When Edie marries young to escape her unhappy family home he thinks that life can only get better. At the age of 19 she is widowed and after losing her child from the marriage she faces the Second World War grieving and lonely. Then one night during the Birmingham Blitz an infant, mysteriously abandoned during the bombing is handed into her care. Her lively friend Ruby, meanwhile, doesn't want to be left behind in the wedding stakes and settles for marriage with Frank, a man much changed by the war.
Finally there's Janet, intelligent, kind hearted and susceptible to male charm, who is hurt desperately by an affair with a married man, and who assumes she will never love again.
David, the child who steals Edie's heart as she brings him up through a time none of them will ever forget, is the centre of all their lives. And when he is old enough to wonder who he really is, he leads Edie through struggle and heartache to a life and love she would never have dreamed of.

A spellbinding saga of three very different women show lives become entwined by war and their work at the Cadbury's chocolate factory in Bournville - and their love for a child.


An interesting read which deals quite sensitively with some quite distressing issues from the war like the Holocaust. A bit chic lit in places but on the whole enjoyable.

Now off in the Occupations Sweeps.

Received today.
I used to clean houses. One of my Clients' brother lived in Dunedin and was a manager for Bournville/Cadbury/Griffins. She was a High School Home Economics teacher and involved with Girl Guides. She had High Tea at the UK Bourneville factory, organized by him. When her brother was over there for work, Bournville were throwing out their Girl Guide biscuit cutters. They never really took off. He brought them back to New Zealand and manufacturing in Dunedin. They were continuously produced for 60 years.

Released while at Post Shop.

Thank you for the book exchange, gaboyd. Received today with another book. Sounds interesting.