Books with author jane watson

The Freedom Tree is a novel for Young Adults set in the Spanish Civil War. The year is 1936. The rise of fascism has plunged Spain into savage conflict. Ever since his father died fighting for the Republicans in Spain, Will has felt drawn to their cause; but when he tries to join up as a volunteer in the International Brigade he is told he is too young.So Will travels to London where he meets a group of young men committed to the Republican cause. Together they embark on a perilous journey through France in a van they call Pegasus, carrying smuggled guns and ammunition. They narrowly escape the clutches of the French authorities and finally reach the Spanish border.Will and his comrades are soon in combat, first in the freezing, rat-infested trenches of the Aragon front, then in defence of supply routes vital to the failing Republican cause at Jarama. Will meets Molly, a volunteer nurse. They are captured by Moroccan troops serving under General Franco. Together they seize a chance to escape north, reaching Guernica, a small market town as yet untouched by war. Yet Guernica’s symbolic significance is far greater than its physical size, for it is the home of the Freedom Tree, a sacred oak under whose branches the liberties of the people of the Basque country are sworn and reaffirmed. It is market day, April 1937. The townsfolk are going about their quiet business as usual…until there comes the sound of approaching aircraft: German Heinkel-51s, followed by Junker-52s, fighter planes and bombers, about to launch history’s first blitzkrieg on a defenceless population.

When tough young Amy Douglas finds herself working in a psychiatric hospital, she strikes up an unlikely friendship with an elderly patient, whose secret past leads them together to the streets of Prague – and a fiery confrontation. For Josef is no ordinary inmate: a Czech exile, he is an acclaimed national poet and also a suspected traitor, whose return arouses fears of betrayal and denunciation of former communist collaborators.Amy is torn between her faith in the old man and her feelings for Jiri, an idealistic Czech student who doubts the poet’s motives. As the great day of Josef’s official reception approaches, Amy scarcely knows what to believe and whom to trust.Ticket to Prague is thought-provoking, full of drama and also of humour, an evocation of the beauty of Prague and a heart-warming story of friendship and loyalty.