1940, Liverpool

When Alice Lacey was seven, she and her two best friends, Bob and Matty, watched the sky set on fire. Ten years later, the three remain friends, and Bob is now Alice’s sweetheart. He would marry her tomorrow, but Alice has ambitions to better herself; she finally leaves her factory job to work as an architect’s secretary, dreaming of a brighter future and of playing some small part in rebuilding Liverpool.

But will the hope last? The war has ripped families apart, and many children are left with nowhere to go but the orphanage. When tragedy strikes and Alice’s mother struggles to cope, Alice is horrified to see her brothers and sister facing the same fate. And, to make matters worse, both Bob and Matty seem to be harbouring secrets . . .

Full of nostalgia and set against a backdrop of the Festival of Britain and the aftermath of the Second World War, The Children Left Behind is a gritty, emotional, heartwarming and uplifting saga from Eliza Morton; the second book in the Liverpool Orphans trilogy.