Dorinda Balchin, a voracious reader since childhood, writes historical novels set during periods of war and conflict. She loves the detailed research necessary to create books which have a real feel for the period; her debut novel, Heronfield, was described as ‘an amazing read’ by the Historical Novel Society. Heronfield was followed by The Cavalier Historian, a time-slip novel set during the English Civil War and present-day England. Dorinda is now working on a five-book series: The Wars of Jenny McLeod.

 

 

Jenny McLeod is a young English woman who grew up in Germany in the years between the wars. She is present on Kristallnacht, when her Jewish family become victims of Hitler’s Third Reich, then has to leave her loved ones behind when she flees with her parents to Egypt.

In Cairo, Jenny writes a society column for her boyfriend’s newspaper, but she wants more than that. When war breaks out, Jenny is determined to report from the frontline. The battles she faces are not only in the Western Desert, but also with her father, her editor, and British officers, who all tell her that it is no job for a woman. Can Jenny defy the odds and become the war correspondent she longs to be?