Available 2027 in Paperback, Hardback & Kindle
When War Came to Town is a powerful historical novel set in Scarborough in the tense months before the German naval bombardment of 16 December 1914 — the first attack on a British civilian town in the Great War.
Fourteen-year-old Georgie Taylor is too young to fight and too old to hide. As his brother marches off to war, Georgie is left to “hold the fort” in a town sliding from patriotic pride into fear and suspicion.
When shells tear across the morning sky, Georgie is the first to see them coming — and the first to realise the war has finally reached home.
From Experienced Authors and Professional Beta Readers, to Friends, Family and everyday Readers
Available in Paperback, Hardback & Kindle
During WWI, a munitions factory charge hand must push her team of women to meet dangerous quotas to save her family from ruin, unaware that their desperate race for a bonus is leading them all toward a catastrophic, fatal explosion.
Will Topping joins the crew of the Rosie Morn to prove he belongs But life at sea is harder than he imagined, and the crew are slow to trust him. A tense, psychologically driven coming-of-age story at sea, where the real danger isn’t the war — it’s the need to prove you belong.
Desperate to prove his worth in 1914 Scarborough, fifteen-year-old Georgie uncovers a spy ring signaling the enemy fleet. When adults dismiss his warnings as a game, he must race alone to stop a catastrophic bombardment before his home is destroyed.
Underage and unflinching, Scarborough girl Eliza nurses the wounded of the Somme, then follows the war to Étaples, the vast base camp where men aren’t broken so much as processed. When mutiny erupts and she is ordered to certify a condemned man fit to be shot, she must decide how much more she is willing to give.
When War Came to Town is set in Scarborough between the summer of 1914 and the German bombardment of December. It follows fourteen-year-old Georgie Taylor, a Boy Scout growing up above his parents’ pub, as the First World War quietly reshapes civilian life.
With his older brother away at the front, Georgie clings to preparedness, rules, and vigilance, searching for a way to be useful in a world that no longer has a place for children. As rumours spread and fear tightens its grip on the town, he becomes convinced that danger is already present—hidden in plain sight, ignored by those in authority.
Alongside him is Eliza, a young V.A.D. volunteer who seeks control through order as the pressure mounts. Together, their lives are shaped by a growing sense that something is wrong, even if no one is listening.
When Scarborough is shelled on 16 December 1914, the illusion of control collapses. When War Came to Town is a novel about civilian fear, moral panic, and the cost of asking children to carry adult anxieties—ending not in heroism, but in the quiet, devastating truth of history.
