Freda Lightfoot
In this gripping saga, a single mother in 1905 northern England wants to give her son a better life but she’s unprepared for the consequences.
The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O’Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre hand-outs she gleans from charity. So when the childless
...2) Ruby McBride
Sent to an orphanage by a terminally ill mother and later forced into a marriage at sixteen, a young woman vows to reunite her family in this moving saga.
Where there’s a rulebook, there’s a rebel . . .
Ruby McBride has always been on the wrong side of authority. The grand opening of the Manchester Ship Canal is set to be a day of unfettered festivity for Ruby and her younger sister and brother.
...Lissa Turner has everything a girl could wish for. She's beautiful, intelligent and has a wonderful family in the picturesque Lake District. But despite her good fortune, Lissa is unhappy. Her mother abandoned her as a baby, and ever since, she's been wracked with insecurity, fearing everyone else will leave her too.
As soon as she is old enough, she takes up a job in
...Lily Thorpe is spirited, ambitious and desperate to escape the poverty of her Lake District home, and marry her secret sweetheart Dick Rawlins. But tragedy strikes and Dick is killed in a boating accident caused by the wealthy and arrogant Clermont-Read family. Lily is forced to reassess her future, and she embarks on a quest for revenge and marries Bertie Clermont-Read.
The
...In this gripping saga set around a flower stall in 1950s Manchester, a new romance gives a young gossip something to talk about.
Working on their busy flower stall in Champion Street Market, Lynda and her mother, Betty, have lots of opportunities to observe their customers and speculate about their lives.
Sam regularly buys bouquets for his wife, Judy, so why does she always look so worn out and miserable? Then there’s
...6) Candy Kisses
In this thrilling saga set in 1950s Manchester, new love and old rivalries cross paths in a sumptuous sweet shop.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone dotes on Aunty Dot, as much as they do on her homemade sweets. The plump, smiling woman has provided a loving home for many a troubled child over the years, and Lizzie Pringle is no exception.
Lizzie would do anything for her foster mother—even take
...A waitress worries she’s fallen for her brother’s killer in this moving saga of second chances and forbidden love set in 1950s Manchester.
Folk are just emerging from the shadow of WWII, and money is still tight. So the vibrant market of Champion Street is a source of many a tempting bargain—as well as all the local gossip.
Dena loves her Saturday job at Belle Garside’s market café, and
...Meg Turner has a hard life. She lives on a lonely farm in the Lake District and her only company is her bully of a father and her brother, who resents her. They want to keep her at home, but Meg is desperate for more.
She finds comfort in her best friend, Kath, and Lanky Lawson, who is more of a father figure to her than her own. Her true source of hope though,
...Beth Brandon and her twin sister, Sarah, are polar opposites in every way, except in their love of their home, Larkrigg Hall. Beth is the romantic one, with dreams of an idyllic life in rural Lakeland, while Sarah is willing to take risks to achieve the lifestyle she craves.
When tragedy strikes, and both sisters are thrown into chaos,
...In this Depression-era tale of love and endurance, a young woman must decide how much she’ll sacrifice to protect her family.
Dolly Tomkins has always known what it is to live hand to mouth. In the mean streets of a Salford struggling under the mantle of the Great Depression, the only one making a decent living is the talleyman.
Though Nifty Jack has a money bag where his heart should be, Dolly’s mam is
...Meg Turner is finally doing the job she loves, but life as a sheep farmer proves tougher than she anticipated. She is a woman trying to prove herself in a man's world against the backdrop of a brutal war.
With her faith being tested in her work, she also fears that the man she loves will betray her again. Meg struggles to allow herself to love baby Lissa when
...The new girl working at an elegant hat stall stirs up trouble in this enthralling saga of secrecy and sisterhood set in 1950s Manchester.
When Patsy talks her way into a job on the Champion Street Market millinery stall, the Higginson sisters get more than they bargained for.
Riddled with insecurities, Patsy’s impudence wins her new enemies as well as friends and her determination to solve the riddle of her own
...Sisters Bette Tredinnick and Sara Marrack live quiet lives, content with the comings and goings of their small Cornish hometown. But when hundreds of US Marines arrive, everything changes.
Bette, footloose and fancy free, embarks on a whirlwind romance and finds herself bound for America as a GI bride. Meanwhile, married woman Sara finds herself falling for officer Charles Denham,
...As the Great War looms, a single mother works to open her own business while weathering hardships in this saga by The Girl from Poor House Lane.
After giving birth to her daughter, Kate O’Connor finds herself back in Poor House Lane with some momentous decisions to make.
Faced with the opportunity to move out of the slums, she invests her unexpected fortune in a new shoe factory to challenge Eliot
...Daisy is devastated when her lover, Percy, abandons her. All alone, Daisy is forced by her own mother to give up her baby son for adoption – shortly before she throws Daisy out. War is imminent, and Daisy is evacuated to the Lake District, where she eventually tracks down her black-sheep aunt, Florrie. Together they set up a guest house, and when Daisy meets and falls in love with
...Working at a women’s clinic in 1920s England alienates a young woman from her family and endangers so much more in this emotional saga.
Isabella Ashton has always been her father’s favourite, but when she gets involved with the new Birth Control Movement, he is scandalised. A decade has elapsed since the end of the Great War and running a family planning clinic in Salford is challenging but rewarding work.
...It's 1942 and Gracie is eager to do her bit for the war effort. She joins the Women's Timber Corps, relieved to get away from her quarrelling, interfering parents. Her training leads her to Cornwall where she meets energetic newly-married Lou, and Rosie who is desperate to escape her bully of a brother. The three girls become fast friends and
...Alena Townsen is in love with Rob and wants to spend the rest of her life with him. But he is the only son of James Hollinthwaite, a wealthy landowner who has his own ideas about Rob's future, and he forces the two to part. With no other option, Rob and Alena run away together and plan to start a new life.
Their dreams are shattered when they are discovered,
...19) Lonely Teardrops
In this emotional saga set around 1950s Manchester hair salon, a mother’s revelation throws a young woman’s world into darkness.
It’s a rainy day on Champion Street as Harriet attends the funeral of her beloved father. But then her grandmother drops a bombshell on her out of nowhere, and she can hardly take in the words for shock and grief.
Joyce, the woman she has always called Mam, isn’t really
...20) Polly's War
The Second World War may be over, but the war in Polly Pride's home is only just beginning, and it will test her like never before.
Her son, Benny, never seems to be far from trouble, spending all his time with shady characters and winding up in the wrong places at the wrong times. Her daughter, Lucy, is seeing another man behind her husband's
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