Item category 1: Family Saga

Hope and opportunity can come from even the bleakest of moments. Left homeless after the Exeter Blitz, May must find a job if she's to put a roof over her head and help support her two younger sisters. Taking a job as housekeeper to farmer George, May soon ends up getting stuck into more than jus...

It is 1939 and working class Evie Bishop has received a scholarship to study mathematics at Oxford when tragedy turns her life upside down. Evie must seek a new future for herself and, inspired to contribute to the war effort, joins the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as an Ops Room plotter. Posted t...

Hope and opportunity can come from even the bleakest of moments. Left homeless after the Exeter Blitz, May must find a job if she's to put a roof over her head and help support her two younger sisters. Taking a job as housekeeper to farmer George, May soon ends up getting stuck into more than jus...

Pearl has given up on her dreams of being a journalist after being denied a promotion because of her gender. Joining the WAAF as a radio telephone operator for Bomber Command, Pearl's new job at RAF Fenthorpe serves two purposes - providing an income for her grandmother, and keeping a close eye o...

October 1940. Twenty-three-year-old Bobby Bancroft is working as a typist for a city newspaper, but she longs to be breaking the news herself. When she successfully applies for a junior reporter role at The Tyke, a magazine serving the Yorkshire Dales, she's thrilled to be entering the world of j...

Winter 1885. Matron Hetty Barlow suspects Hope is lying when she claims to be suffering from amnesia. The girl is taken in, but it isn't long before her pregnancy is discovered, which could put the future of the house - a new experiment in dealing with destitute women - in jeopardy. Hetty's futur...

Bombay, 1938. Growing up in the misery of the orphanage, then as a girl in service in the West End, Daisy Driscoll never dreamed that her wedding day would be like this. She stands in the heat of the April sun, her best dress clinging to her skin and the suitcase by her side her only possession. ...

Nineteen-year old Nan Turpin is in trouble again, accused of stealing. She's guilty. Cast out by her family, she turns to the House of Help for Friendless Girls, which promises Nan a fresh start - it's the House or gaol. She and warden Hetty immediately clash, but Hetty has her own secrets to kee...

London, 1941. Daisy Driscoll has only just fallen asleep after a gruelling day on the ward when a hammering on the door wakes her. The Home Sister shouts for the nurses to come down immediately. Through the blur of sleep, Daisy hears the unmistakable drone of the siren and planes in the distance....

With the Great War raging and Christmas on the horizon, can one woman's bravery save the day? East London, 1916: The Sanctuary Lane Animal Hospital is proving a huge success. For its founder Ruby Archer, this is a dream come true - and her blossoming romance with a local boy is the icing on the c...