Ruby – Marie Maxwell

As a former evacuee, feisty Ruby is forced to fend for herself when she returns to her family in London.Set in the aftermath of WW2, this gripping saga is richly evocative of the period and shows the true grit of our heroine Ruby.After having lived peacefully in Cambridgeshire as an evacuee, 15-year-old Ruby Blakeley is bought back to reality when her brutish brother Ray comes to take her to the East London suburb of Walthamstow.Far from being welcomed back with open arms, she finds herself being treated as a drudge by her widowed mother and subject to a tirade of taunts from her two brothers.Things get worse when she becomes pregnant. Deciding her baby is better off without her, she runs away from home and gives her child away. Bereft, Ruby makes a new start for herself in Southend, but finds she can’t escape her past.