When Katie Waren's mother dies in childbirth Katie is forced to abandon her dreams of working as a pupil-teacher. Instead she goes into service at the big house with her sister, Fanny. Soon, and against her will, she finds herself growing fond of the shy but kind son of the house, George Trevarnon. But the intervention of George's unscrupulous brother leads to the sisters' dismissal and Katie and George are separated -Katie to struggle for a living in the alien city of Truro, and George, to bury his emotions in the dangers and devastations of the Boer War. When the two meet again, each is married to another but fate contrives to bring them together again -in the deceptive peace of an Edwardian summer...

Book by Aitken, Rosemary

Lizzie Treloweth is one of ten children. With the outbreak of World War I, their father enlists and the family struggle to run his butcher's shop in Penzance. Lizzie trains as a nurse under Tamsin Beswetherick, daughter of the local gentry, and their friendship with the four Jago brothers develops.

After a startling revelation led "Sprat" Nicholls to break off with her childhood sweetheart, Denzil Vargo, and quarrel with her family, she was determined to get as far away from her native Cornwall as possible—and London, three hundred miles from home, seemed like a pretty good start. For a time, the capital provides some amusing diversions, including a new suffragette acquaintance and the startling appearance of Tom Courtney, Denzil's nemesis. But the stifling atmosphere of the city streets soon has Sprat longing for the fresh, peaceful cliffs of her home, for the open arms of her forgiving parents—and for the bewildered Denzil, who has no idea at all why he and Sprat can never be together . . .

Book by Aitken, Rosemary