Miss Lily
8 total works
THE STORY IS EQUAL PARTS DOWNTOWN ABBEY AND WARTIME ACTION , WITH ENOUGH ROMANCE AND INTRIGUE TO MAKE IT 100% NOT- PUT- DOWN-ABLE. Australian Woman's Weekly
A tale of espionage, love and passionate heroism.
Inspired by true events, this is the story of how society's 'lovely ladies' won a war.
Each year at secluded Shillings Hall, in the snow-crisped English countryside, the mysterious Miss Lily draws around her young women selected from Europe's royal and most influential families. Her girls are taught how to captivate a man - and find a potential husband - at a dinner, in a salon, or at a grouse shoot, and in ways that would surprise outsiders. For in 1914, persuading and charming men is the only true power a woman has.
Sophie Higgs is the daughter of Australia's king of corned beef and the only 'colonial' brought to Shillings Hall. Of all Miss Lily's lovely ladies, however, she is also the only one who suspects Miss Lily's true purpose.
As the chaos of war spreads, women across Europe shrug off etiquette. The lovely ladies and their less privileged sisters become the unacknowledged backbone of the war, creating hospitals, canteens and transport systems where bungling officials fail to cope. And when tens of thousands can die in a single day's battle, Sophie must use the skills Miss Lily taught her to prevent war's most devastating weapon yet.
But is Miss Lily heroine or traitor?
And who, exactly, is she?
This story is equal parts Downton Abbey and Wartime Action, with enough romance and intrigue to make it 100% not-put-down-able.'
- Australian Women's Weekly on Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies
Paris,Christmas 1914
Despite her love for Huw, Elspeth will not give up her espionage work while World War One rages. She will wear his ring around her neck, and marry him when the war is over.
But a pregnant unmarried woman cannot, officially, work either. Sent on a secret mission into occupied Belgium, and unable to contact Huw, Elspeth begins to realise she is risking not just herself, but also her unborn baby. As danger escalates, will there ever be a joyous Christmas for Elspeth, Huw and their child?
For those who love the Miss Lily series, this is a story about the 'army of women' who played such a major role in World War One, but were left out of official histories. It is also a story of a love so strong it will survive until the chance to bloom again.
December1918
Thisfirst peacetime Christmas should be perfect.
Butthis is a ceasefire, not peace. Influenza ravages Europe and the hospital suppliesSophie ordered six months ago have not arrived from Australia.
Andthe old woman in Ward 3 will not stop knitting.
Yeteven in war-torn Europe, Christmas miracles are possible, as a stranger revealsthe extraordinary story of how thousands of female resistance workers sentcoded messages, including the most important message a woman can send.
Andsomehow Christmas does arrive, the perfect Christmas, with love from Miss Lily.
Paris, Christmas Eve, 1933
For once it was an accident. Violette did not mean to kill St Nicholas. But there he was, with blood on the cobblestones, and a family waiting for the Christmas Eve miracle that would never come. And her own family expecting her to eat Christmas goose tomorrow at Shillings Hall in England.
Violette Jones had led a life of melodrama since being born in the middle of a war to an espionage agent. But even she had never had to face a bloodied St Nicholas, and somehow conjure three miracles for Christmas.
Another story for the many fans of the Miss Lily series.
As the King of England wavers between duty and love, Sophie knows that she must choose duty.
The year is 1936 and the new King Edward VIII wishes to marry American divorcee, and suspected German agent, Wallis Simpson. Top-secret documents that the king must read and sign are being neglected for weeks, and some are even turning up in Berlin.
And as Germany grows its military might with many thousands of new fighter planes every year, Britain and its empire are under increasing threat.
Can Miss Lily's most successful protege, Sophie Vaile, the Countess of Shillings, seduce the new king, prevent his marriage to Wallis Simpson, and turn him from fascism?
And if a man can sacrifice his life for his country, should a woman hesitate to sacrifice her honour?
Based on new correspondence found in German archives, Lilies, Love and Lies is a work of fiction.
Or is it?
In the fourth title in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French explores one of the most controversial events in history that saw the unthinkable happen when a king chose love over duty.
Unimaginable danger creeps ever closer to Miss Lily and her loved ones . . .
Amid the decadence and instability of Berlin in the 1920s, a band of women must unite to save all that is precious to them.
With her dangerous past behind her, Australian heiress Sophie Higgs lives in quiet comfort as the Countess of Shillings, until Hannelore, Princess of Arneburg, charms the Prince of Wales. He orders Sophie, Nigel - and Miss Lily - to investigate the mysterious politician Hannelore believes is the only man who can save Europe from another devastating war.
His name is Adolf Hitler.
As unimaginable peril threatens to destroy countries and tear families apart, Sophie must face Goering's Brownshirt Nazi thugs, blackmail, and the many possible faces of love.
And then the man she once adored and thought was lost reappears, and Sophie will be confronted by the girl intent on killing the mother who betrayed her family in the war: Miss Lily.
The third book in the Miss Lily series, The Lily in the Snow is a story filled with secrets that also explores the strength of friendship and the changing face of women in this new Europe.
'The story is equal parts Downton Abbey and wartime action, with enough romance and intrigue to make it 100% not-put-down-able.'
-- Australian Women's Weekly on Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies
Australian heiress Sophie Higgs was 'a rose of no-man's land', founding hospitals across war-torn Europe during the horror that was WW1.
Now, in the 1920s, Sophie's wartime work must be erased so that the men who returned can find some kind of 'normality'.
Sophie is, however, a graduate of the mysterious Miss Lily's school of charm and intrigue, and once more she risks her own life as she attempts to save others still trapped in the turmoil and aftermath of war.
But in this new world, nothing is clear, in politics or in love. For the role of men has changed too. Torn between the love of three very different men, Sophie will face her greatest danger yet as she attempts an impossible journey across the world to save Nigel, Earl of Shillings - and her beloved Miss Lily.
In this sequel to the bestselling Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies, Jackie French draws us further into a compelling story that celebrates the passion and adventure of an unstoppable army of women who changed the world.
The final and thrilling conclusion to the popular and bestselling Miss Lily series
A mysterious telegram that says, 'Lily needs you' arrives just before a plane from war-ravaged England lands in one of Sophie Greenman's paddocks.
Sophie, Countess of Shillings, has been living a quiet life on her property in Australia, until love and loyalty draw her back to England where she once trained to become one of Miss Lily's 'Lovely Ladies'. Now, in 1942, Shillings Hall trains women to become espionage agents.
Sophie's mission? To seek out disaffected German officers prepared to kill Hitler.
Across Europe women like Sophie, or Parisian couturier Violette, or Hannelore, German Prinzessin and spy, must determine where their deepest loyalty lies. And as Europe slowly disintegrates, Miss Lily must also decide her final fate.
Based on real-life events, this is the story of the women who wielded immense, yet secret, power. And in this fifth and final book in the Miss Lily series, Jackie French tells the story of the remarkable women who have been carefully left out of our war histories: those lost lilies of allied espionage.