@NewhamBookshop
When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up.
Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss — until his flatmate Alistair unexpectedly enlists, and the conflict can no longer be avoided.
Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is — bewilderingly — made a teacher, she instead finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.
Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary.
And when Mary and Alistair meet, it is love, as well as war, that will test them in ways they could not have imagined, entangling three lives in violence and passion, friendship and deception, inexorably shaping their hopes and dreams.
In a powerful combination of both humour and heartbreak, this dazzling novel weaves little-known history, and a perfect love story, through the vast sweep of the Second World War — daring us to understand that, against the great theatre of world events, it is the intimate losses, the small battles, the daily human triumphs, that change us most.
“A cracker” — Stylist: 10 exciting books in 2016
“His best book to date” — Esquire: 10 best novels of 2016
⚫ Everyone Brave is Forgiven is published on 21 April 2016 in hardback by Sceptre at £14.99.
Watch videos of Michael Rosen reading from his collection of poems for adults, Don’t Mention the Children.
Details of the book.
Alex Marshall, author of Republic or Death!, recently talked about his book at The Wanstead Tap, and gave a 15-minute talk on National Pride on the BBC Radio 4 series Four Thought. Click here to listen. Click here for details of the book.
Independent bookshops were recognised by Penguin Random House for their window displays and events celebrating the publication on 14 July of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. Newham Bookshop won the East of England award for its late-night event at The Wanstead Tap, where the 1962 film of To Kill a Mockingbird was screened before the books were sold just after midnight.
