Rosie, a young Englishwoman from a comfortable middle-class background, left her London home in 1939 to work as an au pair in Avignon in the South of France.

Even the outbreak of war later that year did little to disturb her happy life there, until 1940 when Hitler launched an all-out assault on Western Europe. Trying to escape back to Britain, Rosie was only able to flee as far as Paris, where she was eventually rounded up as an enemy alien and sent to a German-run prison camp in Eastern France.

Desperate to escape, she eventually did so with an equally industrious friend, Frida. After many months on the run in France, the young women finally reached the unoccupied city of Marseille. From there, they continued to flee through France, Spain and Portugal, at last arriving in Ireland where they were able to catch a plane back to Britain.

Moving, enthralling, and inspirational, Rosie’s War is a book for all to enjoy.