Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Tom Pengelly is the farm boy Edie is billeted alongside — first her rival, all "vacky" taunts and turned shoulders, then her closest ally and the friend who roots her into Devon. Near her own age and twice as sure of his own ground, he shows her the hares and the badger-bank and the sea, and asks nothing when she shows him her key. Theirs is the friendship the whole series turns on — the kind that lasts, by letter, long after the war.
Bill Fletcher is Edie's father — an East-End dockman who signs on with the merchant navy and sails the…
Edie Fletcher is ten years old when the war sends her away — a London girl put on a train with a label round…
Hettie is the Pengelly farm's most disagreeable hen — big, rusty, bad-tempered, and nobody's friend, and the…
Joan Pengelly is Tom's older sister, on the edge of grown-up when Edie arrives — a careful politeness that…
Mr Pengelly is the farmer who takes Edie in — large, undemonstrative, and kinder than a wary London girl…
Mrs Hooper is Vera's neighbour and friend in Bethnal Green — the Fletchers' London anchor, all sharp opinions…