Poppy Day is a novel based on fiction. Set in the present day it tells the story of a young army wife, Poppy Day, and her husband. His decision to join-up to 'better them' has cataclysmic consequences, of which Poppy Day feels only she can rectify.

The opening chapter struck a chord. Poppy Days husband, Martin Cricket, is deployed to Afghanistan. She receives a knock at the door whilst cooking fish fingers under the grill for a fish finger sandwich. When she looks through the spy-hole she sees two soldiers standing at her door. The author catches the mood perfectly. The feeling of dread seeing the soldiers knocking on her door, not wanting to open it, but knowing you have to. Being an army wife I could feel the emotion that the character would have felt, the dread, the terror, the panic. Knowing that you could not avoid it, that you had to answer the door at some point in the near future and hear the dreadful news that your husband had died, been seriously injured, or the worst of all had been taken. All the time worrying about the fact that you have a Major in your lounge, your house looks a mess and youre burning your fish fingers