Book info

• Title Maggie's War
• Author Shirley Mann
• Year 2025
• Genre Historical

It's 1942 and the Second World War rages across Europe. Maggie Carpenter leaves her quiet life as a teacher in Manchester to join a team of women working the canals, hauling supplies across wartime Britain. Cramped cabins, no running water and relentless labour become her new reality. Thrown together with two strangers - each hiding secrets of their own - Maggie finds unlikely friendship and a spark of love in a young Army chaplain. But as past wounds resurface, she must decide if she can trust again...

Thoughts

I read Lily’s War a while ago and it was surprisingly good - just a lovely soap opera style story highlighting the hardships of women during the war. This was more of the same, but covered an area I really didn’t know anything about on the canals. So many awesome crews transporting necessary stuff around on the canals. And at the same time, in this story of course, falling in and out of love and dealing with family crises at the same time. Great stuff, and I’ll definitely read more of these.

Rating: 4 / 5