East End Ration Books in Order

The East End Ration books follow the Brogans, a big Catholic family living in a tight terrace of houses in London's East End as the Second World War closes in. From blackouts and gas masks to ration books and bomb sites, the series lives in the small details of day to day life.

The story begins on the eve of war. In Pocketful of Dreams, also published as A Ration Book Dream, eldest daughter Mattie and her brothers and sisters are still hopeful that Hitler can be kept at bay. When a charismatic stranger arrives at their parish church, Mattie is drawn into first love and into the shadowy side of wartime service, where not everyone is who they seem.

Later books shift the spotlight around the family. A Ration Book Christmas sees the youngest sister Jo training as an ambulance driver in 1940, grabbing unexpected freedom even as bombs fall and she falls for charming, risky Tommy Sweete. A Ration Book Childhood moves to matriarch Ida Brogan, fighting to keep the household together when an old friend returns with a secret that threatens Ida's marriage and brings a vulnerable child to her door.

Further along the terrace, other Brogans and in laws take their turn. In A Ration Book Wedding Italian born Francesca Fabrino balances dangerous work and a long standing love for Charlie Brogan, only to meet a worldly Italian count at the BBC. A Ration Book Daughter follows Cathy, married to a violent fascist sympathiser who is reported missing in action, just as gentle bomb disposal sergeant Archie McIntosh enters her rationed East End kitchen.

Shorter tales knit the gaps between the novels. A Ration Book Christmas Kiss tells the story of twelve year old Michael Brogan and his first crush after his school is bombed and merged with a girls' class. A Ration Book Christmas Broadcast brings in Grace Meredith, a young BBC assistant hunting for a real East End family for a radio programme, who ends up swept into the warmth and chaos of the Brogans and falling for Giovanni Fabrino of the Royal Engineers.

The series comes full circle in A Ration Book Victory, which turns to Queenie Brogan, Ida's sharp tongued mother in law. As the war draws to a close she can no longer outrun her past as Philomena Dooley, a Traveller girl whose first love reappears as the parish priest. Old secrets about family, faith and identity threaten to upend everything she has built.

Across all these books, the Brogans' little corner of East London becomes a whole world of pubs and parish halls, factory floors, bomb shelters and back kitchens.

Readers can expect black market schemes and air raid sirens, but also queue side gossip, noisy Sunday lunches and a stubborn belief in better days. Each volume focuses on a different character and can be read on its own, yet taken in order they trace one family's wartime journey from the first sirens through to final victory.