"A few years ago, I read a wonderful non-fiction book called The Roses Of No Man’s Land about the army nurses who served during the First World War, and it inspired me to write a novel about the girls who worked for the Voluntary Aid Detachment - the VAD.
The girls who joined the VAD were often from privileged backgrounds, and the outbreak of war presented these gentlemen’s daughters with the opportunity for an adventure. The VAD girls weren’t all saints or superwomen. Some of them fell in love with the wrong men, some got pregnant, some went right off the rails, some had to admit defeat and go home. But the more I read about them, the more I admired them all.
The novel is about different kinds of bravery - that of the soldiers, obviously, and of the army nurses who saved so many of their lives. But it’s also about the quiet courage of the people left behind, who had to cope with dramatic social change and who sometimes displayed huge generosity of spirit.
My heroine Rose Courtenay is a lively, out-going, likeable but naïve young girl, who makes many mistakes and pays dearly for them, but who finally grows up. Rose wants what most of us want out of life - to make the most of our opportunities, to discover and use our talents, to love and to be loved.
Today, a girl like my Rose would probably be working for a famine relief agency, backpacking round the world, or saving the planet. She’d be displaying the idealism and enthusiasm that young people have always done, and hopefully always will. "
We'd like to thank Margaret for sparing the time to visit us on our blog, and we hope you'll read her book! You can buy it from any bookshop or online bookseller in the UK, or you can buy it from Amazon around the world. And don't forget to tell your librarian about this book!
To find out more about Margaret James and her books, visit Margaret James's homepage
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