A Store at War

A Store at War
Joanna Toye

A brilliant, nostalgic debut novel that conjures up wartime life in a town’s department store.Even in wartime the customer comes first at Marlow’s department store.It’s 1941 and young Lily Collins is starting work in Midlands department store Marlow’s, whose gleaming facade has fascinated her since childhood.As the air raid sirens blare, Lily learns the ropes from her sophisticated boss Miss Frobisher alongside shy fellow junior Gladys. But her burgeoning friendship with young salesman Jim draws her into a swirl of secrets within the store. And with the war progressing to crisis point, Cedric Marlow and his staff must battle nightly bombings and the absence of loved ones to keep going.From a former writer of The Archers comes a novel that weaves together a powerful sense of community and a vivid evocation of a time when every man, woman and child was doing their bit.

Copyright (#ue7d6fb86-4151-5781-b4d3-f60ce9fee72a)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London, SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

Copyright © Joanna Toye 2019

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

Cover photography © Johnny Ring (model), Alamy and Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com) (all other images)

Joanna Toye asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008298234

Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008298241

Version: 2018-11-16

Dedication (#ue7d6fb86-4151-5781-b4d3-f60ce9fee72a)

For my grandmothers – and all the women of their generation.

Contents

Cover (#u40f7de4c-e0da-5a35-b167-87e9c1b7b9b5)

Title Page (#u89281a09-9d97-58d6-ad12-ac0e379b023a)

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1 (#u1c779ed8-3916-5e7f-888a-96dd7c2bca1a)

Chapter 2 (#u3d5b7ff6-fe62-5e85-b5e7-a6560716e519)

Chapter 3 (#u3929f95d-47b0-5aa8-b467-b122c6ef9e7e)

Chapter 4 (#u935b4ec1-3423-5d7c-82fd-fe3e8ee5b65d)

Chapter 5 (#u40010b76-1032-5d50-a5e1-b6558bfc0cf2)

Chapter 6 (#u791416ef-6f36-50ce-a89b-3588c548da91)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)