As London goes up in flames during the Blitz, two sisters from Bermondsey find their lives changed out of all recognition. May is known to her family as the homing pigeon because of her uncanny sense of direction. She will need it when a bombing raid destroys nearly everything she holds dear. With her home in ruins, she joins the ATS and becomes a gunner girl, operating ack-ack guns. Here she finds dangerous work, new friends and rivals - and painful choices in love. Peggy, May's elder sister, is trapped in a stifling marriage to a small-time crook, who is an expert at making his wife feel inadequate.
Mary Gibson was born and brought up in Bermondsey, where both her grandmother and great aunt worked at Pearce Duff's factory.
She is the toast of her classmates at the Adult Education College Bexley's creative writing group after securing a three-book deal with a London publisher.Mary, 59, from Welling, isn't one to blow her own trumpet, but does confess that she hoped this book might finally succeed after failing to find a publisher for her first novel.
