War took everything.

Love never had a chance.

Until now.

 

As an Australian Army nurse, Annie endures the brutalities of World War II in Singapore and New Guinea. Later, seeking a change, she accepts a job with a British diplomatic family in Berlin, only to find herself caught up in the upheaval of the Blockade. Through it all, and despite the support of friends, the death of a man she barely knew leaves a wound that refuses to heal, threatening her to a life without love.

 

Years later, Annie is still haunted by what she’d lost—and what might have been. Her days are quiet, but her memories are loud. When a dying man’s fear forces her to confront her own doubts, she forms an unexpected friendship that rekindles something she thought she’d lost: hope.

 

Annie’s Day is a powerful story of love, war, and the quiet courage to start again—even when it seems far too late.

 

 

 

 

 

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Guest Post – How It Started

In the aftermath of a death, and in the busyness that surrounds the packing up of a loved one’s possessions, there is little time to do more than skim the official papers and photo albums of a life now over.

That’s how it was with my mother’s life in a box. I knew she had served with the Australian Army Nursing Service. I knew she had been in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese in 1942, then had been posted to New Guinea. I knew she had been in Berlin after the war. But that was all. Not much. No detail.

The Australian War Memorial Archives sent me Mum’s army records, and her timeline gave me the blueprint for Annie’s Day. The rest is pure fiction, interspersed with real characters. People like Matron Drummond of the AANS, or Bill Tunner, aka Tonnage Tunner, instrumental in coordinating the Berlin Airlift, to whom I have given words, hopefully in the manner in which they spoke.

My desk became surrounded by maps, piled high with troop movements, maritime registers, tropical nursing manuals, types of aircraft, newspaper cuttings, letters, books and photos. Maybe only a line or two of interest extracted from each, but information that nonetheless gives authenticity to the novel.

Then there are the people who are kind enough to spend time talking to me, giving insights on religion, on war, on history. Personal glimpses into different cultures and customs that hopefully takes the reader to each place, giving a human element to sometimes inhuman times.

It’s those seemingly small details that give the story heart.

The photo is one of Mum, taken in early 1944 in New Guinea. That fob watch pinned to her uniform—the smallest detail—became part of Annie’s Day!

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