The Other Side of the Rainbow

About the Book

This is the story of the Harrison family living he Plymouth during the early war years. Ruth Blake, the eldest daughter twenty-four, young and pretty intends to join up and enjoy life. Her only problem is that she has a husband in the Navy and a small child. Against her husband's wishes, when he goes to sea, she leaves her small daughter Angela with her parents. Her gentle mother Jane and her domineering father Bill who still have three of their own children living at home love Angela and she is looked after, but pines for her parents.

We stay with the family whilst they experience the joys and upsets of war, the devastating Blitz of Plymouth, partings, reunions and the sorrows. All the while Ruth flits in and out of their lves, usually causing trouble. Ruth has a childhood friend Barbara, who Jane disapproved, thinking she led her daughter astray. However Barbara is the stronger character and with her help, Ruth sorts out her life. Gradually, through a series of tragic events, her husband and brother lost at sea and the remains of a disastrous love affair, Ruth comes to realise that she cannot go through life taking whatever she wants. Has she left it too late?

About the Author

Shirley was born in Plymouth in 1934, into a naval family. She spent her early life in Plymouth and had first hand experience of the Blitz. A pupil of Ford School, she passed the scholarship and attended Devonport High School for Girls. After that working several years for South Western Electricity in their billing department in Ebrington St Plymouth. Marrying in her teens, she began a roving life, spending seven years in Australia, she has four children and seven grandchildren by her first marriage.

Shirley is now living in the Costa Blanca region of Spain with her second husband Mac, whom she has been happily married to for sixteen years.