I’m delighted to be hosting one leg of May Ellis’s #blogtour for her brand new #saga ,

The Clarks Factory Girls at War.

BLURB: The Clarks Factory Girls at War

Can love blossom in times of trouble?

Life-long friends Louisa, Jeannie and Kate are following in the footsteps of their families, working at the Clarks shoe factory.

But when Britain declares war on Germany, the Somerset village of Street is shaken to its core. The Clarks factory is at the heart of life in the village, but the Clark family are Quakers and pacifists. Before long, there are fierce debates amongst the workers and tensions between those who oppose the war and those who believe the village men should go to fight.

Each of the girls must decide her own position but as brothers and sweethearts leave for France, Louisa is relieved that her sweetheart Mattie, a Quaker, who won’t be signing up. But she’ll soon find that they face fierce opposition at home as well as across the Channel.

Will the girls’ friendship be enough to keep them together, as everything around them falls apart?

A heartwarming and gripping new saga series perfect for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Clarke.

My Review

This is the first novel in a new series of sagas, written by May Ellis, for Boldwood Books.

Set in and around the Clarks shoe making factory in Street, Somerset, England, the reader is quickly drawn into the world of three young women – Louisa, Jeannie and Kate. It is 1914, and war has just been declared.

Wartime brings new challenges as the friends face abrupt changes in their home and working lives. With their private dreams of romance and fun in jeopardy, the girls are fearful for the countries future, the fate of their brothers, other family members, and friends who are heading off to fight. A situation made even more uncertain by their employers, the Clarks family, who, as Quakers, are vehemently against the hostilities.

Will the Clark’s men by arrested if they refuse to fight? Will the Clarks family welcome back those factory men who chose to go and fight, once the war is over and they come home again? If, they come home.

At a time when it was the norm for women to give their wages to their fathers rather than keep their hard earned money themselves; when they were raised with no other expectation than to find husbands and have families of their own, The Clarks Factory Girls at War takes Lousia, Jeannie and Kate on a three separate, but interconnected, journeys from girlhood to womanhood. We learn how they cope – or struggle to cope – with what life throws at them and their families, friends and factory colleagues.

This is a lovely story of hope, friendship, and the joy and heartbreak of romantic aspirations…

Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/clarksfactorysocial

Author Bio –

May Ellis is an historical saga author published by Boldwood Books. She lives in a house on a road named after a Clarks shoe, on the site of a former boot and shoe factory, so it was inevitable that this writer would want to write about the people who worked for Clarks in days gone by. The first in her series, The Clarks Factory Girls at War, is available from 9th March 2024.

She also writes gritty dramas set in the 1960s and 70s as Alison Knight, which are published by Darkstroke Books.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alison.knight.942

(This blog forms part of a Rachel’s Random Resources #blogtour.)