It's 1911 and Winifred Duffy is a determined young woman eager for new experiences, for a life beyond the grocer's shop counter ruled over by her domineering mother.The scars of Bill Howarth's troubled childhood linger. The only light in his life comes from a chance encounter with Winifred, the girl he determines to make his wife.Meeting her friend Honora's silver-tongued brother turns Winifred's heart upside down. But Honora and Conal disappear, after a suffrage rally turns into a riot, a...

"""A moving and compelling tale exploring the heartbreak one impulsive lie can cause, breaking apart a family. Deft and confident, this book has it all: emotive and gripping in equal measure. Had to stop myself gulping it down in one go!"" Louise MumfordAn accident and a terrible lie by sixteen-year-old Angie tears her family apart and her younger sister, Lisa, being sent away. They don't speak for thirteen years, until their mother's death brings...

Everything changes for Jessie on a day trip to Blackpool. She realises her feelings for Arthur are far more than friendship. And just as they are travelling home, war is declared.Arthur lies about his age to join his Pals' Regiment. Jessie's widowed mother is so frightened, she agrees to marry Amos Morgan. Only Jessie can see how vicious he is. When he turns on her, Arthur's mother is the only person to help her, the two women drawn together by Jessie's deepest se...

Mother and daughter tied together by shame and secrecy, love and hate.I wait by the bed. I move into her line of vision and it's as though we're watching one another, my mother and me; two women – trapped. Today has been a long time coming. Irene sits at her mother's side waiting for the right moment, for the point at which she will know she is doing the right thing by Rose.Rose was Irene's little sister, an unwanted embarrassment to their mother Lilian but a treasure to Irene. Rose died t...

May 1950, Britain is struggling with the hardships of rationing and the aftermath of the Second World War. Peter Schormann, a German ex-prisoner of war, has left his home country to be with Mary Howarth, matron of a small hospital in Wales. The two met when Mary was a nurse at the POW camp hospital. They intend to marry, but the memory of Frank Shuttleworth, an ex-boyfriend of Mary's, continues to haunt them and there are many obstacles in the way of their happiness, not the least of which...

Mary is a nursing sister at a Lancashire prison camp for the housing and treatment of German POWs. Life at work is difficult but fulfilling; life at home a constant round of arguments often prompted by her fly-by-night sister, Ellen, the apple of her shorttempered father's eye. Then Frank turns up at the house one night a guard at the camp, he's been watching Mary for weeks and won't leave until she agrees to walk out with him.Frank Shuttleworth is a difficult man to love and ...

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...

As families wrestle with the ups and downs of life in peacetime Britain, the Anderson's strive to make things better for those in their community.MAY 1945In post-war Leith, the church bells have barely stopped ringing but the Anderson family must quickly come to terms with the harsh realities of peacetime Britain. As Johnny's hopes of a life in politics finally come true, his vows to remain a dutiful husband and father and to keep himself a...

Will she finally find her own happy ending?London, 1925On Paradise Corner, just past the tram stop, Florence runs a pie shop, famous for miles around.Warm and comforting, just like her pies, Florence is always there as a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on, especially to her full house of family and friends.There's six year old niece Josefina, left with Florence by her wayward sister, Stella.Rose Marie, Florence's y...

CAN A GOOD HEART KEEP A MISCHIEVOUS GIRL OUT OF TROUBLE?The East End, 1939.When war comes to London, the bright and irrepressible Georgia Smith is torn from her tight-knit family and packed off as an evacuee.She moves in with Phoebe Bliss, whose cheerful smile masks a dark past that ten year-old Georgia couldn't possibly understand.Georgia soon finds herself involved in the small town's complicated love lives. But some secre...

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...