A Mistletoe Kiss
It was only a mistletoe kiss, Miss. Preece told herself, stepping out into the icy December evening and locking the library doors behind her. A mistletoe kiss means nothing, everyone knows that; but this did not quench the warm glow inside her. Hetty Gilbert is a canal child with no permanent address, so when she needs to join the library, she cannot do so. Miss. Preece dislikes children, but Hetty's longing for books touches a chord and she stretches the rules to allow the girl to read on the premises. Soon, Hetty's chief desire is to become a librarian like her friend. But with war on the horizon, their lives will never be the same. In 1939 Hetty joins in the war effort, for her knowledge of canal boats is desperately needed, whilst Miss. Preece can only sit and listen to the dangers her young friend faces, knowing she herself can do nothing to help. But her chance will come, and with it the meaning behind that fragile mistletoe kiss...
When Christmas Bells Ring
It’s Christmas in the Courts, and single mother Rosheen Clarke and her mischievous twin daughters April and May have no idea of the cataclysmic events which will soon overtake them.
When war is declared, April and May are evacuated to the countryside and Rosheen joins the WAAF where she befriends fellow Liverpudlian Cassie Valentine.
While Rosheen worries about what trouble the twins will cause next, Cassie is fighting her love for her childhood friend Andy. Because ever since he joined the RAF, he has become arrogant and remote.
Will he change back to the old Andy when it’s all over? Or will their love be another casualty of war?
Cassie and Rosheen support each other as best they can, but it will be many years before the Christmas bells ring out again.
A Christmas to Remember
A few days before Christmas Tess Williams rushes into Albert Payne's tobacconist shop, with two boys in hot pursuit, saying she's a thief. Albert chases the boys away, and though Tess does not realise it, this incident changes her life.
Tess lives with her grandmother, Edie, in a small flat on Heyworth Street in Norwich.She has recently returned from Bell Farm, where she was evacuated during the war, and is being bullied by her schoolmates, but when the handsome Snowy White comes to her rescue she thinks her troubles are over, and returns for a working holiday to Bell Farm and her old friend Jonty.
This leaves Edie to her own devices, however, and Tess is jealous of the friendship which blossoms between her grandmother and the tobacconist.Yet though Tess resents Albert, it is to him she turns when things start to go wrong.