The Family Feud Books in Order

The Family Feud series follows the Searles siblings from a small Cambridgeshire village as war and its aftermath expose long standing tensions over love, duty and inheritance. It is a village based saga where brothers and sisters rarely want the same thing.

A Family at War opens in 1940 with the sudden death of the Searles patriarch. Eldest daughter Frances is on the verge of marrying her childhood sweetheart Marcus, now a fighter pilot whose survival is far from guaranteed. Younger sister Emily falls for a handsome officer she barely knows, while brother Daniel enlists after falling for local kitchen maid Alice. Those left behind, including Clay, Henry and youngest brother Connor, struggle to keep the farm running and to grow up fast in a world turned upside down.

By A Family Secret, set in 1946, victory has been declared but the Searles family is far from whole. Marcus returns a changed man and Frances has to navigate both a difficult marriage and a controlling father in law. Emily's life rests on a lie that could collapse at any moment, Alice waits in hope that Daniel will come home the same man he was, and the brothers at home wrestle with guilt, resentment and the question of what to do with their land.

The final book, A Family Fortune, carries the story into the later 1940s as rationing lingers and new opportunities tempt younger people away from the village. Old secrets about money and promises resurface, and choices made in the heat of war finally come due. The title hints that the real fortune at stake is not just property but the chance at contentment for each member of the clan.

Across the trilogy Clarke shows how one event can ripple through an entire family for years. There are no simple villains or saints; instead, flawed people try to balance personal happiness with loyalty to parents, spouses and siblings. The series pays close attention to farm work, local gossip and the subtle ways social class still shapes marriages after the war.

Because the books trace a continuous story, they are best read in order, starting with A Family at War and moving through to A Family Fortune to see how each Searles sibling's path unfolds.