Hope Comes to Emmerdale by Kerry Bell: Rich period detail and fascinating characters - book review -

For over forty-seven years, TV viewers have been tuning in to share all the drama, joys and heartbreaks of the residents of Beckindale, a village tucked away in the heart of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales.

Emmerdale Farm, or Emmerdale as this hit ITV series is now known, is the nation’s second-longest-running television soap opera after Coronation Street, and still attracts millions of viewers every week.

And now this enthralling and nostalgic saga series, which explores the fictional lives of Emmerdale’s much-loved families during wartime, including favourites such as the Sugdens and the Dingles, is capturing the hearts and minds of readers with its compelling stories of community, friendship and love.

In Hopes Comes to Emmerdale, the fourth book in the much-loved series, we find the Second World War raging on in the early months of 1942 and the families of Emmerdale trying their best to cope with life on the home front.

Rationing, blackouts, evacuees and military training camps have become the norm in the rural village of Beckindale, but happiness has still been found for some of the residents during these hard times.

There is joy for Lily Dingle who will soon be getting married, Annie Pearson has returned after volunteering with the Wrens, and there are new neighbours to get to know... including a female vet of all things.

And these new inhabitants are about to learn that things are never dull for the families of Emmerdale…

Just as in the TV series, family life is at the heart of this engrossing story as the personal dramas, passions, triumphs and disasters play out amidst all the turmoil and uncertainties of wartime in a tightly-knit village community.

Beautifully written and researched by Kerry Bell, the pseudonym for Kerry Barrett, author of five contemporary novels and five time slip novels, and filled with warmth, real-life dramas, rich period detail and fascinating characters, this is the perfect Mother’s Day gift for both Emmerdale and saga fans.

(Trapeze, hardback, £12.99)