This week we marked the anniversary of D-Day, more than seventy years after the invasion began. Even after so many years have elapsed, the events of that day and the weeks and months that followed still resonate with us. As we remember this pivotal point in the Second World War, I thought it was an appropriate time to launch the first book in The Yankee Years, my new series, which tells stories of a little known part of Britain’s war history.
During the Second World War Northern Ireland hosted American, British and Canadian troops. County Fermanagh welcomed Air Force squadrons hunting U-boats and defending shipping convoys in the Atlantic Ocean and Army battalions training and preparing for deployment to Europe’s Western Front. After the Allied troops arrived, life in Northern Ireland would never be the same again. In The Yankee Years novels and Short Reads I endeavour to weave thrilling and romantic tales of the people and the era.
The Yankee Years series will be a mix of Short Reads and novels. The first book, Keeping Her Pledge, which was released this week, is a short read – approximately 90 minutes reading time.
Let me introduce Keeping Her Pledge:
June 1942: Pearl Grainger’s life is much more exciting and fun since the Allied troops arrived in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Although she has to steel her nerve to help her brother, Davy, on smuggling runs across the border to the Republic of Ireland, she’s out dancing several times each week and meets an RCAF seaplane navigator, Pilot Officer Chuck Walker who quickly becomes special to her.
The harsh realities of war are far removed from her until the evening an RCAF seaplane crashes into a field on her family’s farm. Watching her family attempt to rescue the crew from the burning wreckage, she realises it’s time she played her part in the war effort. Pearl resolves to volunteer at the nearby US Army Station Hospital.
It’s not an easy promise to keep. Pearl’s intentions are good but nothing in her life has prepared her for the horrific sights, sounds and smells of a hospital ward during wartime. And Chuck’s disapproval and jealousy don’t make it any easier.
Can Pearl keep her pledge to do her bit for the war effort without losing the man she loves?
To learn more about Keeping Her Pledge, visit:
I hope you will enjoy Keeping Her Pledge and the rest of the series as the novels and short reads are released. If you would like to be informed about the new releases and occasional special offers, please sign up for my newsletter here.
dianneascroft.com 
Hi Dianne, What a wonderfully rich seam you are mining with this series. The Fermanagh lakes played a pivotal role in the Battle of the Atlantic and not many know of the vital role the Sunderland flying boats played in ensuring victory. Even ‘the long fellow’ – De Valera as a supposed ‘neutral’ played his part by giving permission for these flights to overfly a little strip of Donegal on their way to the Atlantic – (Not that he could have stopped them.)
I wish you well and hope this series does well for you. Warm regards, David.