\'The Katherine Wheel Series\' is completed with the publication of \'Ivy\'

This series about Katy and Jem Phipps and Cassandra and Douglas Flintock-Smythe has taken me years to write. When I began with Daffodils, way back in about the year 2000, I never expected (or dreamed) that it would generate a six-book saga! But these characters wormed their way into my heart and mind and would not leave me alone and they took me through the interesting aftermath of the \’Great War\’ in Peace Lily and Speedwell. In Willow, Woodbine and Ivy their children took centre stage as they evolved into adults and combatants in the Second World War. Like their parents, their generation became swept up in a global conflict that transcended normal life and put theirs into sharp focus. 

Woodbine and Ivy were originally intended to be one book but, like Topsy, the story grew and grew and had to be split over two volumes. Many readers have written to me after finishing Woodbine, which ends on a cliffhanger, desperate to find out what happens next. Well, I\’m proud to say, you can now!

Ivy completes the series. It\’s a big book, over 500 pages long, and spans the whole of the European theatre of war. The research entailed was an enormous task and, at times, overwhelmed me. However it was also fascinating and, as with World War One, the heroism of its victims was humbling and inspiring. War brings out the worst and the best in people and I hope that none of us is ever tested in that way again. I think that\’s why I find history so interesting. There are many lessons to be learned from the mistakes and adventures of our forebears. One of the main realisations for me was how the Second World War was an inevitable conclusion of the First one. And so it was with Woodbine. I just couldn\’t squeeze in all the drama that unfolds in Ivy into one volume. 

It is my sincere hope that readers will enjoy the surprising conclusion to The Katherine Wheel Series in its final book, Ivy.