The GI Bride

Discover the remarkable memoir by GI Bride and bestselling author Iris Jones Simantel. Iris had escaped the Blitz but now lived in crippling poverty after the war—until a chance meeting changed her life. Aged just 16, she fell in love and married US soldier Bob Irvine. And soon after she set sail for a new life in America. It was the 1950s, the land of hope, dreams, and Doris Day movies. But Iris ended up in a cramped Chicago bungalow, shared with Bob's parents. With a baby on the way and a husband turning daily into a stranger, Iris was wracked by homesickness. Trapped and desperately lonely, she had to make a fresh start, in a country where hope and opportunity thrived. In this dramatic sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller, Far From the East End, we follow young Iris Jones Simantel from London to New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas in her struggle to find work, love, and a sense of belonging in a foreign land.