A heart-wrenching tale of wartime spirit, love, loss and the courage of a young nurse during the Plymouth Blitz.
1941. The midst of the Blitz. Bombs are raining down on the city. In one terrifying moment, trainee nurse Pippa Luscombe’s life is turned upside-down when her hospital takes a direct hit.
As Pippa comes to terms with the full extent of the tragedy, she must pick up the pieces of her life. But the incident has left lasting scars. She determines to dedicate her life to her nursing career, and forget about finding love of her own.
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Until one day she discovers she has an unexpected admirer. A patient hands her a piece of paper. A heartfelt note to his butterfly girl.
In this one moment, Pippa’s life is changed once more.
The war in Europe rages on. But for Pippa this unsolicited note brings a threat much closer to home. She must make some difficult decisions as she experiences both love and loss in search of her own happiness.
Spotlight
The Butterfly Girl is the second novel in my Devonshire series to be set in wartime Plymouth. As with all cities that were badly blitzed in the Second World War, Plymouth has many tales to tell. Our heroine in the previous saga, The Convent Girl, Book 10 in the series, was an auxiliary fire-fighter. Philippa in The Butterfly Girl is a nurse, giving a different viewpoint among the mind-boggling variety of roles played by brave civilians in those terrible times.
So why did I decide what part she was to play? Two main reasons. Firstly, I was so deeply moved by the horrific event on one of the worst nights of the Plymouth Blitz in March 1941 when the brand new maternity block at the City Hospital received a direct hit. Writing this story was my way of honouring the innocents who lost their lives that night, and you will see that the book is dedicated to them. We must remember that life continued despite the trials of war. As well as being injured in air raids, the public became ill, needing care and in some cases operations, and the medical profession had to carry on as normal, though in exceptionally difficult circumstances.
Secondly, my own mother trained as a nurse during the London Blitz and related such interesting tales that I felt they ought to be recognised. Climbing in through the Nurses’ Home windows out of hours, counting swabs in theatre, paying for broken thermometers were all true. A grateful patient wrote my mother a thank you poem entitled ‘Nurse Blue Eyes’ that always made me smile because my mother’s eyes were green. This did, though, give me the idea for Archie’s poem, ‘The Butterfly Girl’, that is central to the plot. I still have some of my mother’s nursing textbooks that are mentioned in the story, but were also extremely useful for research, along with many other memoirs by wartime nurses that proved fascinating reading. As a result, I was able to describe medical procedures and medications of the period, the treatment of childhood diphtheria which was rife at the time, even down to the preparation of penicillin injections as the then new wonder-drug was not yet available in tablet form. Finally, a dear friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, began her training in1947 at the City Hospital that was soon to change its name to Freedom Fields. She also had many stories to relate, and gave me copies of various photographs of her nursing days.
Nursing is just one of the aspects of the war covered in The Butterfly Girl. I do hope that in reading it, you will also learn a little about the heroism, determination and resilience of the people of Plymouth in such appalling times, and that you will love the way Philippa and her friend, Stephanie, cope with adversity. Reviews are always greatly appreciated, and I hope you will love the characters and their stories in the same way as I enjoyed creating them.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author in her own words
“Hello, and welcome to my author page. In it, you will learn a little about the background to my stories.
“GREAT NEWS!
“I’ve just signed a contract with my lovely publishers, Joffe Books, for my latest saga, The Butterfly Girl, that will be Book 11 in my Devonshire series! It’s another heart-wrenching tale set during the Plymouth Blitz, based on true events and partly inspired by my mother’s nurses’ training during the war.
“In the meantime, why not take advantage of the special offer on the Box Set of Books 6-10? Through both world wars and into the 1950s, they show how the ugly tentacles of war reach way beyond the end of the conflicts.
“For those of you who are new to my books, each is a stand-alone, but you will enjoy them most if they are read in order. The first in the series is The Harbour Master’s Daughter, based on the history of Morwellham Quay, once the greatest copper port in the whole of Queen Victoria’s Empire. Four more Victorian tales follow, mainly set on the wilds of Dartmoor, illustrating different aspects of the harsh life on the moor, from farming, mining and quarrying, to the little known gunpowder factory and the infamous prison. A Box Set is available to download of Books 1-5, the Victorian tales. As mentioned above, a second Box Set of Books 6-10 is also now available to download, with two WW1 titles, showing how sleepy Devon was just as involved in the conflict as anywhere. Then we jump forward to the 1950s with The Dartmoor Girl and The Girl At Holly Cottage, both stories of the legacy of war, before popping back to the WW2 years with Book 10, The Convent Girl. The action actually begins in a convent in Ireland, based on my own mother’s childhood there, before moving to Plymouth where we see the run-up to hostilities through the eyes of the heroine. What will happen to her when war breaks out and Plymouth is devastated by the Blitz? You can enjoy this book without having read the previous titles, but for the eagle-eyed, there is a link to The Wheelwright Girl.
“And don’t forget my four Twentieth Century Sagas set in London and Kent, the last one of which, The Street Of Broken Dreams, won Saga Of The Year in the prestigious RoNA Awards 2020, so I can officially call myself an award-winning author! It’s the summer of 1945 and WW2 is drawing to a close. But for some it can never end. Set in Battersea, London, where I myself lived as a small child, it’s another gripping, powerful drama, quite dark in places. I believe that, like all my novels, it will tug at your heartstrings.
“Whichever of my books you choose to read, I do hope you enjoy them! So why not take a look at my website for more details? I’m sure you will discover many hours of engrossing reading!”
Social Media Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TaniaCrosseAuthor
Twitter: https://x.com/TaniaCrosse
Book Links
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222218613-the-butterfly-girl
Purchase Link: https://mybook.to/butterflygirl-zbt
