Bia's War - Softcover

Bia has to provide a living for herself and her baby son when her husband enlists during WW1. She opens a shop which has wide-ranging consequences, some disastrous leading to hatred, rage and jealousy, but she also discovers a lifelong love.

Joanna Larum completed this novel after having heart surgery in 2013 when she felt she had got a second chance at life. She had always been fascinated by her maternal grandmother who died when Joanna was 2 years old. She knew that her grandfather was Nana's second husband and, after some research, discovered her first husband had died in 1917, leaving Nana childless. This brought WW1 into the picture and a blossoming idea for a story. The First World War had always fascinated and repelled Jo and she couldn't resist. The blossoming idea turned into this tale. Nana and Granddad kept their names, but the rest of the story is pure fiction and Jo hopes she has done justice to the people of the time. Once the tap was turned on, Jo discovered she couldn't turn it off and she is writing a second book set in the same era and the plots of a further two novels are wriggling about in her mind, pushing to be written down.