'Written with such a lightness of touch and extraordinary charm that they always change my mood to hopeful. Absolute balm.' – Marian Keyes, author of Rachel's Holiday

'Her books are utterly delightful' – Daily Mail

The Morning Gift by award-winner Eva Ibbotson, author of The Secret Countess and A Song for Summer, is a modern classic of unexpected love, independence and belonging during World War II.

Spring 1938: as Hitler marches into Austria, Ruth Berger's family is forced to flee, but a devastating misunderstanding leaves her alone in Nazi-occupied Vienna. There is no hope of escape until a chance meeting with an old family friend, Quinton Somerville, offers her refuge through a marriage of convenience.

On arrival in London, Ruth and Quin find that dissolving their marriage is not as simple as they had thought, nor is keeping it secret. As war approaches, how will Ruth start a new life if she is not able to break away from the past?

If you know Ibbotson best for her children’s books, this sparklingly witty romance will come as a joyful surprise... A touching, funny, will-they-won’t-they drama, underpinned by historical accuracy born of Ibbotson’s own fleeing from Vienna under Hitler. You’ll fall in love with almost everyone. -- Sally Morris * The Daily Mail *
Both [The Morning Gift and The Secret Countess] are about displaced people in a time of war but written with such a lightness of touch and extraordinary charm that they always change my mood to hopeful. Absolute balm. -- Marian Keyes * The Guardian *
Her adult books manage to be radiant and comforting, even though they address war, migration, racism and eugenics. In these frightening times, I want to read about open-hearted heroines pursuing happiness and love against the odds. -- Samantha Ellis * The TLS *
Her books are utterly delightful * Daily Mail *
The beauty of their old life in Vienna and the descriptions of their refugee existence in north London are heart-rending . . . It is also sweetly romantic.. -- Harriet Green * The Guardian *
A perfect marriage of deep romance and gently observed social comedy . . . It is flawless -- Jenny Colgan

Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna in 1925 and fled to England with her family when the Nazis came to power. She became a writer while bringing up her four children in Newcastle. Her bestselling novels have been published and loved by readers around the world.

Her novels for adults, all rich historical romances, convey her deep love of the arts, the Austrian countryside, and the importance of belonging.

In 2001, her children's novel Journey to the River Sea won the Nestle Gold Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

Eva passed away peacefully in October 2010 at the age of eighty-five.