A stunning and heartbreaking new novel from Jamila Gavin MBE, the bestselling and award-winning author of Coram Boy and The Wheel of Surya. England, 1937. Gwen, Noor, Dodo and Vera are four very different teenage girls, with something in common. Their parents are all abroad, leaving them in their English boarding school, where they soon form an intense friendship. The four friends think that no matter what, they will always have each other. Then the war comes. The girls find themselves flung to different corners of the war, from the flying planes in the Air Transport Auxiliary to going undercover in the French Resistance. Each journey brings danger and uncertainty as each of them wonders if they can make it through - and what will be left of the world.

But at the same time, this is what shows them who they really are - and against this impossible backdrop, they find new connections and the possibility of love. Will the four friends ever see each other again? And when the war is over, who will be left to tell the story? A heartbreaking and gripping story of hope, fear and unbreakable friendship, for readers of Code Name Verity and When the World Was Ours. Gold title * The character of Noor is inspired by the real story of Noor Inayat Khan, the daughter of an Indian sultan who became a British spy in WW2. * Noor was posthumously awarded the St George's Cross medal for bravery and in August 2020 became the first woman of South East Asian descent to be awarded a blue memorial plaque in London. There is a statue of her in George Square Gardens in Bloomsbury, London. * Jamila Gavin is the award-winning author of many children's books, including modern classic, Coram Boy, which won the Whitbread Children's Book Award and was a Tony-nominated play on Broadway and at the National Theatre. * Coram Boy is being reissued in with a new cover in January 2022, and Jamila's Wheel of Surya trilogy will be reissued in July 2022 to mark the 75th anniversary of Partition. Competition: The;Book Thief;When the World Was Ours;Code Name Verity;Private Peaceful;War Horse;Boy in the Striped Pyjamas;Carries War;Diary of a Young Girl;From Berlin;Violinist of Auschwitz;silver sword.

Liz Kessler;Elizabeth Wein;Michael Morpurgo;John Boyne;Marcus Zusak;Nina Bawden;Anne Frank;Ian Serraillier.