What do you think?
Rate this book
Violet's War
1915: Violet Dobson is horrified when husband Billy signs up to fight for King and Country. Billy is already her hero — she doesn’t need him to prove it. As Billy heads to France, Violet has her own battles to fight, living with Billy’s mam and dad. To Violet’s surprise, teaching her young son Tommy to play football proves a pleasure rather than a chore, but when she’s invited to coach the women’s team at work Violet’s not so sure. In Billy’s mam’s opinion, nice women don’t play football and married women certainly don’t. Caught between her mother-in-law’s old-fashioned views and her own love of the game, Violet is coming under growing pressure to play. The team is raising money for the military hospital. What if Billy was one of the wounded?
As Violet takes to the pitch, Private Billy Dobson faces the enemy on the Western Front. Their problems are only just beginning. This book has been awarded a Discovering Diamonds review, a Chill with a Book Readers' Award and an Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion.
As Violet takes to the pitch, Private Billy Dobson faces the enemy on the Western Front. Their problems are only just beginning. This book has been awarded a Discovering Diamonds review, a Chill with a Book Readers' Award and an Indie B.R.A.G. Medallion.
324 pages, Paperback
Published May 26, 2021
About the author
Rosemary J. Kind
27 books153 followersRosemary J Kind writes because she has to. You could take almost anything away from her except her pen and paper. Failing to stop after the book that everyone has in them, she has gone on to publish books in both non-fiction and fiction, the latter including novels, humour, short stories and poetry. She also regularly produces magazine articles in a number of areas and writes regularly for the dog press.
As a child she was desolate when at the age of 10 her then teacher would not believe that her poem based on ‘Stig in the Dump’ was her own work and she stopped writing poetry for several years as a result. She was persuaded to continue by the invitation to earn a little extra pocket money by ‘assisting’ others to produce the required poems for English homework!
Always one to spot an opportunity, she started school newspapers and went on to begin providing paid copy to her local newspaper at the age of 16.
For twenty years she followed a traditional business career, before seeing the error of her ways and leaving it all behind to pursue her writing full-time.
She spends her life discussing her plots with the characters in her head and her faithful dogs, who always put the opposing arguments when there are choices to be made.
Always willing to take on challenges that sensible people regard as impossible, she set up the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction in 2012. During the six years the site ran, she built it to be one of the largest such sites in the world.
Her hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog in the UK and when she brought her beloved Alfie back from Belgium he was only the tenth in the country.
She started writing Alfie’s Diary as an internet blog the day Alfie arrived to live with her, intending to continue for a year or two. It has now run for over fifteen years and is repeatedly named as one of the top ten pet blogs in the UK. You can read Alfie’s Diary at www.alfiedog.me.uk
She now lives in Warwickshire with her husband and dogs Alfie, Shadow, Wilma and Aristotle, the latter being Shadow’s wayward son.
She hopes you will enjoy reading her work.
As a child she was desolate when at the age of 10 her then teacher would not believe that her poem based on ‘Stig in the Dump’ was her own work and she stopped writing poetry for several years as a result. She was persuaded to continue by the invitation to earn a little extra pocket money by ‘assisting’ others to produce the required poems for English homework!
Always one to spot an opportunity, she started school newspapers and went on to begin providing paid copy to her local newspaper at the age of 16.
For twenty years she followed a traditional business career, before seeing the error of her ways and leaving it all behind to pursue her writing full-time.
She spends her life discussing her plots with the characters in her head and her faithful dogs, who always put the opposing arguments when there are choices to be made.
Always willing to take on challenges that sensible people regard as impossible, she set up the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction in 2012. During the six years the site ran, she built it to be one of the largest such sites in the world.
Her hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog in the UK and when she brought her beloved Alfie back from Belgium he was only the tenth in the country.
She started writing Alfie’s Diary as an internet blog the day Alfie arrived to live with her, intending to continue for a year or two. It has now run for over fifteen years and is repeatedly named as one of the top ten pet blogs in the UK. You can read Alfie’s Diary at www.alfiedog.me.uk
She now lives in Warwickshire with her husband and dogs Alfie, Shadow, Wilma and Aristotle, the latter being Shadow’s wayward son.
She hopes you will enjoy reading her work.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 18, 2022
It was a pleasure to read this novel. The detail seemed to be well researched and the characters came easily and believably to life. It had not occurred to me that women played football during the Great War period - but of course they did! (And why not?) It seems such a great shame that even now in 2022 we are only just accepting that we girls can do as well as (maybe even better than?) the lads at these things. It has only taken one hundred years or so...
Reminiscent of Catherine Cookson, this book gives us a convincing period setting with a dragon of a mother-in-law and a put-upon wife and mother who is determined to not be bullied into submission. The football element provided a pleasant change from the usual WWI type story. My only (very, very slight) grumble is that I meet so many characters called 'Tommy' in this era of novels. Surely some boys had other names? Eddie, William, Ronald, George...?
I found myself rooting for Vi right from the start. No spoilers, so I'll not go into detail, but you do not need to be interested in football to enjoy this novel.
The music hall song quotes and the snippets from the newspapers at the start of each chapter were a nice, interesting touch.
It's a good story, simply written but engrossing.
Originally Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
Reminiscent of Catherine Cookson, this book gives us a convincing period setting with a dragon of a mother-in-law and a put-upon wife and mother who is determined to not be bullied into submission. The football element provided a pleasant change from the usual WWI type story. My only (very, very slight) grumble is that I meet so many characters called 'Tommy' in this era of novels. Surely some boys had other names? Eddie, William, Ronald, George...?
I found myself rooting for Vi right from the start. No spoilers, so I'll not go into detail, but you do not need to be interested in football to enjoy this novel.
The music hall song quotes and the snippets from the newspapers at the start of each chapter were a nice, interesting touch.
It's a good story, simply written but engrossing.
Originally Reviewed for Discovering Diamonds
May 27, 2021
A sports story, a war story, a love story. What more to ask for? Another impeccably researched historical novel from Rosemary J. Kind, with characters who breathe and bleed, real dialogue, a tightly-wound plot with plenty of suspense and surprises along the way to a satisfying conclusion. I've been reading Rosemary's stuff for a while now. This one's a keeper.
May 26, 2022
We are proud to announce that VIOLET'S WAR by Rosemary J. Kind has been honored with the B.R.A.G.Medallion (Book Readers Appreciation Group). It now joins the very select award-winning, reader-recommended books at indieBRAG.
January 27, 2022
Violet's War by Rosemary J Kind has received a Chill with a Book Readers' Award
www.chillwithabook.com
www.chillwithabook.com
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews