Here are 2 books that A Gentle Empire fans have personally recommended if you like
A Gentle Empire.
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This was a rare novel that depicts life in the WRENs in WWII in fictional form but without melodrama or cliches. The author used three women protagonists, each very different and doing different jobs. The Swordfish pilot in the title is important to one of the three female protagonists, but not dominant. In fact the title is moderately misleading. (Probably someone along the way insisted the author's original title wasn't insufficiently "sexy"!) The point is that this book is predominantly about the women and how they cope with challenges, loss, success and grief. It is not a romance, although the young women naturally do have their romantic attachments. The book has a strong authenticity about it, despite some unusual plot twists, that created genuine excitement. All three main characters were engaging and attractive, making me anxious to discover their fate.
Three women set sail for adventure in a man's world - the Royal NavyWhen Cathy’s twin brother is called to serve in the Royal Navy, Cathy feels lost without him. She leaps at the chance to join the Wrens, which by 1942, has grown into a strong force of over sixty thousand women. It's an exciting world but she longs to be at sea and prove herself – to fight alongside her brother. Already working her way up through the ranks is Wren Officer Anne Foxton, who takes command of a ‘stone frigate’ in the traditional man’s world of the…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
This is a biography, not a novel, told by a man towards the end of his military career by chance stumbled upon a little mystery that triggered his curiousity. He set off to find the story behind the episode and uncovers bit by bit an entire world -- Malta in the war years. At its heart, this is a memorial to an exceptional woman and her tragic love for a wartime hero. It pieces together through primary sources and the memories of people who met her a remarkable life that spanned being a showgirl (dancer/entertainer) in North Africa in the 30s to being a Fighter Controller in Malta during the most intense air raids in the Second World War. However, it also encompasses her contemporaries, particularly the famous flier who cast a shadow of her life, and other women struggling to survive in wartime Malta. What I found particularly moving…
The world premiere of the musical stage play Star of Strait Street took place in Valletta on 4 April 2017\. It celebrates the life of Christina Ratcliffe, an English singer and dancer who became an aircraft plotter in Malta in the Second World War. She worked in the underground Royal Air Force operational headquarters beneath Lascaris Bastion in Valletta.
This is Christina's story and that of other British and Maltese girls employed by the RAF. It is also the story of Philip Glassborow's hit musical Star of Strait Street.
In June 1942 fifty-three female civilian plotters worked at Lascaris, some…
