THE PLOT

ISLAND SONG

1940. Guernsey is first bombed, then occupied, by the Germans. A year earlier, recently married Helene waves good-bye to her husband, who has enlisted in the British army. Protected only by her father and Nanna, Helene must carve out a life on the island for the length of the war. Forty years later, her daughter Roz begins a search for the truth about her father and stumbles into the secret history of her mother's life.

THE MODEL OCCUPATION: THE CHANNEL ISLANDS UNDER GERMAN RULE, 1940-1945

Though rarely remembered today, the Nazis occupied the British Channel Islands for much of the Second World War. In piecing together the fragments left behind – from the love affairs between island women and German soldiers, to the individual acts of resistance – Madeleine Bunting has brought this uncomfortable episode of British history into full view with spellbinding clarity.

THE SEASIDE: ENGLAND'S LOVE AFFAIR

England's seaside is made up of a striking variety of coastlines including cliffs, coves, pebbled shore, wide sandy beaches, salt marshes, and estuaries cutting deep inland. On these coastal edges England's great holiday resorts grew up, developed in the early eighteenth century originally as spas for medicinal bathing but soon morphing into places of pleasure, entertainment, fantasy and adventure. The author journeys clockwise around England from Scarborough to Blackpool to understand the enduring appeal of seaside towns.