A Wartime Secret

by Annie Murray

A Wartime Secret is the moving short story of a family torn apart by war, from bestselling author Annie Murray.

Some lies are harder to hide . . .

Grace and Ted Chapman married at the beginning of the war, but then Ted was called up to fight . . . Grace was left alone, fearful that her beloved Ted would never return. With the passage of time, Grace began to create a new life and found comfort in the arms of another man. Then along came the birth of a little girl, baby Barbara.

One morning, Grace receives a telegram out of the blue, she learns that Ted is alive and on his way home. News of his return sends Grace into a sick panic and she begs her sister Joan to look after her daughter. When Ted returns back to Birmingham, he is shell-shocked and fragile - all the while Grace is tormented.

Just how far is Grace willing to go, in order to protect her secret?

Genres: Historical

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 9, 2017

About the author

Annie Murray was a ‘childhood writer.’ Her career was helped a great deal by belonging to Tindal Street Fiction Group in Birmingham and by winning the SHE/Granada TV Short Story Competition in 1991. She has published short stories in a number of anthologies as well as SHE magazine. Her first regional saga, Birmingham Rose appeared in 1995 and reached the Times bestseller list. She has since published more than a dozen others, including the ‘Cadbury books,’ Chocolate Girls and The Bells of Bournville Green, Family of Women and her latest, A Hopscotch Summer. Annie has four children and lives near Reading.

Reviews

[Rosanna Threakall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borrowed off my mum because I've been slumpy. This was a surprisingly good little story!

[Jocelet Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable

This story was enjoyable though to long a story for the amount of pages, I thinking its a tad boring which I s most unusual for Annie Murray. I will definitely be purchasing another of her books She is so worth it 💛💜💛

[Trudie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant short story from one of my favourite authors. Gracie's husband Ted arrives back home in 1945 after the war in Europe has ended a broken man, Gracie is delighted to see him but has a secret, a daughter Barbara. Loved it and wished it could be longer!

[Laura Wallis · Rating 5 out of 5]

a good short story of a soilder retuening homw after war

[Michelle Wiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a war time story of a young bride who made a mistake whilst her husband was away fighting in the Second World War. It is a short story and was very enjoyable. Recommended.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet enough short read that to an extent captures the essence of the trauma the Second World War dealt caused, but it’s a fairly lightweight read.

[Shelley Williams]

A lovely story with a lovely ending.

[Bridget Lambdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely short story perfect read on a rather boring train journey that I took from Exeter to London

[LINDA HADDOCK]

Lovely story

Although a short story it had me gripped from the first word. A story of a husband going off to war, his wife was unfaithful and became pregnant by another man..when her husband returned from war she hid the baby with her sister until she had the courage to tell her war ravished husband what she had done.

[mois reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give it a read well worth it I got it this morning started reading it had to finish it Annie at her best give it a go . Can't wait for Annie's next book to come out one of my fave authors

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 - A moving, interesting and enjoyable quick read.

This is different to the usual type of books that I read but when I read the blurb I liked the idea of the story. I enjoyed the writing style and I'm keen to read more by Murray. The characters came to life on the page and it didn't feel like I was reading a quick read as the story and characters are so fully fleshed out. I found myself constantly imagining how it must have been all those years ago for women during the war; how little they knew of what their men were going through and how lonely and frightened they must have been. I was routing for all the characters and sped through the pages to find out when and how Grace would reveal her secret...

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on the kindle

The story is that it's 1945 Grace has a 5 month old daughter & receives a telegram telling her husband will be home that evening he been a prisoner since he was captured at Dunkirk in 1940 so she leaves her daughter with her sister so she can tell him. When he arrives he is a shell of his former self this is the story

It was a good one but felt that it should have possible been longer so more could have gone into the story more as I thought it was lacking a bit

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice easy read

[Dani · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sweet story, although I kept expecting Johnny to turn up again at the end. When I finished the book it was a surprise as on my Kindle it stated the I was on 87%.

[Margaret Spalling]

Slightly disappointed

I have to say, that as a fan of Annie Murray's books, I wasn't keen on this short story.
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