Untold World War 2 Stories: What Happened after The Hidden Village?

An underground hut in the hidden village -hard to make out today, just as it would have been in WW2

Whilst writing The Hidden Village, I never had any thoughts about writing a second book. That came months after publication, when I started receiving reviews from readers saying they’d wanted to find out what happened after The Hidden Village ended.

Here are some of the questions readers asked:

“What happened to Oscar?”

“Did Henk betray those living in the hidden village to the Germans?”

“What happened to those who escaped?”

It set me thinking and before long I had an outline for a new story.  It would be a sequel, but with new characters who played a supporting role in The Hidden Village and are now pushed centre stage.

Inspiration for Hidden in the Shadows came from the place in Holland where I first discovered the real hidden village, near Vierhouten in the Veluwe woods.

Hidden in the Shadows is a love story about Wouter and Laura, two young people who are cruelly separated after fleeing from the hidden village. Neither know what has happened to the other, and must rely on the trust and goodwill of strangers to stay hidden from the Nazis.  As they criss-cross Holland, their attempts to be find one another are thwarted time and again, until a near-fatal illness threatens to dash their hopes once and for all.

Based on real-life events, this new story reflects the hardship suffered by so many Dutch people during the German Occupation during WW2, and their courage and bravery in the face of adversity. 

So here I am, more than two years later and close to publishing my second book in the series I’ve decided to name: Untold WW2 Stories.  The more I discover about the ordinary people living through extraordinary times (my own mother included), the more I want to bring their untold stories to light. We can learn much from these voices from a previous generation.