Remembering VE Day — A Story Close to My Heart

This week marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day, a time to pause and remember the moment peace returned to Europe after years of darkness, uncertainty, and unimaginable sacrifice. For many, this day is deeply personal. For me, it always brings back the stories my grandmother used to tell — stories that shaped not only my understanding of the war, but also the heart of my novel, The Promise.

She grew up in London during the Blitz. I can still hear her describing how she and her mother would crouch under the dining table during air raids, my baby uncle bundled in their arms, hearts pounding with every distant explosion. She mourned her little dog, Bobby, who was so frightened by the bombs that he had to be put to sleep. And yet, through the fear, there was resilience - a kind of fierce, quiet strength that defined that generation.

“We were ready to fight to the end,” she would say.

That legacy of courage, loss, and love inspired The Promise, a novel set in the rugged beauty of 1940s Cornwall, where the winds carried not just salt and sea-spray, but the weight of secrets and silent resistance.

What many people don’t know is that during the build-up to D-Day, thousands of Black American GIs were stationed in Cornwall. These men faced not just the horrors of war, but the bitter reality of Jim Crow segregation even within the ranks of the army they fought for. But when they arrived in Cornwall, they found something unexpected: welcome.

The Cornish people quietly refused to comply with the racist codes of the time. They shared tea, music, friendship and, sometimes, love. This lesser-known chapter of history is at the heart of The Promise, which follows the intertwined lives of Estella in the 1940s and Nell in the present day. It’s a story of forbidden love, hidden truths, and generational healing.

At its core, The Promise is about choosing humanity over hate. It’s about remembering — and honouring — those whose stories were nearly lost to silence.

🕊️ Shortlisted for the Winston Graham Prize for Fiction, the novel was born from real-life accounts and deep local research. It’s my small tribute to the courage of those who came before us — and to the quiet acts of defiance that changed lives.

This VE Day, I’m offering The Promise for free on Amazon  (May 8–9). If you've not read it yet, I’d love for you to download a copy and take this journey through history with me. The book is listed on this website.

Here in my small part of Cornwall, we’re marking VE Day with a service on the quay, followed by 1940s music and dancing. Tomorrow morning, I’ll meander along the Hall Walk, the place where the idea for The Promise first took root. Along the path, old pillboxes still slumber beneath the wild garlic, and the water murmurs stories of the ships that once waited for their moment in history.

The Promise is a small tribute to those who gave so much, and to the power of love, memory, and quiet resistance. I hope it moves you — and maybe brings back a few stories of your own.