Can an ordinary girl dare to be different?The compelling bestseller from Birmingham’s Queen of FictionJanet is determined to make something of herself, instead of being chained to a sink with a baby a year like most women of her generation. She passes her eleven-plus and wins a scholarship to go to a good grammar school, but her father refuses to believe that girls have the right to do anything other than look after their husbands and raise...

The latest heartrending tale of hope and heartache from bestselling author Anne Bennett. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves.Maeve Brannigan is only eighteen when she leaves her rural home in County Donegal and moves to Birmingham, where she falls in love with handsome Brendan Hogan. But married life isn’t as idyllic as she’d imagined, and when Maeve falls pregnant with their first child, she soon realises that Brendan isn’t the man she thought he was.Saddled wi...

A moving family drama of one young woman’s fight to survive, to find her long-lost relatives and to find a place to call homeBridgette has been hurt many times in her life. Her early years were blighted by her spoilt brother; her marriage ruined by World War Two. Now her mother is dying. And then comes a deathbed revelation – somewhere Bridgette has another family and a father.Bridgette joins the war effort and shows her courage by aiding a British Agent whose life is in da...

A gripping family saga set in post-WW2 BirminghamHannah Delaney is a young woman with a secret. It is not one that she can share with her large family still back home in Ireland, and especially not with her dying sister. Hannah’s moved to England to build a better life, and has met and fallen in love with a young soldier. They intend to marry on his next leave, but then comes D Day, and he doesn’t return. Hannah is left alone and pregnant.Surrendering her b...

From award-winning author Ann Bennett comes a captivating WW2 novel of love and survival - a daughter's journey of discovery and a soldier's strength in the bleakest of times.When Laura Ellis, a successful city lawyer, arrives home to see her dying father Tom, a mysterious stranger is watching the house. This leads her to embark on a journey to discover their connection.To do so, she has to retrace her father's steps; to the Bridge on the River Kwai: where ...

A family is divided when its favourite daughter is forced to flee rural Ireland and to seek her living in war-torn Birmingham.Bridie McCarthy loves her family’s farm in the remotest part of Donegal, even though she’s forced to work hard when all of her siblings leave home. She can’t bear to let down her beloved parents – until a horrible act of violence gives her no option but to run away. She turns to the one person she can trust – big sister Mary, now settled with a family of her...

A moving and gritty saga of loss, separation and finally hope, set in wartime BirminghamAgnes Sullivan is fifteen when her young brother Tom finds her drunk and crying in the lane near their farm. Her dancing teacher has raped her and abandoned her. Aggie is forced to leave home when she discovers she’s pregnant and Tom, barely a teenager himself, decides the teacher must pay for his actions.Aggie flees to Birmingham, but the safe haven she’s been promised turns out to be t...

A powerful saga from the author of DAUGHTER OF MINE and DANNY BOY, in which a young girl is forced to give up her true love and marry for security – except that it leads her to danger and heartbreak before she finds happiness.Maria is a girl with a great talent for fabric design, and while the world becomes embroiled in war, all she can think of is her scholarship to the prestigious Grafton Academy. But then her father has a dreadful accident and her mother breaks down in guilt and...

A heartbreaking tale of love and loss in a time of war, perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves.Jenny O’Leary is devastated one morning in 1940 when she receives a telegram giving her the dreadful news that one of her brothers has been killed in action. Grief threatens to engulf her, but as an ARP warden, tending to Birmingham’s injured after the nightly raids, she is well-used to the suffering that thousands are enduring every day.Linda Prosser is just twelve year...

Be swept away by the latest heart-breaking tale of courage and resilience from the author of The Forget-Me-Not Child, and The Child on the Doorstep.Angela McClusky arrived in the Birmingham, from Ireland, to escape soul-breaking poverty. But life in 1920’s Black Country has been tougher than she imagined…Angela has known nothing by hardship and heartbreak; losing a husband in The Great War, the threat of ruin whilst raising a daughter alone…as well as hiding a dark secret s...

A dramatic and emotional story of one woman’s story to keep her family together. For fans of Dilly Court and Kitty Neale.When Meg’s mother dies in childbirth, she is determined to keep the promise made on her mother’s deathbed – keep the family together. But her father has descended into drink and resents the baby, Ruth, who he believes cost him his wife.Though struggling financially, Meg resists the offer of help from their unscrupulous and sinister landlord, Richard Flatt...

A moving family drama of one young woman’s fight to survive and to find a place to call home1938: Sixteen-year-old Kate Monroe is living in Birmingham, far away from her family in Ireland. Her parents have always doted on her siblings, Sally and James, leaving no time for her. Kate harbours a dark secret, a deep longing for her cousin. Feelings she must suppress in this deeply staunch Irish-Catholic community – even if they are reciprocated.Crazed by her in...