In this podcast we interview Maggie Brookes about her latest novel - Acts of Love and War: A nation torn apart by war. One woman caught in the crossfire.

1936. Civil war in Spain. A world on the brink of chaos . . .

Although this is a climate change site we like to promote the work of local authors and a world in conflict today and threatened by climate change this novel is highly relevant.

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire - not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection.

But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco.

To the dismay of her irascible father, Lucy decides that the only way to bring her boys back safely is to travel to Spain herself to persuade them to come home.

It is a novel that looks at one of the seminal moments of the 20th century and how love expresses itself in extreme circumstances

Maggie is an ex-journalist, BBC TV producer as an historical documentary writer / producer / director and she has also been a creative writing lecturer, and is now full-time novelist and poet. Maggie was born in London and has been writing stories and poems since she was six. Her novel ‘The Prisoner’s Wife’ was published in March 2020, in the first Covid lockdown. She has published six poetry collections in the UK under her married name of Maggie Butt. Her poetry website is: www.maggiebutt.co.uk.