ALL THE NICE GIRLS captures the danger and excitement of wartime Britain with a sweeping story of heroic deeds and painful separations, illicit love and battles at sea, and above all, of the poignancy of longing and loss.
1942, and the war is not going well. As part of the war effort the Ashworth Grammar School for Girls signs up for the Merchant Navy’s Ship Adoption Scheme. The headmistress, who lost her lover in the First World War, believes the project will broaden the horizons of her girls, especially Polly and Jen, bright sixth formers eager to live and love despite it all.
Then Josh Percival, captain of the adopted ship, the SS Treverran, comes with his men to visit Ashworth. The choices that follow will disrupt all their lives, reverberating even to the next generation, when, decades later, life and love are on the line again . . .
1942, and the war is not going well. As part of the war effort the Ashworth Grammar School for Girls signs up for the Merchant Navy’s Ship Adoption Scheme. The headmistress, who lost her lover in the First World War, believes the project will broaden the horizons of her girls, especially Polly and Jen, bright sixth formers eager to live and love despite it all.
Then Josh Percival, captain of the adopted ship, the SS Treverran, comes with his men to visit Ashworth. The choices that follow will disrupt all their lives, reverberating even to the next generation, when, decades later, life and love are on the line again . . .
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Reviews
** 'Marvellously exciting, heartbreaking, gruelling and an unexpectedly muscular and masculine treat in the middle of what is essentially a wistful romance...the outcome is poignant, romantic, deeply satisfying
** 'The scene where she is torpedoed is a masterpiece of chilling, searing realism...This novel, you sense, was just the warm-up act
** 'Poignant and pleasurable novel
** 'Bakewell delivers a warm, good humoured story of wartime relationships and a thrilling account of life and death on the convoys