The Ship of Brides: 'Brimming over with friendship, sadness, humour and romance, as well as several unexpected plot twists' - Daily Mail - Softcover

Moyes, Jojo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340960388 ISBN 13: 9780340960387

Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks, 2006

Synopsis

A moving novel based on a true story, by Jojo Moyes, internationally bestselling author of Me Before You, After You and the new bestseller Still Me. 'A scintillating novel of friendship, family and love.' - Woman & Home Australia, 1946. 650 brides are departing for England to meet the men they married in wartime., But instead of the luxury liner they were expecting, they find themselves aboard an aircraft carrier, alongside a thousand men.On the sun-baked decks, old loves and past promises become distant memories, and tensions are stretched to the limit as brides and husbands change their minds. And for Frances Mackenzie, one bride in particular, it soon becomes clear that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

About this title

Review:

Wonderfully romantic and moving. (Daily Mail)

Gloriously entertaining. (Mirror)

A scintillating novel of friendship, family and love. (Woman & Home)

From the Author:

The Ship of Brides is based on a true story, that of my Australian grandmother's journey to meet my Scottish grandfather after the war. During a chance conversation, she happened to mention that unlike most war brides, she and 600 others did not travel on the troopships or liners familiar to most people, but aboard an aircraft carrier, with 1000 men and aircraft still aboard.
Curious, I tried to find out more about this voyage, but with little initial success. In the end, through the use of Australian and English newspapers from 1946, journals, letters and reference books, and help from the Royal Navy, I slowly pieced the voyage together.
I think all great stories have tension at the heart of them, and here I could imagine the tension between the very male, regimented world of the navy and the giddy young brides, the tension within and between these young women, some as young as 15, who had hitched themselves to men they hardly knew - and a reception that was by no means guaranteed. And then my grandmother told me about a marine that used to stand outside her door and guard her cabin - and I saw a love story in the making.
Writing Ship of Brides was a fascinating experience - not just opening my eyes to the bravery of these young women, but also to my own family history. During a book tour of Australia last year I met many more of the original brides, who loved the book, and all had stories I wish I had been able to include. (Somehow my grandmother had decided not to tell me about the nit outbreak on board, or that many brides had to meet their husbands with their heads doused in paraffin!). I hope readers find it illuminating - more importantly, I hope they just get lost in the story. Even without my fictional recreation, I think it is a good one.
Jojo Moyes

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0340960388
• ISBN 13: 9780340960387
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512