Elsie fights to survive in the bomb-blasted streets of London in award-winning author Tanya Landman’s unflinching look at the politics and prejudices of 1940s Britain.

Carnegie Medal-winning author Tanya Landman returns with a brilliantly realised and truly accessible retelling of the book described as Dickens’ “most perfect” novel.

My story is a long one with many strange events and dark turns. But time is short. I will be brief. In this slim volume I concentrate on five people. A dangerous criminal. An honest blacksmith. An abandoned bride. A girl who glittered like a distant star. And myself. Philip Pirrip, known as Pip, whose life was twisted and bent out of shape by all of them.

Orphaned as baby, Pip is raised by his sister to live the simple life of a blacksmith’s boy. But a chance encounter in a graveyard and a visit to a ruined mansion set him on a different path. When a secret benefactor pays for him to become a gentleman, Pip’s life takes a greatly unexpected turn …