Dear Reader,

 

Thank you so much for reading Return to the Dover Café. Those who have read my books before will know that I like to include a few factual events. The one I chose this time was the football match. On 19 August 1940, two planes attacked the playing fields of Connaught Barracks, opposite Dover Castle, while a football match was in progress. In total eight players were killed either by bombs or machine gun fire. For the purposes of my book, I have moved the match in date and place – and I decided not to have any bombs. Dr Gertrude Toland, now a mainstay of my books, was busy at the hospital that day, just as she is in this book.

One of the things that didn’t happen, as far as I know, is the evacuation of children across the Channel. It would have been far too dangerous. Richborough Port near Sandwich, however, did house 5000 Jewish and political refugees before the start of WWII. During WWI, it had been used as a ferry port for troops and munitions going to France, then in 1942, it became a highly secret factory where Royal Engineers built part of one of the Mulberry harbours that were later towed to the Normandy coast as part of the D Day landings.

Aside from the inspiration I get from the wartime history of the south-east coast, I am also constantly inspired by the women in my family. My great-grandmother had six sons, five of whom went to war, while one served in the Home Guard. All six survived. This is my inspiration for Nellie and her six children. Nellie herself is loosely based on my very scary grandmother, Nancy. And Cissy is inspired by my great-aunt Trissy – Nancy’s cousin. And yes, she was a kind-hearted, talkative, shopaholic, with a high, piping voice and a ready laugh, just like Cissy.

If you’d like to keep up with what I, and other sagas authors are up to, do join the Memory Lane Book Group on Facebook and sign up to the newsletter. And do keep an eye out for more information on the next book in the Dover Café series, The Dover Café on Trial, coming in 2025.

 

Lots of love,

Ginny