London's Kentish Town in the Thirties and Forties teems with life in every street and alleyway. It is a place where everyone knows everyone else, where lives are interwoven in intricate webs and where feuds are passed down from generation to generation, 'Respectable' families live amicably alongside the poorest, the most unfortunate and most feckless, and loyalties for family and community are strong. While many families yearn to move away from the grimy streets to the fresher climes of Hi...

It is 1968. Nine-year-old Lucy Butler, a lonely child, is the daughter of a GP in London's Kentish Town. When Lucy encounters the huge, boisterous Valentine family, from the big house up the road, she is instantly enthralled. Throughout that summer, she longs to be one of those eight children with their famous liberal parents, their streetwise confidence and wonderful freedom. How much it contracts with her onw, narrow-minded and over-protective family!Over the weeks, Lucy forges a...

Days after her mother dies, Josie Knight makes a startling discovery among her personal effects. Secreted within the clutter of the London house she will soon have to sell, lies a yellowing envelope in the folds of a treasured rocking chair. A gift that was never sent, a relic of a doomed romance? Somehow Josie is sure it conceals a story.But there is no one left to tell it. Rumours surrounding her grandmothers transformation from American Southern belle to affluent English lady in...

One of those apparently simple but unforgettable pieces of writing that just stay on and on in the memory.' - Rosie Thomas'So touching. This is as much Dally's story as John's, and her growing awareness of her own vulnerability and neediness, which she has disguised for years under the mask of the sturdy, capable big sister, is painfully honest.' - The Times'This surprisingly candid memoir...it's hard not to be moved by this tale...a poignant, no-frills record of life.' - M...

Four years on from discovering their true heritage, Sally and Luke have overcome their animosity to forge a trusting brother- sister relationship. So when Luke returns home from his post as a detective in the Hong Kong police force, he asks Sally for help to prove the innocence of his friend Irish, locked up in prison for the murder of his wife. Luke believes Irish was set up and wants Sally's help to prove it. But Sally already has her hands full. As well as tending her flourishing busine...

Sally, who married young to escape her appalling childhood, is often left to bitterly reflect on the hand she has been dealt. She is, on the whole, happy caring for her handsome husband, his mother, her own three children, one of whom has a disability, and her Walter Mitty sister. Then suddenly her world comes crashing down when her husband leaves her with no warning. She is helped unexpectedly by a friend whose advice stands her in good stead and by hard work and sheer determination she s...

A compelling tale of one girl’s brave escape from a world of poverty in her search for true love.Is true love worth risking everything for?Sixteen-year-old Poppy Silk is one of the navvy community – a group of poor, rough-living men who work the railways and take their families wherever the tracks lead. When Poppy is left fatherless, her world becomes fraught with danger, men vying to claim her as their own.Her one ray of hope is

1945. Finally, peace has been declared. Cathie hardly dares believe that Alex, the fiancé she has not seen for nearly two years, is coming home. And, finally, life can begin again for Cathie and the orphaned baby in her care.But the Alex who returns is not the kind, loving man Cathie remembers. He’s cold, selfish, sometimes even frightening. So Cathie has a choice: stand by him, and try to contain his violent temper? Or hold her tiny baby close…and run from the man...

It's 1969 and Mary Schormann is living quietly in Wales with her ex-POW husband, Peter, and her teenage twins, Richard and Victoria.Her niece, Linda Booth, is a nurse - following in Mary's footsteps - and works in the maternity ward of her local hospital in Lancashire.At the end of a long night shift, a bullying new father visits the maternity ward and brings back Linda's darkest nightmares, her terror of being locked in. Who is this man, and why does he scare her so?T...

While her mother is at home giving birth, eleven-year-old Isa must look after her younger siblings, but when her little sister is killed in an accident on a trainline she carries the guilt through the rest of her life.As Isa grows up, more tragedy strikes: her mother dies of a broken heart after giving birth to a stillborn son, and her father finds solace in heavy drinking. Though Isa finds satisfaction in domestic service for an aristocratic family in London, when her father retur...

Prepare to be swept away by this enthralling story of love, war and one woman who survived them both…Lizzie Bishop’s humble beginnings as a dressmaker’s daughter see her hope for nothing more than a simple offer of marriage. Love, passion and romance are reserved for daydreams.But then into Lizzie’s quiet world comes two men – one reliable and kind-hearted, the other heartbreakingly handsome. Just as Lizzie’s made her choice, the ominous call of war sounds, and her life cha...

A beautifully written historical novel which has sold well nationwide in paperback. Readers are already enquiring about the promised sequel to this page turner. "It was the hour of five on a winter's morning. The distant toll of a factory bell echoed across the valley striking wakefullness and dread wherever it was heard. For the army of child slaves, compelled to work amongst the ceaseless whirring of a million hissing wheels, another day had begun. Tiny footprints in the s...