It is September 1940. Over southern England the undecided Battle of Britain rages on, and on the French coast the German Army prepares to invade England while Londoners bask in the late summer sun that before it sets will see the capital blasted into the front line of the Second World War.
Visiting a wounded family friend in St Martha's Hospital, American war correspondent Josh Adams meets the young staff nurse in charge, Ann Marlowe, who will end his professional detachment from the war. Caught together in the first daytime bombing raid on London, Josh and Ann form an unbreakable bond.
In the terrifying weeks that are to come, as the fury of the blitz is unleashed on the capital, Ann is constantly in danger as more of Martha's own are killed and more of the hospital is destroyed, but nothing will persuade her to leave. Josh, convinced England is about to be beaten, is amazed by the indomitable spirit of Londoners who, facing a nightly barrage of German bombs, refuse to be defeated. As 1940 draws to a close, Josh and Ann are closer than ever, sure that whatever the future holds for them and England, their love for each other will survive.
Front Line 1940 is a moving love story set against a marvellously accurate and evocative picture of London in the blitz. Lucilla Andrews draws once more on her experience of wartime nursing to reveal in thrilling detail the life-and-death dramas of a great hospital in a city under continuous air attack.