The Spoils of War

The children of two Northern families return home from the Second World War. The Haywards are staunch Labour supporters, the Warringtons owners of a soon to be nationalised coal mine. The story explores the differing effects of the Labour election victory on working class and upper class life, as well as the disruptive effect of war on the love lives of the younger members of the families.

England, 1948 to 1950. The nation as a whole is picking itself up, dusting itself off and starting all over again, rebuilding businesses, relationships and the political make-up of the country as a whole. Labour is in power, with plans to nationalise key industries including the ironworks belonging to the wealthy Warrington family. For the working-class Haywards, old class barriers are slowly disintegrating as they try to find their place in the new order of things. For Ros Warrington, there's the question of her Catholicism and love for a man who cannot share her faith. That man, Blake Hayward, faces challenges of his own with the arrival from Berlin of his illegitimate child. Keir Hayward, a steely-hearted communist, finds that heart melting in the hands of a married woman. And what dark and dislocating plan does the newly arrived Richard Warrington have that will affect them all?

Post-War England in the 1950s. Recovery from the war is a long time coming, and austerity is still keenly felt. The cracks are beginning to show in everything that held the country together, and in family lives on both sides of the class divide. The wealthy Warringtons are split down the middle as Beth becomes a Labour MP which, for her husband John, marks the end of their road together. And lurking always close to hand is Richard Warrington, hungry for everything John has ever owned - from his factory to his house and even his daughter. The Haywards having lost a Grandfather and a mother, find themselves struggling to make sense of the new world order alone. Keir finds his passion in writing, and in the arms of the woman he once loved. Blake must ride a rough sea of thwarted desire and frustration until he too finds his port in the storm. The German emigres Emil, Herta and Paula, the flotsam and jetsam of war, find themselves thrown upon English shores. How they choose to survive will affect all those who know them. In a nation searching the ruins for the fortunes of the battle they have won, this is 'The Spoils of War'.