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Ebury has bought a new saga trilogy by Australian writer Deborah Burrows, following a diverse group of female ambulance drivers brought together by the war effort.
First in the series is Ambulance Girls, focusing on Lily, an Australian in London during World War Two, negotiating the dangers of her job as well as falling in love in a country far from home and in a time of war.
Ebury Fiction publishing director Gillian Green has bought UK and Commonwealth rights to the series, excluding Canada. It publishes in paperback in February 2017, with a hardback mainly for the library market. Books two and three will follow at yearly intervals.
Green said: "From its dramatic opening of Lily crawling through the ruins of a bombed out house to rescue two children, I was totally hooked on Ambulance Girls. While this has all the ingredients to utterly delight saga fans: World War Two setting, London and plucky heroines defying the odds to do their duty, Deborah’s writing is wonderfully fresh and original with impeccable research. We’re delighted to be publishing her at Ebury Press."
Burrows, an historian and lawyer, said: "‘It was when I read a newspaper article from 1940 about a small Australian ambulance driver in London who had just been awarded a medal for her bravery in crawling into a bombed building to rescue a family trapped inside that Lily Brennan – the main character of Ambulance Girls – appeared fully-formed in my head. And as I walked the streets of Bloomsbury, her story unfolded in my imagination.
"I wanted to pay tribute to the brave women who drove ambulances through the terror and mayhem of the Blitz, but also to show the sense of purpose they had, at a time when class barriers were breaking down and unlikely friendships (and love affairs) blossomed."