Daffodils is essentially a love story, whose tender heart is almost torn apart through the tumultuous challenge of World War One. “A profound meditation on love and loss and the perils of war”: Bookbub. Daffodils is the Winner of the New Apple Literary Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing 2019 Medallist Winner E-Book.“Absorbing, involving, unputdownable, honest, great characterisation”. … characterisation”. Indie Book Bargains Featured Author Book of the day June 25th 2013 and was chosen to be in the first edition of the Fussy Librarian’s selection.
COMPLETELY REVISED EDITION
Katy, a maidservant at Cheadle Manor, longs to escape her narrow life but events unfold slowly in her rural village in Wiltshire. Jem Phipps has always loved Katy. His proposal of marriage rescues her from scandal but after tragedy strikes Jem becomes a reluctant soldier on the battlefields of The First World War, leaving Katy behind, restless and alone. Lionel White, the local curate, has just returned from India bringing a dash of colour to the small village and offers Katy a window on the wider world. Only when Katy joins up as a WAAC girl does she finally break free from the stifling class-ridden hierarchies that bind her but the brutality of 20th-century global war brings home the price she has paid for her search. Through the horrors of WW1, Katy discovers only love brings freedom.
For fans of historical fiction, DAFFODILS is Book One of The Katherine Wheel Saga.
Find out how these characters fared after the Armistice when they entered a new, modern age in its sequel, PEACE LILY. They have to carve out new lives in a changed world, having survived the war only to face new, unexpected challenges when they return home.
A third book, SPEEDWELL, takes the characters into the daring arena of motor racing in the 1920s and Katy’s defiant bid for independence. Book Four, WILLOW, (novella-sized) bridges the gap between the generations as the children of Cassandra and Douglas, Jem and Katy embark on a summer adventure that goes disastrously wrong, with dire consequences. The four children, Lottie and Isobel, Al and Lily, are on the brink of adulthood and the outbreak of the Second World War in Book Five, WOODBINE. Their lives separate as they are each forced to follow different paths through the war. Lottie is stranded in occupied France and gets drawn into the French Resistance; Al faces many dangers as he flies planes for the ATA, and Isobel, torn between duty and love, becomes a Land Girl. Can they come back together in Book Six, IVY? You must read the final book in The Katherine Wheel Series to find out how the whole saga reaches its dramatic and satisfying conclusion.
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I like historical novels. This tells of the battles in France, the hardships of the times and love that made it through.
An interesting take on WWI but does get a bit dragged out at times.
This is the first in a series of three. This was good light reading and I was happy to see that when I arrived at the end of each book, it was a natural place, not just cut off so you had to buy the next to get any sense of the novel being finished.
Liked the history of life befor and during WWI. Interesting how it took so many people to run the estates of the rich.
Well developed characters. Interesting ending
Love!
The war descriptions were horrific and heart-rending but gave a potent idea of what war was like in World War I. Worth reading for those who can accept war accounts.
Some parts of this book were quite interesting, but some of the developments in the plot felt unnatural or unrealistic.
It started off slow, but then it sucks you in. The whole trilogy is just phenomenal. The third book did end a bit abruptly for me, but I couldn’t put these books down.
Lovely read.
It was a nice book about ww1