The Miss Lily Series
Inspired by true events, this is the story of how society's 'lovely ladies' won a war.
Each year at secluded Shillings Hall, in the English countryside, the mysterious Miss Lily draws around her young women selected from Europe's royal and most influential families. Her girls are taught how to captivate a man in ways that would surprise outsiders. For in 1914, persuading and charming men is the only true power a woman has.
The Great War is over, but is there truly peace? And what of Miss Lily? Can she ever return?
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'The story is equal parts Downton Abbey and wartime action, with enough romance and intrigue to make it 100% not-put-down-able.'
-Australian Women's Weekly on Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies
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The year is 1936 and the new King Edward VIII wishes to marry divorcee and suspected German agent, Wallis Simpson. The 'red boxes', which are the official and often top-secret material the king must read and sign are neglected for weeks. Some have even been seen in Berlin.
1929: Jazz, Parties and an endlessly rising stockmarket.
But an insignificant politician called Adolf Hitler plans blackmail to snare Miss Lily, her espionage network and the British Royal Family...
The fifth and final book in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French tells the story of the remarkable women who have been carefully left out of our war histories: those lost lilies of allied espionage.
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Questions for Book Clubs
All the events, and characters, are based on real people and events, fictionalised, both to prevent hurt to their descendants or because the events were classified and may still have a bearing on modern practices.
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I don't think so, nor do I think Lily/Nigel was bisexual. She was Lily, he was Nigel, partly because of inheriting a world where only a man could take on the responsibility of Shillings or sire a child, partly because the identify changed depending on what others needed. Lily would never have wanted hormone or surgery to become 'more female.' She was profoundly comfortable as herself, and needed the ability to change.
It was also his and her duty to be able to swap identities, once she and the organisation that would become a branch of MI5 realised that women were a valuable source of intelligence. (Officially that didn't happen at senior level till 1942)
Violette is essentially the Belgian urchin going to Mass: the years as a fashionable dressmaker are an aberration: her life goes back to her childhood, including it's violent background, as the area she serves is one of fascist violence and rebellion.
My opinion is the one attributed to Ethel. What's yours?
E-Books
From the author of Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies comes a moving and heart-warming story that is perfect for Christmas - and beyond..
For those who love the Miss Lily series, this is a story about the 'army of women' who played such a major role in World War One, but were left out of official histories. It is also a story of a love so strong it will survive until the chance to bloom again.
Violette Jones had led a life of melodrama since being born in the middle of a war to an espionage agent. But even she had never had to face a bloodied St Nicholas, and somehow conjure three miracles for Christmas.
