Beach View Boarding House/Cliffehaven Books in Order

As 1947 approaches, Cliffehaven is still grieving for Gracie, a young mother who died leaving two small children behind. Polish refugee and nurse Danuta vowed to raise them as her own, but her husband’s failing health and a brutal winter that cuts the town off make that promise harder to keep. With Beach View once more at the centre of the effort, Peggy and her neighbours must support Danuta as she fights to keep her fragile family together.

In December 1946 a young woman stands on a hill above Cliffehaven and makes a choice that will change everything. Hours later a baby is discovered in the Nativity crib of the local church, setting tongues wagging and hearts aching. While Peggy juggles the usual demands of Beach View, the whole community rallies to care for the child and uncover the truth, determined to protect both the baby and the mother who felt driven to abandon him.

Cliffehaven, 1946. The war is over and those who fought behind enemy lines are returning at last. Peggy is overjoyed to have Jim back from Burma, yet the horrors he endured make ordinary life at Beach View feel strange to him. Evacuee Ruby Clark, now grown, must cope with the sudden reappearance of her estranged mother after a long prison sentence. As old wounds reopen, the boarding house family must pull together so everyone can find their place in peacetime.

In 1945 peace in the Far East finally arrives, but life at Beach View is far from simple. Peggy is devastated that Jim will not be home for Christmas, while long term evacuees prepare to leave and couples like Sarah and Jane face what awaits them in Singapore. As families reunite after years apart, Peggy and Jim must decide whether their marriage can be rebuilt in a world that has changed them both.

In 1945, evacuee Ivy and her sweetheart Andy dream of marriage and a return to London’s East End, until tragedy forces Ivy to make an agonising choice about her future. Rita faces her own dilemma when Peter asks her to start a new life in Australia just as her widowed father comes home. Around them, Peggy prepares for the return of her scattered family and the moment Jim can finally come home.

Cliffehaven, October 1944. With victory in sight, Rosie and Ron’s wedding plans are plagued by misunderstandings and a dangerous secret assignment that may part them for good. At the same time Peggy takes charge at the uniform factory, battling an old rival on the home front while she waits for news from Jim in the Far East.

In May 1944, tension hangs over Cliffehaven as planes roar overhead and everyone waits for the long promised invasion of Europe. At Beach View, Peggy feels the strain of holding her extended family and lodgers together while the war comes ever closer. Ron Reilly’s romance with Rosie hits a crisis, and old resentments flare, but with the prospect of loved ones finally coming home, Peggy must find the strength to keep hope alive.

Land girl Carol Porter has found fragile peace working on a Devon farm near Slapton Sands after losing her husband and baby, but war is about to intrude again as the area is cleared for secret military exercises. News of the upheaval sends fresh fear to Cliffehaven, where Pauline Reilly worries for her last surviving son. As Carol’s mother Dolly arrives to help pack up her life, both women are forced to confront painful memories and reach for a second chance.

June 1944 brings V 1 raids to the south coast, and Peggy’s sharp tongued sister Doris is bombed out of her home and forced to take refuge at Beach View. Her arrival upsets the fragile peace among the boarders, even as Ron Reilly wrestles with painful news from his sweetheart Rosie. With the Allied invasion looming and tempers fraying, Peggy has to balance compassion with tough love while everyone waits for a glimmer of light beyond the war.

In 1944 Anne Black is trying to keep life steady for her daughters in rural Somerset, far from their real home in Cliffehaven and from her husband serving overseas. When danger strikes even this supposedly safe haven, Anne’s world is shaken. Back at Beach View, Peggy keeps the boarding house running and clings to the belief that the war and the long separations are finally nearing an end.

It is 1943 and Peggy Reilly is at her best when family troubles arrive on her doorstep. Her younger sister Doreen, already shaken by a bitter divorce, survives a traumatic incident while on leave in London and returns to Cliffehaven to recover. As threatening letters from her ex husband grow darker and old wounds reopen, Peggy and the Beach View community rally round, but Doreen’s future will depend on finding the courage to face her past.

April Wilton has found friendship, fulfilment and love in the WRENs at Portsmouth, so being forced to leave the service in 1943 feels like a personal disaster. Rejected at home and carrying a secret that could change everything, she heads to Cliffehaven and the welcome of Beach View. Under Peggy’s roof, April begins to heal, but sooner or later she must decide whether to reveal the truth she has been hiding.

In 1942, Mary Jones loses her parents and her home in a sudden bombing raid. Among the ruins she finds her father’s trunk and a shocking secret hidden in his diaries. Her search for answers leads her to Cliffehaven, where she is billeted with Peggy’s formidable sister Doris and drawn into the life of Beach View. As Peggy becomes involved in Mary’s quest, both women discover that some revelations can bring as much trouble as peace.

Still grieving for her parents, Mary Jones settles in Cliffehaven and takes a job at the Kodak factory, sorting Airgraphs from servicemen and their families. She longs for word from her own sweetheart at the front, unaware that events from nearly twenty years earlier still cast a shadow over her future. When a promise Peggy once made collides with Mary’s search for the truth, lives at Beach View may be shaken to the core.

May 1942 finds young pilot Kitty Pargeter loving her work in the air, until a crash leaves her badly injured and her flying career in ruins. Sent to a specialist hospital in Cliffehaven, she must face a new life with a disabling injury and the devastating report that her brother has been shot down. With help from Peggy and the Beach View family, Kitty slowly rebuilds her confidence and dares to dream of a different future.

As Japanese forces advance on Singapore, sisters Sarah and Jane Fuller are forced to leave their parents and Sarah’s fiancé behind. Their dangerous journey ends in Cliffehaven, where they are taken under Peggy’s wing and Sarah joins the Women’s Timber Corps as a lumberjill. While she throws herself into hard physical work, the grim news from the Far East leaves her fearing she may never see the people she loves again.

Eighteen year old Ruby Clark has spent her short marriage enduring her husband’s violence. In wartime London she finally fights back and flees, boarding a train with no idea where Cliffehaven even is. A job at the local armaments factory and a kind billet seem to offer a new start, until unwanted attention forces her out again. Only when Peggy Reilly opens the door of Beach View does Ruby begin to believe she might have a future.

In February 1941 midwife Julie Harris loses almost everything when a bombing raid destroys her East End home and kills her family. All she has left is her baby nephew William and a promise to keep him safe until his father returns from the war. Taking a post in Cliffehaven and lodging at Beach View, Julie tries to build a life around the little boy, but when William falls dangerously ill and his father is reported missing, her new hopes are put at risk.

In June 1940, seventeen year old Rita Smith believes she can weather anything with the support of her close knit Cliffehaven community. When Italy joins the war and her dearest friends are suddenly interned as enemy aliens, that certainty vanishes. Refused her dream of joining the WAAF, Rita volunteers as a fire warden instead. After her own home is destroyed she vows not to lose heart, throwing herself into the war effort while longing for the day her loved ones can return.

September 1940. Staff Nurse Polly Brown secures a posting to Cliffehaven Memorial Hospital so she can be near her badly injured husband. The decision tears her in two, because it means sending their beloved five year old daughter Alice to safety in Canada. As Polly throws herself into work and life at Beach View, a telegram brings the unthinkable news that Alice’s ship has been torpedoed, forcing Polly to face both her worst fears and the strength she never knew she had.

Sixteen year old Sally is evacuated from London’s East End to the English south coast with her little brother Ernie, acting as his stand in mother because their real mother, Florrie, prefers a good time to parenting. At Beach View Boarding House, Peggy Reilly welcomes them into a busy, loving household and life finally begins to improve. But when Florrie turns up in Cliffehaven, bringing chaos in her wake, Sally is forced to choose where her loyalties truly lie.