England, 1943

Eighteen year-old Jen is desperate to do anything she can to help the war effort. She trains as a WAAF, but her capability and drive lead her to be picked for a top secret mission as a Baker Street Irregular, a spy. In the coastal English village of Tyneham, eighteen year-old Jack is desperate to do anything he can to help the war effort, too. When the village is occupied by the British Army, Jack seizes his chance for glory, but then he encounters Jen.Forty years later, City high-flyer Alexis meets three veiled women at her mother’s funeral who want to know what happened to her mother during the war. Alexis knows nothing, but when she’s scattering Jen’s ashes amongst the ruins of Tyneham, as requested, she meets Aidan, a loner who’s preoccupied with the continued occupation of Tyneham. When Aidan enters the live firing range, his preoccupation becomes deadly.The Punished is a journey in three parts: Jen’s journey from naive but plucky eighteen-year-old to secret war hero, risking her life many times over with a grenade in her pocket; Jack’s conversion from rebellious eighteen-year-old to peace campaigner; and Alexis’s transformation from downtrodden to triumphant and courageous woman in search of the truth.

Reviews

“I came away with a new understanding of the world generally – which is one of the most wonderful things a book can do – namely how real lives get relegated to the past and what is remembered, whilst factual, barely scratches the surface of feeling what it was like to be one of these people in such extreme circumstances … We are fallible, partial and we see the world through our own filters. Added to that, forces are at work to deliberately obfuscate and bury the truth and ultimately, the full picture is forever out of our reach. However, this story allows one person to see a greater whole: the reader, which I think is an immensely powerful possibility.” – Cornerstones

Baking Cakes for Winston Churchill is out now on Amazon. (£0.00 with Kindle Unlimited)