Another part of this story that is based on fact is the massacre at Le Paradis, where ninety-seven members of the Royal Norfolk Regiment were killed. Two men miraculously survived, and after hiding beneath the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers, they crawled to a nearby farm and were concealed there after being discovered hiding in the pigsty. They did eventually surrender again, thankfully to a friendlier German regiment. Due to the severity of his leg injuries, one of the men ended up being repatriated back to London in exchange for some wounded German soldiers, and went on to testify in the war crimes case against the Nazi commander who had ordered the massacre. The commander was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, and the newspaper article I have Elise reading from in the closing scene of the book is factually accurate on all counts. You can read further about this horrible event by searching for the “Le Paradis massacre” online. It’s important to note that although I used this part of history as inspiration for my story, the characters in my book are entirely fictional.

I would also like to mention the character Lilly, who was inspired by one of the last remaining nurses to be evacuated from Dunkirk. Lillian Gutteridge bravely commandeered an ambulance, filled it with her patients, and drove them to the beach. She encountered a Nazi patrol on her way, and when an SS officer ordered her to relinquish her ambulance and his men to throw out the stretcher-bound patients, she slapped him across the cheek and received a dagger in the thigh in response. This might just be one of the bravest nurses I’ve come across in all the years I’ve been researching WWII.

Every time I read about a moment in history, I ask myself: What would it have been like to be a woman there? My approach in this book is no different. I can only hope that I have managed to convey the emotions of my characters in an authentic way, by imagining myself in their shoes as they hid from the Nazis and fought to save their own lives, and the lives of others.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, I would like to thank a core group of very important people in my life. First of all, my eternal thanks goes to my team at Amazon Publishing, most especially my editor Sammia Hamer for always seeing potential in my ideas, and encouraging me to write the stories of my heart. Thank you also to editor Sophie Wilson, who has now worked on five historical novels with me, and who always manages to bring out the best in me. You two truly are my “dream team”! Thanks to everyone behind the scenes at Amazon Publishing too, including my author relations team—especially Nicole Wagner and Bekah Graham. I would also like to thank my longtime agent, Laura Bradford, for her ongoing support.