Ginnie Jones’s childhood is spent in the shadow of the famous Potteries, living with her mother, father and older sister Mabel. But with Father’s eyesight failing, money is in short supply, and too often the family find their bellies aching with hunger. With no hope in sight, Ginnie is sent to Haddon Workhouse.Separated from everything she has known, Ginnie has to grow up fast, earning her keep by looking after the other children with no families of their own. When she meets Clara and Sam, she hopes that she has made friends for life… until tragedy strikes, snatching away her newfound happiness.Leaving Haddon three years later, Ginnie finds work as a mouldrunner at the Potteries, but never stops thinking about her friends in the workhouse – especially Sam, now a caring, handsome young man. When Sam and Ginnie are reunited, their bond is as strong as ever – until Sam is sent to fight in WW1. Faced with uncertainty, can Ginnie find the joy that she’s never had? Or will her heart be broken once again?An emotional, uplifting and nostalgic family saga that will make you smile, while tugging on your heart-strings. Fans of Sheila Newbury, Kitty Neale and Sheila Riley will love this beautiful read.

    Three women from very different backgrounds meet when they find themselves on Bristol Temple Meads station waiting for the return of their loved ones. Edna's fiance , Colin, comes home crippled. Charlotte's doctor husband, who was a loving and gentle father, returns a violent, disturbed man with no love for her and even less for their children. Polly, who is waiting for her GI boyfriend Aaron, is once again disappointed when he doesn't arrive. Adjusting to men who are very changed and, in Polly's case, to no man at all, is the core of this enthralling novel. However, during the war years, the women have had to cope. They too have changed and they harbour secrets that would be best kept.

    Jerusha believes she has finally found the security she has always craved. But then disaster strikes.Kent, 1904.Two years after the sudden death of her husband, Jerusha is alone once again. But the arrival of the enigmatic Joe Finch, a traveller seeking work on the farm and a home for his daughter, sets Jerusha's life on a new path, giving her hope for her future.Has Jerusha found her happy ending at last, or will she be forever destined to lose the ones she loves?

    Alice has learned almost nothing about Olivia, when suddenly Olivia dies, leaving Alice to sift through her belongings. As she pieces together her mother's life, Alice learns how a woman can become so desperate that she leaves her child-- and so courageous that she finds her again. Not since her bestselling book The Friendship Cake has Hinton created characters who are so filled with heartache and fragile hope.

    Jemima Ashton is desperate to discover her real identity. With scant information and the burning question 'who am I?', she embarks on an incredible journey of detection. On learning of her late mother Stella's disappearance during WWII, she retraces her footsteps across the globe and at a distant vineyard, unearths a family she had no idea existed. While treading a path of narrow-minded bigotry, scandalous revelations emerge of two families inextricably linked by one woman and the drastic steps they took to hide the truth. ‘A powerful story of love and loss spanning two generations’ Frances di Plino - author of the Paolo Storey Crime Series

    A heartwarming family saga set in Victorian era Cornwall. When Maggie arrives in Polsinney Harbour she finds work on Rachel Tallack's farm, where Rachel's fisherman son, Brice, starts to take an interest in the young woman. Maggie's hopes for the future are dashed when Rachel discovers her well-kept secret. Faced with disapproval from her neighbours, and Brice, Maggie finds herself all alone once more. But then a proposal that could solve all of her problems comes from a very unexpected source. Can Maggie find love and acceptance in Polsinney Harbour, and will the dangers of a cruel sea threaten her lasting happiness? A heartwarming and gripping tale of courage and love in Victorian times, from the bestselling author of the much-loved Apple Tree Saga and Cast a Long Shadow.

    The story covers Maggie Clarke's upbringing in the tenements close to the docks, the River Mersey and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal: an area notorious for having the worst slums in Britain, yet the closest community as well.At the tender age of 11, Maggie Clarke finds herself the matriarch of the family when her Irish mother runs off with another man. Leaving school at 14 to work at a local factory putting sticks into lollies, she is determined to make a better life for herself and her family - before starting her own family with her childhood sweetheart, who she marries at 19 after 'falling in the family way'. She has one night of married life with her husband before he is sent to India with the Navy and is devastated when she never hears from him again, presuming him a casualty of the war that is raging at home and abroad. Another tragedy strikes when Maggie's brother Tommy is also claimed by the war, leaving her father inconsolable, but Maggie knows life has to go on and falls in love with Joseph, an Irish settler who she has 8 children with. But her happiness is short-lived as her first husband suddenly appears out of the blue demanding a divorce, and her new husband drinks away what little money they have, returning in fits of rage that leave Maggie and her children hungry and afraid. Many times she is only able to feed her brood by the kindness of neighbours putting a 'pan of scouse' on the range for her, or feeding her kids jam butties to help out. Maggie's story sweeps across the changing face of Liverpool, from its squalid dock streets, the tenement blocks and cobbled roads to the decline of the docklands, new council housing, the rise of the Mersey beat, the Beatles and the energy and passion of a city that is home to a cast of colourful characters with the resilience to withstand the heartbreak and hardships that only the poorest can know.

    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 changes again.Will Lizzie get her chance at happiness, or has it gone forever?

    The great city of Constantinople, last remnant of the once-mighty Roman Empire, falls to the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. An English knight named Sir John Page is taken prisoner by the Ottomans, and forced to entertain the Sultan with tales of the West. Page chooses to tell the story of his own long career as a soldier of fortune in France, Bohemia and the Italian city-states. Page’s tale begins in the year of Agincourt, Henry V’s famous victory over the French. As the bastard son of Thomas Page, a famous mercenary captain known as The Half-Hanged Man or The Wolf of Burgundy, Page soon acquires the nickname of The Wolf Cub. After slaying his cousin in a duel, Page flees his home and joins a band of outlaws in the forests of Sussex. At last - tired of the brutality of his companions - he decides to leave England and join the English army in Normandy. There he endures brutal sieges, vicious combats, torture, betrayal and imprisonment, all to win glory and redeem his father's name. Trapped in the Sultan’s prison, Page must hope his story is enough to save him from the executioner’s blade....at least for another three days...

    For months now, Monique doesn’t know who she is anymore.Monique is living under a false identity in German-occupied Paris. No one knows that she is Jewish.Since last summer, Monique has been involved with a Nazi officer, and she knows that she will pay with her life if anyone discovers her secret, but she has no other choice.In the days leading to Christmas, Monique and Herr Ernest, the German officer she lives with, are preparing for a German officers’ reception which they plan to attend. Monique ardently continues to hide her secret. Still, she can’t ignore the signs of her past, and as the evening of the reception progresses, Monique finds it increasingly difficult to keep her true identity a secret, fearing that some may suspect her of hiding something.Monique must keep her secret, but can she continue to deny her identity and heritage?With the backdrop of illuminated Christmas trees and Hanukkah candles, Alex Amit’s short story illuminates the simple and extraordinary acts of courage by a young woman, fighting for her life and identity during those dark and dreadful days, and continuing to believe that next year will bring with it winds of change and hope.

    

    Seven years of the worst war in history – so far – have turned the region into a wasteland where only the sword rules, and only the rats and the bankers grow fat. Roger Hawken, seventeen-year-old Englishman, black sheep of a family of minor landed gentry, leaves his Wiltshire home to take service with a free company of mercenary soldiers based in the Netherlands. Roger’s indiscretions have resulted in his being apprenticed as blacksmith in place of a more gentlemanly occupation, and as a smith he joins the company. Pitchforked into the bloody conflict of the siege of Breda, he finds there is more to his job than shoeing horses and forging short-swords, and starts to make his name as a fighting soldier…

    As she attempted to keep the business afloat, there were many problems to overcome including her mother's untimely death and the plotting of Philip Morton Edwards, the powerful and rich owner of the rival pottery in Swansea. Her father's return, badly wounded, from fighting Napoleon in France should have been a joyous reunion, but instead his presence only added to her difficulties. Her world was further complicated by the two young men in her life: Eynon Morton Edwards, Philip's son, a gentle and sympathetic figure whom became her best friend but who was despised by his father; and Joe, an exotic outsider, born of an unlikely union between a cultured English businessman and a Native American squaw. How Llinos grew up and and coped with running the pottery, while suffering from the hatred of the Morton Edwards family and her efforts to suppress her own feelings for the man who seemed her most unlikely suitor, unfolds into a compelling story of tragedy, riches, poverty and love.

    Phoebe cannot understand why she is treated so harshly by her uncle, but she does not know the guilty secret from his past that casts its shadow on his feelings.

    With a delicate wife and their unborn child, he has no choice but to leave Ireland and set out for England in search of work. But from the moment Patrick and Mary set foot in Liverpool, they are beset by new trials.After moving to York, they are forced to settle in the nightmarish slums of Walmgate. Yet the very poverty and hopelessness of their surroundings binds the small community together. Only stubborn determination survive tragedy can win them hopes of a better life….