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Family of Women
1950 - Seven year old Carol Martin lies encased in an iron lung, struck down by the killer disease, polio. Distraught at her side, her mother, Violet, wonders if this is her punishment - for Carol is the love child who should not have been born . . . Family of Women is the story of three generations of women: Bessie: scarred by a childhood of poverty in the slums of Victorian Birmingham and left a young widow with four children, is a hard, bullying woman who will go to disturbing lengths to keep her family under her thumb. Violet: one of Bessie's four children, marries young to escape, into the arms of a man whose life will be broken by war. Linda: grows up on a large housing estate in the 1...
Sisters of Gold
Sisters of Gold is an emotional and heart-warming story with a richly imagined Birmingham setting, from Annie Murray, author of The Doorstep Child. Sisters Margaret and Annie lost their mother years ago, they long for her every day. Their protective and devout father keeps the girls close. But he can’t protect them all the time . . . When a scandal rocks this family unit to their core, the girls are forced to leave their home under a shadow of secrecy. The girls arrive in the Birmingham’s famous jewellery quarter one stifling August evening to stay with their uncle, goldsmith Ebenezer Watts. Annie takes up work at a nearby factory, but it’s not the work that interests her. Her kind and...
Miss Purdy's Class
A tale of hardship and social injustice, Miss Purdy's Class by Annie Murray is a heartfelt saga with strong emotional relationships at its heart. In the New Year of 1936, Gwen Purdy, aged twenty-one, leaves her home to become a schoolteacher in a poor area of Birmingham. Her parents are horrified, but she has the support of her fiance, a recently ordained clergyman. Her early weeks in Birmingham are an eye-opener: at the school she faces a class of fifty-two children, some of whose homes are among Birmingham's very poorest. One of the teachers, the elderly Miss Drysdale, proves an inspiration, and Gwen begins to understand the appalling hardships endured by the children as she is drawn into ...
Meet Me Under the Clock
Two families Two wartime loves Their lives changed forever . . . 1940: as war closes in and the bombs fall, on the Homefront, two sisters must find their place in a new world of ‘men’s’ work, in which a telegraph can break your heart and nothing in the future is certain. Growing up in Birmingham, Sylvia and Audrey Whitehouse were always like chalk and cheese. As young women, while Sylvia dreams of her forthcoming life married to fiancé Ian. Audrey can’t bear the thought of being tied down by marriage and children. Instead she jumps at the career opportunities the WAAF throws her way. Joining the ranks at RAF Cardington, she finds these new freedoms come with confusion and irresistib...
Mother and Child
Mother and Child by Sunday Times bestseller Annie Murray is a moving story of loss, friendship and hope over two generations . . . Jo and Ian’s marriage is hanging by a thread. One night almost two years ago, their only child, Paul, died in an accident that should never have happened. They have recently moved to a new area of Birmingham, to be near Ian’s mother Dorrie who is increasingly frail. As Jo spends more time with her mother-in-law, she suspects Dorrie wants to unburden herself of a secret that has cast a long shadow over her family. Haunted by the death of her son, Jo catches a glimpse of a young boy in a magazine who resembles Paul. Reading the article, she learns of a tragedy in India . . . But it moves her so deeply, she is inspired to embark on a trip where she will learn about unimaginable pain and suffering. As Jo learns more, she is determined to do her own small bit to help. With the help of new friends, Jo learns that from loss and grief, there is hope and healing in her future. 'Humane, heartbreaking yet hopeful. Annie Murray at her absolute best.' - Kate Thompson, author of Secrets of the Homefront Girls
The Women of Lilac Street
Birmingham, almost a decade after the end of the Great War, and the women of Lilac Street have had more than their fair share of troubles. Rose Southgate is trapped in a loveless marriage. Jen Green is desperately struggling to make ends meet, with a sick husband, and five children to support. And Phyllis Taylor is a widow who has managed to put a dark and traumatic past behind her.
All the Days of Our Lives
It is 1946: the war is over and three young women face a new kind of life. But peacetime brings its own pressures . . . Katie O'Neill's childhood has been dominated by her temperamental mother and by frightening secrets that she barely understands. Innocent, yet hungry for love, she is easily taken in by male charm and is left outcast and alone with her young son. Emma Brown has spent the war at home in Birmingham, longing for her husband Norm to return and meet the son he has never seen. But she soon finds that the joy of homecoming only brings a whole new set of problems. And Molly Fox, after a sad and brutal childhood, found a place to belong during the war, in the women's army, the ATS. Now, the women are no longer wanted and Molly finds peacetime a bleak, difficult challenge. Finding work in guesthouses and holiday camps, she keeps running from herself, in search of a place she can call home. All the Days of Our Lives by Annie Murray is the story of three girls who first met in a Birmingham classroom in the 1930s, each facing life with all its joys, sorrows and surprises.
The Orphan of Angel Street
The Orphan of Angel Street is a moving story of fortitude and survival from Annie Murray, author of War Babies. Abandoned at birth, little Mercy Hanley shows a fierce determination few others can match. Her inner fire burns brightly, even in the harsh conditions of turn-of-the-century Birmingham. For behind Mercy's pale and haunting face, there is a mind of steel, as her harsh foster mother, Mrs Gaskin, soon discovers. Beatings, threats and poverty cannot halt Mercy's efforts to improve herself, or to create a new life for Susan, Mrs Gaskin's crippled daughter. Even in the worst times, it is as if someone is watching over Mercy, and willing her to succeed. Through the dark shadow of world war, Mercy continues her fight for survival. She will first earn her freedom and security. Then at long last she can give her love . . .
The Silversmith's Daughter
1915. Margaret and Philip Tallis are happily married, have a thriving business and three children, Daisy, John and Lily.At 20, Daisy is an impassioned, headstrong girl, determined to follow her parents' footsteps in Birmingham's jewellery trade. While studying at the college for silversmiths she meets an old rival of her father's. James Carson is married, but Daisy finds herself dangerously drawn to him . . .As war tightens its grip on the country, the Jewellery Quarter is thrown into anguish as the men are forced to decide who will enlist. In the turmoil, will Margaret be able to hold her business and her family together?The Silversmith's Daughter is the emotional sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Sisters of Gold by Annie Murray.
Poppy Day
Jessica runs away from her country home, to avoid marriage to the local blacksmith. At her aunt's house in Birmingham she meets and falls in love with Ned, a family friend. But Ned is married and his young wife is expecting a baby.
