A Long And Lonely Road

by Katie Flynn

Liverpool, Christmas 1938. Rose McAllister is waiting for her husband, Steve, to come home. He is a seaman, often drunk and violent, but Rose does her best to cope and see that her daughters, Daisy and Petal, suffer as little as possible. Steve, however, realises that war is coming and tries to reform, but on his last night home, he pawns the girls' new dolls to go on a drinking binge. When war is declared Rose has a good job but agrees the children must be evacuated. Daisy and Petal are happy at first, but circumstances change and they are put in the care of a woman who hates all scousers and taunts them with the destruction of their city. They run away, arriving home on the worst night of the May Blitz. Rose is attending the birth of her friend's baby and goes back to Bernard Terrace to find her home has received a direct hit, and is told that the children were seen entering the house the previous evening. Devastated, she throws herself into the war effort, risking her life before she considers finding out what really happened that fateful night...A Long and Lonely Road is yet another confirmation of the brilliance and warmth of Katie Flynn's saga novels.

Genres: Historical Fiction, War

448 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Katie Flynn was born in Norwich and attended Norwich High School, where she was extremely happy and extremely undistinguished. Published at the tender age of eight, in Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, she joined a Writers’ Circle as an adult, publishing short stories, articles, etc; only turning to novels in 1971 because the postal strike cut off her main source of income!
At first she wrote under several different names – Judith Saxton, Judy Turner, Lydia Balmain, Judith Arden – but her Katie Flynn books were a delight to write and proved far more popular than she had dreamed. She has now published nearly ninety novels, twenty-seven of which are Flynns. Her most recent titles are: Lost Days of Summer and Christmas Wishes.

Reviews

[Shirley Revill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book a few times and it's a story that had me reaching for my tissues.
Recommended

[Roughseasinthemed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terribly pedestrian writing. One of Arrow's best author's?

Battered woman gets new life and new man. And it takes hundreds of pages to say that?

[Jocelet Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as great

Unfortunately this book is not as fantastic as any of the other Kate Flynn books, although definitely worth reading for sure, I feel it ended a little different to her other novels and the story could have taken different lines, maybe this was deliberately done incase she wanted to continue the story further down the line, definitely purchase worthy as previously stated

[dave jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Really enjoyed the book, Katie Flynn writes fantastic books and the detail in the story is so in-depth you can imagine it very clearly can’t wait to get started on my next book.

[Lyn Davies]

I lone anything by Katie Flynn and Judith Saxton, they are always well written the story lines are always strong. I wish there was a follow up to see what happens with Daisy,Petal and Nick . Would recommend to friends

[adrian dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great easy read

A book that draws you in to life lived through the war. For me it was written through the mind and eyes of the children , Daisy and Petal.

[rosemonde hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very enjoyable story, but a bit disappointed with the ending.

[Denise Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice read

Quite a nice story but a little boring at times. Would recommend it to friends as an easy read holiday book..

[Maureen Vitera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very sudden ending. Is there a follow-up book so we know what happens to Daisy and Petal?

[Roz Radmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely heart warming book as always from this writer

[Yvonne Lemon-Heigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.9?

[Elaine Watson]

Update to read list therefore no rating and no review - read 25/07/2010

[Linda Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love reading katie Flynn books

[Layla · Rating 4 out of 5]

had this a a paper back will update to kindle so I can have all katies books on kindle so I can re read easier in the future.

very good book.

[May Lin]

This book is very good. It's about life. It's about the time at war. Rose, who's got a husband, Steve who is a seaman (drunk and violent). she's got two lovely daughters: Petal (what a cute name) and Daisy. Daisy is older than Petal. They've gotta go to other people house in order to be safe. Soon, Rose and Steve got divorce after Steve's attack to poor Daisy. Rose met a man named Luke and got married to that American. You all sould read it coz' is so good.

[Lisa Templey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written story. Enjoyed this book lots

[Beverley Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

brilliant book good read couldn't put it down well done Katie Flynn another brilliant book