I go to the early storylining meetings, which usually take place in ITV’s main offices on the banks of the Thames in London.

Julie Summers: It has been a fascinating and exciting process working with the script writers of Home Fires. Can you talk more about how your vast knowledge of the time period is put to use in the scripts? Willow and Thatch: You’ve written six books about the Second World War era including Stranger in the House: Women’s Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War, and When the Children Came Home: Stories of Wartime Evacuees, and you are the historical consultant on the screenplay of Home Fires. Willow and Thatch had a chance to talk with Julie and learn more about her writing, the period drama, and her experience of turning her historical book into the PBS television mini-series. In Jambusters ( Home Fires in the US), Summers tells the story of the Women’s Institute in the Second World War, following the lives of a small number of women who kept diaries or accounts of the war years.

The ITV / PBS Masterpiece television mini-series Home Fires, now in its second season, is based on the book Jambusters by Julie Summers. New characters and friendships will also emerge as exhausted and battle-hardened Czech soldiers arrive to set up camp just outside the village. However it’s the war years and the women, under the auspices of the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, unite and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever whilst helping maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour. Throughout the series the residents at the heart of this rural Cheshire community face their own personal challenges and conflicts as reputations are tarnished, loved ones lost, and shocking secrets are discovered. Two weeks after the defeat at Dunkirk, the German army is advancing through France and Britain is bracing itself for invasion. In series 2, it’s the summer of 1940 and the village of Great Paxford is caught up in the nightmare of the Battle of Britain. The WI, and the shared mission and friendships formed there, helped the women to face personal struggles and the challenges of World War II. Home Fires (2015) is a period drama inspired by the true story of the Women’s Institute, a community organization that brought women together from all over Great Britain, through food production, education, and social issues.

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Jambusters by julie summers