Betty Walker's Blog
September 15, 2024
Best Reading Order for my 'Cornish Girls' Sagas
INTRO TO THE CORNISH GIRLS
The men might have enlisted, but the war years were tough on women too. Women were struggling on the home front as mothers and housewives, but also in community volunteer positions, some of them involving hard, strenuous and even dangerous work. Unmarried women without children or other caring responsibilities to keep them at home could even find themselves ‘drafted’ into war work many hundreds of miles from home.
In the same way, not all my “Cornish Girls” are originally from Cornwall, but they adore living in such a beautiful part of the world, and are determined to support the war effort there. Friendly and full of lively humour, my Cornish Girls are always to be relied upon when someone needs a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on.
Romance plays a huge role in these novels too, as some of my ladies do eventually find love and a soul-mate, despite the rigours of wartime. But at their heart a deep and abiding friendship between women is the keystone of my Cornish Girls sagas.
ORDER OF NOVELS
If starting to read my Cornish Girls series, this is the order in which the novels were written. They are, however, all standalone novels, so are designed to be read out of order or as single novels.
Many readers have noted that the experience of entering the Cornish Girls world is enhanced if you start with Book One and read the stories in order, eg:
WARTIME WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book One)
CHRISTMAS WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Two)
COURAGE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Three)
A MOTHER’S HOPE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Four)
A WEDDING FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Five)
VICTORY FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Six)
A NEW HOPE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Seven)
The men might have enlisted, but the war years were tough on women too. Women were struggling on the home front as mothers and housewives, but also in community volunteer positions, some of them involving hard, strenuous and even dangerous work. Unmarried women without children or other caring responsibilities to keep them at home could even find themselves ‘drafted’ into war work many hundreds of miles from home.
In the same way, not all my “Cornish Girls” are originally from Cornwall, but they adore living in such a beautiful part of the world, and are determined to support the war effort there. Friendly and full of lively humour, my Cornish Girls are always to be relied upon when someone needs a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on.
Romance plays a huge role in these novels too, as some of my ladies do eventually find love and a soul-mate, despite the rigours of wartime. But at their heart a deep and abiding friendship between women is the keystone of my Cornish Girls sagas.
ORDER OF NOVELS
If starting to read my Cornish Girls series, this is the order in which the novels were written. They are, however, all standalone novels, so are designed to be read out of order or as single novels.
Many readers have noted that the experience of entering the Cornish Girls world is enhanced if you start with Book One and read the stories in order, eg:
WARTIME WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book One)
CHRISTMAS WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Two)
COURAGE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Three)
A MOTHER’S HOPE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Four)
A WEDDING FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Five)
VICTORY FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Six)
A NEW HOPE FOR THE CORNISH GIRLS (Book Seven)
November 25, 2021
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY!
It's #publicationday today for my brand-new festive World War II saga, CHRISTMAS WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS. I'm utterly thrilled to see this out at last, after having written it during lockdown last year, and I hope everyone will love it.
This is the second in my Cornish Girls series but can be read as a standalone.
It continues the stories of Eva, my former chorus girl now turned nurse, and Lily, the niece of Violet in Book I, WARTIME WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS, who now joins Eva in St Ives at a convalescent home for wounded servicemen. There, Eva is trying to persuade wounded American pilot Max Carmichael to learn to walk again ... while Lily is escaping from bad experiences in her past.
It also introduces Sister Rose, who's seen as a bit of a dragon by the other two girls, but thaws on better acquaintance. Brought up as an orphan herself, she's soon worried about the orphanage next door, where she fears the children are being mistreated ...
Really worth a read, this uplifting, festive historical novel will transport you back to wartime and show you the bonds of true friendship when women stick together against adversity.
Betty xxx
This is the second in my Cornish Girls series but can be read as a standalone.
It continues the stories of Eva, my former chorus girl now turned nurse, and Lily, the niece of Violet in Book I, WARTIME WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS, who now joins Eva in St Ives at a convalescent home for wounded servicemen. There, Eva is trying to persuade wounded American pilot Max Carmichael to learn to walk again ... while Lily is escaping from bad experiences in her past.
It also introduces Sister Rose, who's seen as a bit of a dragon by the other two girls, but thaws on better acquaintance. Brought up as an orphan herself, she's soon worried about the orphanage next door, where she fears the children are being mistreated ...
Really worth a read, this uplifting, festive historical novel will transport you back to wartime and show you the bonds of true friendship when women stick together against adversity.
Betty xxx
July 10, 2020
In The Rebel's Bed/Shadows at Dawn
A wonderful passionate romance, brilliantly of its time, written by my mother, aka Charlotte Lamb. First published in 1976!! Please don't judge by today's standards. It's like trashing a Bronte novel because the women have little agency of their own. The past is a different country.
June 27, 2020
Lovely to be on Goodreads!
I'm so excited to have my own Goodreads author page and blog, and am looking forward to hearing from readers. My debut saga WARTIME WITH THE CORNISH GIRLS is out in Feb 2021, but is already available on Netgalley for advance readers and reviewers, and has been well-received so far, which is wonderful!
I'll try to check in here when I can, but am hard at work on the sequel right now. It's set at Christmas, which is tricky to write when it's 30 degrees outside!
I'll try to check in here when I can, but am hard at work on the sequel right now. It's set at Christmas, which is tricky to write when it's 30 degrees outside!
