Far From Home
Page 41
I do a lot of research for all my books and this was no exemption; and I used, City at War – Birmingham 1939–1945 edited by Phillada Ballard, Life on the Home Front from Reader’s Digest’s Journeys Into The Past series, Brum Undaunted by Carl Chinn, and People’s War from the BBC website to help with detail. However, the most helpful site without doubt is the Birmingham History Forum. Whatever you ask there someone will have the answer. Stockland Green was not an area I knew well, though it had been Denis’s stamping ground. But I needn’t have worried, for people on that site not only told me about the Plaza cinema but sent me photographs of it inside and out through the war years and one man sent me a photograph of his grandfather when he was a commissionaire standing on the steps by the entrance. They helped me too with personal memories that I was able to check, like the unexploded bomb that fell near Kate’s house. Most amazing of all was from a lady now living in Vancouver who had been born in 1941 and lived in Stockland Green for some years, who wrote a detailed account of life there just after the war, which I found immensely useful. So thanks and thanks again to all those helpful Brummies.
However, despite all the research and the blood, sweat and tears I spent writing it, the book wouldn’t have been half as good if it had not been for the amazing Susan Opie who does such a marvelous job in editing it. Deep thanks too for my in-house editor, the indomitable Kate Bradley who has taken over from Victoria. Thanks also to Amy Neilson who helped me publicize the book and my agent Judith Murdoch who is always so supportive. I am more especially grateful this year to all of you for your understanding and consideration when I hit personal problems.
Most of my regular readers know how much my family mean to me: my eldest daughter, Nikki, and her husband, Steve, my son, Simon, and his wife, Carol, my second daughter, Beth, and my youngest, Tamsin, and partner, Mark, who all play their part in encouraging me. My grandchildren, Briony, Kynon, Jake and Theo, on the other hand, keep me grounded lest I threaten to get above myself, and no doubt little Catrin will be at it too soon enough. Thank you all for keeping me focused on what is important in life.
My friends also mean a great deal to me and I appreciate them all, but a special thanks to Ginnie and Mike Mooney and Judith Kendall. Thank you all for just being you and for being there.
I wish there was more words to say thank you, for I have used it so often and yet I truly mean it when I say that I owe the biggest debt of gratitude to you my loyal readers because without you there would be no point to anything I do. I love it when you write and tell me what you think of my books and some of you have already found me on Facebook. I am even just about getting to grips with Twitter too, as I am dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age of the 21st century. Immense and grateful thanks to each and everyone one of you and I hope you enjoy the book.
About the Author
Anne Bennett was born in a back-to-back house in the Horsefair district of Birmingham. The daughter of Roman Catholic, Irish immigrants, she grew up in a tight-knit community where she was taught to be proud of her heritage. She considers herself to be an Irish Brummie and feels therefore that she has a foot in both cultures. She has four children and four grandchildren. For many years she taught in schools to the north of Birmingham. An accident put paid to her teaching career and, after moving to North Wales, Anne turned to the other great love of her life and began to write seriously. In 2006, after 16 years in a wheelchair, she miraculously regained her ability to walk.
Visit www.annebennett.co.uk to find out more about Anne and her books.
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Other Books by Anne Bennett
A Little Learning
Love Me Tender
A Strong Hand to Hold
Pack Up Your Troubles
Walking Back to Happiness
Till the Sun Shines Through
Danny Boy
Daughter of Mine
Mother’s Only Child
To Have and to Hold
A Sister’s Promise
A Daughter’s Secret
A Mother’s Spirit
The Child Left Behind
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction.
The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Harper
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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2012
FAR FROM HOME. Copyright © Anne Bennett 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Anne Bennett asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-0-00-735921-9
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 978-0-00-738374-0
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