loved saga writer
Annie Murray’s home territory but its people, its streets and its past have
become an integral part of her life.
It’s nearly 29 years since Murray (pictured below) published Birmingham Rose,
her first Birmingham-based novel, and now she’s back with Homecoming for the
Chocolate Girls, the heartwarming and dramatic conclusion to her gritty family
saga series following the lives and loves of the women and girls who worked at
the famous Cadbury factory at Bournville in Birmingham.
In December of 1946, the war might be over but for the Gilby
family there are still battles to be fought at home. The long war years have brought
great change, not least for Ann Gilby whose husband Len left her for another
woman, leaving her finally free to follow her heart.
Daughters Joy and Sheila are lucky enough to have their menfolk back home, but Joy’s husband Alan has returned a broken man from his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
And Sheila’s husband Kenneth is finding his travels and wartime adventures in the RAF Air-Sea Rescue have made Birmingham feel small by comparison. Then there’s Ann’s youngest child, Martin, who is still coming to terms with learning who his real father is... as well as having secrets of his own.
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 final chapter for the
Chocolate Girls packs in all those ingredients – family bonds, romance, human
emotions and the struggles and uncertainties of wartime and the post-war period
– which have made this series such a delicious treat for all saga fans.
(Pan, paperback, £8.99)
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