A long and lonely road

Rose McAllister is waiting for her husband, Steve, to come home. He is a seaman, often drunk and violent, but Rose does her best to cope and sees that her daughters suffer as little as possible. Steve, however, realizes that war is coming and on his last night home, he pawns the girls’ new dolls to go on a drinking binge.When war is declared Rose has a good job but agrees the children must be evacuated. They are put in the care of a woman who hates all scousers and taunts them with the destruction of their city. They run away, arriving home on the worst night of the May Blitz. When Rose arrives back home, it has received a direct hit, and is told that the children were seen entering the house. Devastated, she decides to join the WAAF, encouraged by an RAF pilot, Luke, whom she has befriended. [goodreads.com]