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Hampshire, 1916: Alice traces her hand over the cold glass of the window as the pale morning light slips into the empty room. The pain of loss is worse than a physical one. Reminders of Edmund are all around her. The coldness of the sheet on the other half of the bed. The unrelenting silence in the cottage when her stepdaughter Lottie is tucked up asleep at the end of another day.How did Alice ever imagine she could run their workshop in Edmund's absence? Keeping up with their stained-glass commissions takes every ounce of her strength, and as Lottie becomes more withdrawn, Alice worries desperately about how best to care for the troubled girl.
Alice takes comfort from renewed closeness with her brother Victor, whose injuries prevent him from re-joining the fight, and who is enmeshed in undercover work for the Ministry of Munitions. She must go on, for Lottie, for Edmund, and for the life as artists they've built together. But with the news from the Front more desperate every day, she knows that the chance that she'll ever see her husband again is slipping away from her.
And then the telegram arrives...From the trenches of France to the fraught Home Front in rural England and London, The Artist's War is an unforgettable story of a society in the midst of devastating upheaval, and of courage in extraordinary times. Fans of Fiona Davis, Rhys Bowen and Kristin Hannah will adore this gripping historical love story.
About the author
Clare Flynn is the author of sixteen historical novels and a collection of short stories. A former International Marketing Director and strategic management consultant, she's now a full-time writer. Having lived and worked in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Sydney, home is now on the coast, in Sussex, England, where she can watch the sea from her windows. An avid traveler, her books are often set in exotic locations. Clare is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of The Society of Authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors, The Historical Novel Society and the Romantic Novelists Association. She is the winner of the Romantic Novelists Association Indie Champion of the Year 2022, and the Bookbrunch Adult Fiction Prize 2020 for The Pearl of Penang. When she can spare the time from writing and feeding her voracious reading habit, she loves to quilt, paint and play the piano.