As her father describes her, Emily Hart is, by turns, fiercely independent, curious, adventuresome, aloof, delicate—and, running through it all, deeply intelligent, often ruthlessly so. When Germany invades Poland in 1939, she realizes that match had finally been struck and war would soon begin. A patriot, she joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women’s branch of the British Army, and becomes a mechanical transport driver. From her war experiences in the Orkney Islands transporting burned children to her post-war experiences in Berlin with Nazi Werewolves, Emily finds that she can do more than she had ever imagined. But what good is imagination if the world can see her only as a future wife and mother?

“Emily in War is the story of a young ATS girl who finds herself posted to remote Orkney where she experiences both the boredom and action of war but also the remote beauty of this far northern Isle. This moving story firmly brings to mind the realities of wartime Orkney during these tumultuous years. Years which would change Orkney, its people, and the world forever.” (Dr Craig R. Armstrong, author of Orkney at War, 1939-1945 as well as several other books in both the First and Second World Wars)

In her first novel, Frances Ward finds in Emily a witness to a world aflame.

Frances Ward is Professor Emerita of Nursing at Temple University. She is author of On Duty: Power, Politics, and the History of Nursing in New Jersey and The Door of Last Resort: Memoirs of a Nurse Practitioner.