IT’S NOW OR NEVER
In 1942, two young women give birth in a home for unmarried mothers. Thirteen years later, Dorothy Wilson is a successful actress, offered her first major role in a feature film. But it will mean spending time apart from her policeman boyfriend Sam. Should Dorothy give up her dreams of stardom to stay in Liverpool and become a full-time wife and mother?
Meanwhile, Lynne Donegan, having lost her childhood sweetheart in the war, is bringing up her daughter on her own.
Dorothy and Lynne’s lives are destined to intertwine in ways they could never have expected. For both women are keeping secrets that will burst into the open changing their lives forever…
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SET IN THE FIFTIES SERIES
It Had to be You
Memories are Made of This
It’s Now or Never
Love Letters in the Sand
MANY A TEAR HAS TO FALL
It’s 1959. Her modelling career in tatters and her long-term relationship with her sailor boyfriend at an end, nineteen-year-old Maggie Gregory returns to her family in Liverpool to lick her wounds and decide what to do with the rest of her life.
A chance encounter with a handsome stranger offers the possibility of new romance. But is the man who gives his name as Tim Murphy really all he seems? What secrets has he been keeping from Maggie? And will this new relationship only lead to more heartbreak?
Out in March 2016
A DAUGHTER'S CHOICE
Seventeen year old Katie is about to discover a devastating family secret.
Katie is the apple of her mother’s eye and is being groomed to take over the family business. But when Celia her natural mother, re-enters her life, her world is turned completely upside down.
Tormented by her divided loyalties. Katie is plagued by a question Celia refuses to answer - who is her real father?
Published by Ebury Press in paperback and e-book format.
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A Daughter’s Choice is the sequel to A Mother’s Duty but the events occur seventeen years later during the late fifties. Both books were originally published under the titles Kitty and her Boys and Somebody’s Girl. I was delighted when Ebury decided to reissue these titles.
I am aware that there are a lot of readers who enjoy books that are linked but also those were characters from other titles pop up too. So if you have not read the above titles but decide to do so you will be pleased to meet again some of the characters from Flowers on the Mersey which is available in e-book format.
LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND
Should she follow her head or her heart?
Liverpool, 1958. Nursery nurse Irene Miller can’t help falling for her friend Peggy’s handsome older brother Marty. But nothing can come of it, for Marty is a married man, trapped in a deeply unhappy union with the quick-tempered Bernie. Meanwhile Peggy is keeping her relationship with Protestant boyfriend Pete a secret from her staunchly Catholic father.
When Irene’s mother decides to remarry, her brother heads off to sea and Irene loses her job, she feels utterly alone in the world. An unexpected job offer from America offers her a lifeline. But it would mean never seeing Marty again.
Meanwhile, following a blazing row between Pete and her father, Peggy decides that the only answer is for her to disappear. But will Irene and Peggy ever resolve their problems by running away or should they follow their hearts back home to Liverpool?
Published by Severn House in hardback and e-book format
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SERIES
LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND is a brand new title and is the fourth in a series set in the Fifties that are all linked and in which several of the characters appear in one or more of the previous books beginning with IT HAD TO BE YOU partly set in a village in Lancashire, MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS, and IT’S NOW OR NEVER.
Irene Miller who is one of the main characters in LOVE LETTERS IN THE SAND makes her first appearance in an earlier book of mine, Look for the Silver Lining which is still available to purchase in paperback or you can borrow it in hardback, large print or audio from your local library. Hopefully it won’t be too long before it is available in e-book format.
A MOTHER'S DUTY
A family at war
Raising three boys and running the Arcadia Hotel almost single-handed are enough to keep widow Kitty Ryan busy. She has no time for romance unless it’s in the form of a rare evening out at the local picture house.
Then along comes John Mcleod, bringing with him a second chance at happiness. However Kitty finds her sons unwilling to accept another man into their household.
Unless she can reunite her menfolk, the future looks set to be that of a family in conflict, in a world on the eve of war.
Published by Ebury Press in paperback and e-book format.
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MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS
Liverpool, 1954. Young Jeanette Walker often wonders what became of her mother who disappeared without a trace during a wartime bombing raid thirteen years before. Was she killed outright, her body never recovered? Or did she run off with another man, as Jeanette’s Great Aunt Ethel insists? Since Grace Walker vanished, Aunt Ethel has ruled the household with a rod of iron, imposing a strict curfew on her teenage niece and appropriating most of her meagre wages.
But when Jeanette embarks on a dual mission, firstly to find out what really happened to her mother back in 1941, and secondly to track down the handsome stranger who came to her rescue during a bust-up in the local chippy but left without revealing his name, little is she prepared for the hornet’s nest of family secrets and lies that her investigations will stir up.
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FIFTIES SERIES
It Had to be You
Memories are Made of This
It’s Now or Never
Love Letters in the Sand
IT HAD TO BE YOU
1952 Orphaned as a young child, Emma Booth was raised by her grandparents in a Lancashire village. But when she stumbles across a letter written in 1940 the revealing contents make Emma realise everything she believed is a lie her widowed father had, before his death at Dunkirk, married again, and left Emma with a half-sister, Betty Booth.
Determined to find her, Emma is drawn away from the countryside to the austere city life of post-war Liverpool. Despite the different lives the women lead, they discover common ground and get along well.
And when trouble inevitably comes, Emma rises to the challenge and in doing so finds love, taking her life in a whole new direction: meanwhile, Betty has to overcome devastation before her dream can come true.
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FIFTIES SERIES
It Had to be You
Memories are Made of This
It’s Now or Never
Love Letters in the Sand
SUNSHINE AND SHOWERS
Patsy Doyle is settling into her role as live-in maid in the Tanner household, but her new job is not going smoothly. Caught between the warring Tanner spouses, Patsy becomes an unwilling confidante and a keeper of more secrets than she’d care to acknowledge.
Joy Kirk is busy planning her wedding. When her first love was killed in the war, she vowed she’d never fall in love again. Now a little older and wiser, Joy realises that there could be some benefits to being a wife and, having spent many years working as Robbie Bennett’s cook and housekeeper, she finally accepts his proposal of marriage. But is she letting herself in for more than she bargained?
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REVIEWS
An evocative tale…full of pain, passion, nostalgia and deep dark secrets. Crosby Herald
A slice of life in the early 1900s…reading it is like sitting up with the gods, spying on people below… Real people. Real emotions. Another excellent book from one of our best saga writers. Historical Novels Review.
CHESTER BOOKS IN ORDER
Step by Step
A Dream to Share
When the Clouds go Rolling By
Tilly’s Story
Sunshine and Showers
TILLY’S STORY
After an argument with her elder sister Alice, Tilly Moran decides it is time to fly the nest and move across the Mersey to Liverpool. As the ferry slips through the murky water, Tilly prays that her strike for independence will not land her in trouble.
Having found lodgings and a part-time job, Tilly begins to settle in to her new life. But working undercover for a detective agency brings Tilly into contact with the seedier side of the city and she uncovers rather more than she bargained for. And it is only when her life is put in danger that she discovers where her heart truly lies.
A heartfelt tale of a young woman’s search for independence and love in the shadow of the Great War, and the friendship that supports her through her time of trouble.
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CHESTER BOOKS IN ORDER
Step by Step
A Dream to Share
When the Clouds go Rolling By
Tilly’s Story
Sunshine and Showers
WHEN THE CLOUDS GO ROLLING BY
As the First World War rolls on towards its end, it takes its toll on the inhabitants of Victoria Crescent in Chester. Alice Bennett’s relief at hearing her husband, Sebastian is alive is tempered with concern when she learns he is wounded. And when he finally returns home to his family, it seems nothing will ever be the same again.
Meanwhile, Clara O’Toole searches for her aunt, her irascible grandmother’s long lost daughter, and she is over the moon to find she has relatives she never knew about. But is Clara ready to be drawn into the tragedies, secrets and dangers of the family’s past?
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CHESTER BOOKS IN ORDER
Step by Step
A Dream to Share
When the Clouds go Rolling By
Tilly’s Story
Sunshine and Showers
LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING
Cut off from her family, pregnant and desperately missing her soldier husband, Nellie Lachlan faces the horrors of the Blitz alone.
But when her mother is killed by a bomb blast, Nellie seizes the chance to be reunited with her younger sisters, Babs and Lottie. Together the three women move in with their paternal grandfather and get through the difficult days of the war as best they can. But when tragedy strikes, Nellie feels as though all is lost, and only the love and support of her family pull her through.
The end of the war and the return of her sailor father brings unexpected challenges for Nellie, as does the reappearance of a man she thought never to see again.
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A DREAM TO SHARE
The Edwardian era is coming to an end and in Chester a young maid, Emma, strives to keep her family from poverty.
Driven by a desire to avenge the death of her sister, who committed suicide after falling pregnant and being abandoned by the father, Emma attempts to trace the man responsible.
A change meeting with another young and struggling servant, Alice, introduces Emma to the affluent Waters household and the spirited suffragette, Victoria. As Emma learns of Alice’s violent ex-fiancé, Bert, it becomes apparent the two girls’ lives may be linked in more ways than one. And just as Emma begins to find a love of her own, she is drawn into danger as she realises that she may not be the only one seeking revenge…
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CHESTER BOOKS IN ORDER
Step by Step
A Dream to Share
When the Clouds go Rolling By
Tilly’s Story
Sunshine and Showers
A PLACE TO CALL HOME
With the Second World War looking on the horizon and the deaths of her mother and siblings in recent memory, life has taken a dark turn for young Greta Peters. But the sudden appearance of a young man in her home, apparently trying to steal their possessions, marks the start of a fresh beginning in her life.
As a tentative friendship develops between Greta and the youth, Alexander Armstrong, she learns the real reason for his break-in and determines to help him in his search. But at the end of their quest, will the find true love in each other’s arms.
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STEP BY STEP
Hannah Kirk and Alice Moran have been friends since childhood. Growing up in the back streets of historical Chester at the beginning of the 1900s, they are used to supporting each other when family life gets tough. But when Alice’s mother dies in childbirth, Hannah fears that her friend will be left to defend her sensitive brother who has been mute since birth from their violent father’s temper.
Hannah’s worst fears are confirmed when Alice becomes the only witness to a violent crime when her father attacks Susannah Kirk, Hannah’s mother. As Alice tries to escape her father’s clutches, Hannah is struggling with the consequences of her mother’s accident. Torn apart through circumstance, will the two girls ever be free of the weight of the past, or will the years of guilt and pain that now separate their lives become too much of an obstacle to overcome?
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I have received numerous emails asking me about my Chester books which I wrote several years ago. These made an appearance due to my deciding to have a go at setting a story somewhere other than Liverpool. The place that appealed to me was Chester. I enjoyed enormously spending time not only wandering around the city, along the Dee and inside St Werburgh’s Cathedral, but also the hours and hours I spent in the libraries and archives doing research.
CHESTER BOOKS IN ORDER
Step by Step
A Dream to Share
When the Clouds go Rolling By
Tilly’s Story
Sunshine and Showers
THE PAWNBROKER’S NIECE
When Eve Taylor leaves Liverpool for a new life in Cardiff, her teenage daughter Rita has little choice but to go and live with the aunt she never knew she had. Margaret Sinclair, the local pawnbroker, grudgingly agrees to look after her wayward niece. Despite an initial battle of wills the two soon become firm friends, especially when Rita reintroduces Margaret to her long lost childhood sweetheart William Brodie.
As the Great Depression hits, the Brodie family find themselves facing financial ruin can Rita persuade her aunt to help, or will her feelings for William get in the way of a deal? As Rita’s relationship with the Brodie family flourishes and secrets from Margaret’s past emerge, both women must undertake a dramatic change of heart if they are to avoid making the same mistakes all over again.
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SOMEONE TO TRUST
Plucky Lucy Linden is the mainstay of her family, selling firewood and toffee apples on the streets of Liverpool to support her widowed mother and little brother. Her uncanny ability to be in the right place at the wrong time gets her noticed by upright, young police constable, Rob Jones, who decides to keep a watchful eye on her, much to her annoyance.
But when Lucy’s uncle returns from the Great War with a tendency to lash out and some alarming connections with the IRA, her attitude towards Rob changes. For while she must appear strong for her family’s sake, Rob turns out to be someone she can trust with her innermost secrets and fears.
Only, there’s one secret she can’t quite bring herself to tell him…
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ANOTHER MAN’S CHILD
IT is 1909 and Molly May, her husband lost at sea and presumed dead, has escaped from her cruel in-laws in Liverpool along the Leeds Liverpool Canal to Burscough Bridge. Here she gives birth to a baby girl.
Handsome widower Nathan Collins employs her as wet nurse to his daughter Jessica. But tragedy strikes when Jessica is found dead in her cot. Molly is terrified that she will be accused of murder, so when her own daughter is mistaken for Jessica she is unable to tell the truth.
Acting as nanny to her own child isn’t quite as hard as Molly imagined, especially as her relationship with Nathan deepens. But there is trouble ahead. Nathan’s scheming mother Dorothy wastes no opportunity to remind Molly of her lowly position. And how can Molly win Nathan who, because of her lies, is raising another man’s child as his own?
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FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN
Rosie Kilshaw’s father died long ago, and she is only fifteen when her mother, Violet, is killed in a tragic accident. Although Rosie and her younger siblings are now orphans, she is determined to ensure that they grow up together. The only relative available to bring up the children is their Aunt Amelia, estranged from her sister Violet for many years. Not only was there no love lost between the sisters, but Rosie finds she can’t relate to her aunt either. And there are other pressures on Amelia, notably the recent death of her best friend who has left behind a husband and three sons all needing her attention.
Will Rosie and Amelia be able to resolve their differences, or is the break-up of the family inevitable? Who is best at looking after the family the big sister they know or their awkward grown-up aunt? And ultimately, how many sacrifices will be demanded for the sake of the children?
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GOING HOME TO LIVERPOOL
Lizzie Knight has had more to bear than most girls of her age. Her mother died when she was very young and her father, unable to cope with his daughter alone, sent her to a convent boarding school. One day Lizzie is summoned to the Mother Superior’s office to find a strange woman waiting for her and to her shock and surprise, she learns that this is her new stepmother, Phyl. And although bewildered and lost, it is to Phyl that Lizzie turns when tragedy strikes.
Warm-hearted Phyl takes her young step-daughter under her wing. She had left her large, working-class family to try to make it as an actress: now she is desperate to return, with Lizzie, to the city of her birth. So Phyl’s stepdaughter discovers the family she never thought she’d have, while Phyl herself rekindles her first love and tries to rebuild her acting career. As Lizzie grows up, she and Phyl are more like sisters than anything else until Lizzie falls in love with the one man who should have been out of bounds.
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LILY’S WAR
Busy bringing up her motherless brothers and sisters as well as running the family dairy, Lily Thorpe often dreams of the perfect man and of visiting foreign climes. Although romance is the last thing on her mind, when she goes to hear Australian preacher, Matt Gibson, she is immediately drawn to him. And when it is time for Matt to return home, to her delight, he asks Lily to return with him as his wife.
A family crisis delays her journey, but when Lily finally arrives in Australia she is greeted by the devastating news that Matt is missing. As she begins to search for him, rumours of war in Europe reach Lily and she is forced to make a momentous decision one that will take her back to Liverpool. Will their love survive and will they ever see each other again?
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FRIENDS AND LOVERS
1958. Vivien last saw her mother when she was nine years old. When Hilda suddenly reappears after eight years she stirs up painful memories. Now at last Vivien has the opportunity to find out her father’s identity but Hilda refuses to reveal his name and so Vivien decides to track him down with the help of her boyfriend Nick.
Determination becomes obsession and Nick comes to resent Vivien’s quest. When she travels to America in search of the truth, does she risk losing the love of her life?
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FLOWERS ON THE MERSEY
1919. When Adam Rhoades tires of the political climate in Ireland and decides to leave for America, his daughter Rebekah’s future happiness is threatened. For Rebekah, against her father’s wishes, has fallen in love with handsome young Republican, Daniel O’Neill. Then Daniel, too, is forced to flee his homeland and joins Rebekah on an ocean liner headed for New York. In the enclosed shipboard society their love is impossible to hide.
But a cruel twist of fate leaves Rebekah orphaned and living in Liverpool, without the man she loves. Reluctantly she agrees to marry her new guardian, Joshua Green, but it is a decision she soon bitterly regrets. Isolated and vulnerable, it is only when she takes her courage in her hands does she rediscover the happiness she thought had been lost to her forever.
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A SPARROW DOESN’T FALL
For young Flora Cooke the misery of the Second World War and the hardship it brings is both real and unrelenting. When her husband Tom is reported missing, presumed dead, Flora is left to raise her family alone amidst the ruins of war-torn Liverpool.
As she struggles to come to terms with the tragic news, Flora attracts the attention of two very different men. One offers security whilst the other offers the prospect of a new life in California. Both promise her love.
But it takes another great tragedy before Flora finally listens to the promptings of her heart and seizes a second chance at the happiness that has for so long eluded her.
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