Elinor Florence

In this groundbreaking work of historical fiction, a prairie girl eager to escape her family farm joins the war effort as an aerial photo interpreter and locates vital bomb targets while she grapples with her exhausting duties and a disastrous love affair. Rediscover the Canadian classic by the #1 bestselling author of Finding Flora.

Winning the war was everything…even if it meant losing herself.

Rose Jolliffe is an idealistic young woman living on her Saskatchewan family farm when the Second World War breaks out. Fired with patriotism and eager to escape her rural background, she joins the air force and works with Allied Intelligence in England as an aerial photographic interpreter. With her intimate knowledge of the natural landscape, Rose reveals an uncanny ability to spy on the enemy from the sky, identifying critical bomb targets.

But as the war drags on, Rose becomes disillusioned by the actions of her commanding officer, and despairs over the ongoing destruction witnessed each day through her magnifying glass. When caught in a London bombing raid, her world finally falls apart.

This meticulously researched novel, an instant bestseller, was the first ever to focus on a Canadian woman in uniform. Through the character of Rose Jolliffe, Elinor Florence honoured the wartime contributions of women, and charted Canada’s paralleled path to maturity and emergence from Britain’s long shadow.