A heartbreakingly moving story of loyalty & passion second in the Durham Trilogy When pretty Sara Pallister's father dies leaving his farm bankrupt she is begrudgingly taken in by her narrow-minded uncle & aunt in the mining village of Whitton Grange Made to pay her way Sara is hired out to Dolly Sergeant's grocer's shop where she meets funny bashful Raymond Kirkup & his warm-hearted aunt Louie It is through Raymond that she meets the family that is to change her life the exotic & extrovert Italian Dimarcos who own the popular ice-cream parlour & finds herself irresistibly drawn to leather-jacketed motorbike-riding Joe Dimarco But neither of their families approves the love-match & they strive to keep them apart As the shadows of the Second World War gather & the growing hostility to the Italians erupts into violence Sara & Joe's passionate love seems doomed With its vivid backdrop of a pit-town strained by the tensions of war The Darkening Skies is a vibrant & moving story of conflicting loyalties passions & cultures The Darkening Skies follows the award-nominated The Hungry Hills in the Durham Mining Trilogy