Article Row Books in Order

The Article Row novels are set around No. 13 Article Row in Holborn, a small London street that becomes a refuge for women whose lives have been upended by war. Olive, a middle aged widow with a grown daughter, never planned to take in lodgers, but the need for extra money and the flood of people arriving in the capital force her to hang a notice in the window.

In London Belles three very different young women answer that notice. Sally has left Liverpool to train as a nurse in London, only to find herself homesick and bruised by betrayal. Dulcie works at Selfridges and dresses like she belongs in the West End, but at home she is always compared unfavourably with her more respectable sister. Agnes grew up in an orphanage and must fend for herself now that the home is being moved out of the city.

Sharing a roof with Olive and her sensible daughter Tilly, the girls slowly learn to trust one another. As air raids begin and the streets around Holborn fill with rubble and shelters, their small household becomes a family of choice. The women share gossip over a chipped teapot, lend each other clothes for dances and sit up together when the latest bombing raid makes sleep impossible.

Later books follow the same group as the war deepens. In Home for Christmas Tilly and Sally work long shifts at Barts Hospital, treating the wounded brought in after raids, while Agnes volunteers extra hours underground to help families sheltering in the Tube stations. Dulcie struggles with grief and a difficult mother after news of her sister's death, forced to rethink what home and duty really mean.

My Sweet Valentine, Only a Mother Knows and A Christmas Promise push the characters into new emotional territory. Olive wrestles with her feelings for Sergeant Dawson and the gossip that follows any woman who steps outside strict social rules. Tilly fears losing her American sweetheart Drew, Sally and Dulcie face old loves and new responsibilities, and Agnes must make life changing choices about work, marriage and motherhood.

Across the series Annie Groves keeps the focus on friendship and female solidarity. Loves are found and lost, babies are born, hearts are broken and mended, all against a backdrop of rationing, blackouts and the constant threat of bombs. Article Row itself is almost a character, a little slice of London where the curtains twitch, the neighbours talk and four young women discover who they really are.

Readers who enjoy ensemble stories about women sharing a house, juggling romance with war work and making a home out of almost nothing will feel very much at home here.