Rosie Archer Books in Order

In 1943 Gosport, friends Eadie, Joy and Maureen labour at Priddy's munitions factory until a near fatal explosion convinces them to seek safer work. A summer spent hop picking in rural Hampshire brings fresh friendships, unexpected romances and life changing truths about themselves.

By 1944, Trixie and Vi are back in Gosport felling trees for the war effort. Trixie's flashy new boyfriend Eddie sets Vi's instincts jangling, even as Trixie longs for missing American Cy, and both friends must make hard choices while bombs still fall around them.

Trixie and her fellow lumberjills Jo, Hen and Vi are sent to the remote MacKay estate, where the brooding owner expected male workers, not four young women. As they restore the woods and prove their worth, long buried secrets from each woman's past begin to surface.

Tired of shop work and pub piano, nineteen year old Trixie Smith joins the Women's Timber Corps and heads to Scotland to train as a lumberjill. Gruelling forest work, new friendships and a brief romance with an American soldier soon test her courage and change her plans.

A year after finding refuge at the Criterion cinema, Connie Baxter seems settled with dashing Ace and a job she loves. Cousin Marlene's return and growing doubts about Ace's dealings force Connie to face painful truths about loyalty, jealousy and what she really wants from life.

After her mother is killed in a raid, Connie Baxter moves to Gosport and becomes an usherette at the Criterion cinema. Glamorous films, a sleazy manager, a charming taxi dancer and a lodger with shady sidelines all show her how different real life is from the pictures.

As victory finally arrives and lights come back on across Europe, Bea, Rainey and Ivy face a new world without air raids or blackout curtains. After years defined by music and war, each woman must decide whether to chase fresh dreams or hold on to the trio.

At the height of their fame, the Bluebird Girls join ENSA and criss-cross distant bases singing for soldiers in harsh desert and jungle camps. When tragedy strikes their small show family, Bea, Rainey and Ivy are forced to rethink love, loyalty and their future together.

By 1941 the Bluebird Girls are touring from working men's clubs to the Savoy Hotel, winning new fans with every song. Behind the smiles, Bea battles past trauma, Rainey feels crushed by expectations and usually calm Ivy is lost in first love as bombs fall.

When her husband walks out, Elsie Barker seizes the chance to crew wartime narrowboats alongside her friend Izzy. Under kindly boss Dorothy and with newcomer Tolly on board, the women haul heavy cargoes along the canals and slowly build new lives on the water.

On the eve of war in 1939, Rainey Bird, Ivy Sparrow and Bea Herron escape their problems by singing in a Gosport choir. When a stranger offers them a chance at real stardom, the friends step from church halls to wider stages as conflict looms.

In 1943 the Point of No Return pub offers warmth and laughter in bomb battered Gosport. Barmaids Ruby, Sylvie and Marge pour pints, gossip with regulars and hide their own worries about missing sweethearts, restless ambitions and motherhood, clinging to friendship when times are darkest.

With the war nearing its end, overseer Gladys is still packing shells at Priddy's Hard when she takes in Goldie, a runaway teen. As she hides the girl from a violent criminal family and faces a late pregnancy, friendship becomes her strongest defence.

Vee Smith arrives in Gosport with a new name and forged papers, hiding that she is half German. Working the harbour ferries brings friendship, purpose and a dangerous attraction to her married skipper, but any slip could expose her secret and destroy her fragile safety.

In autumn 1944, doodlebugs pound the south coast while Em Earle struggles to keep order at Priddy's Hard. A scheming crook targets the factory, her daughter is unexpectedly pregnant and a stranger claims to be Em's sister, forcing the bomb girls to rally round again.

In 1943 Gosport, nineteen year old Pixie Saunders works long, dangerous shifts at the armaments factory, then dances away her fear with best friend Rita. When an American sailor leaves her pregnant and alone, the other munitions girls become the family she can lean on.

Back at work after a devastating explosion, Rita Brown is determined to prove she is more than her scars. Drawn to charming spiv Blackie Bristow and alarmed by rumours of leaks to the enemy, she must decide who to trust on the factory floor.