Effie’s War

November 1943. In the Scottish Highlands, Effie Ross’s father has received a notice from the authorities to quit Kirk Farm. They have just one month to leave, to sell or move their livestock and harvest anything they can. And every other farm and household in the area has had the same instruction. For Effie, it’s a chance to get to know Toni, an Italian POW sent to help out on the farm – and the attraction is undeniable. Based on real events when an entire Highland neighbourhood was cleared to allow preparations for one of the greatest secrets of the Second World War, Philip Paris’s new novel evokes a time when Britain could have been invaded at any moment but stood strong in her darkest hour.