November 1

Like many other people my mind always turns to our Veterans and war time songs and movies at this time of the year. Even though none of my immediate family are/were soldiers there is something that always tugs at my heart especially at this time of year. I have just started reading a book by JoJo Moyes entitled Ship of Brides. A book about a journey from Australia to England in 1946 on the HMS Victoria. A transport ship for some of the last Australian war brides to leave Australia; young women who had married servicemen and now being transported to their new lives, husbands and homes in the UK. A story about 4 women from extremely different backgrounds, brought together through having to share a cabin during their long journey. 

"The year is 1946 and all over the world young women are crossing the seas in their thousands en route to the men they married in wartime, and an unknown future.

In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other brides on an extraordinary voyage to England - aboard theVictoria, which still carries not just arms and aircraft but a thousand naval officers and men.

Rules of honour, duty and separation are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young stoker. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined in ways the Navy could never have imagined.

And Frances Mackenzie - the enigmatic young bride whose past comes back to haunt her thousands of miles from home - will find that sometimes the journey is more
important than the destination.

Based on the true voyage undertaken by HMS Victorious,The Ship of Brides is a novel about love, blind faith, and an age when the collision between duty and love could leave you with more than a broken heart."

Hoping to sew a stitch or two on my dresden plate between pages, but I have to tell you I am hopeless with books. Hate to put them down til the last line is read.