A New Home in the Dales
October 1940. Bobby Bancroft is working as a typist for a city newspaper, but she longs to be breaking the news herself. She is thrilled to secure a junior reporter role at The Tyke, a magazine serving the Yorkshire Dales.
However, when Bobby moves to Silverdale, she discovers rural life is a different world. The close-knit villagers and cantankerous local animals prove difficult to win over, while mischievous vet Charlie seems determined to lead her astray.
As Bobby struggles to find her place amongst the dalesfolk, she wonders if she's made a huge mistake. Will the city girl ever make a home of the beautiful but hostile countryside of the Dales?
War Comes to the Dales
April 1941. When Bobby Bancroft arrived in Silverdale to take a job as a reporter on The Tyke magazine, the sleepy Yorkshire Dales village felt like a little pocket of a past long gone.
While much of the country was suffering nightly bombing raids as the Blitz raged, life in isolated Silverdale carried on just as it had for a hundred years or more. But as the summer of 1941 approaches, war finally seems to have come to Silverdale. The villagers face new hardships when shortages and rationing begin to bite, young men become scarce as more and more are called up, and Bobby finds herself juggling her job on the magazine with a new role as an ARP warden. Even her surly editor Reg and his wife are doing their bit, taking two young evacuees from London into their home.
Meanwhile, Bobby has been growing closer to village vet Charlie, who is preparing to leave Silverdale to begin training with the RAF. The villagers are whispering that wedding bells will soon be chiming, but then Bobby is confronted with an impossible choice. Can she bring herself to give up the job she adores to be with the man she loves?
A Wartime Wedding in the Dales
January 1942. After spending a happy Christmas with her fiance Charlie and his family at Moorside Farm, the new year brings heartache for Bobby Bancroft. Not only must she prepare to say goodbye to Charlie as he is summoned to join the fight, she must also leave behind her job at The Tyke magazine to join the wartime effort, as conscription of women is rolled out across the country.
But there are hopeful times ahead as Bobby's friends, Topsy and Teddy, get engaged following a romance beset with obstacles. And when Bobby finally names a date for her own nuptials, the village of Silverdale is cheered by the prospect of weddings to lift the gloom of wartime. Bobby finds herself far from home training as a WAAF, with few friendly faces other than her Canadian friend Ernie King, who is acting as an instructor at her training centre.
