The best of fathers

Sample

Sallie Day

Blackpool, 1959. The Singleton family is on holiday. For seven-year-old Beth this means avoiding her mother Ruth's supervision. Her sixteen-year-old sister Helen, meanwhile, has befriended a waitress whose fun-loving ways hint at a life beyond Ruth's strict rules. But Ruth's husband, Jack, a foreman of the local cotton mill, is caught between unions and owners whose cost-cutting measures threaten an entire way of life. When a letter arrives from Crete, a secret re-emerges from the rubble of Jack's wartime past that could destroy his marriage. Over the holiday week, all four Singletons must struggle to find their place in a shifting world.

Sample

Katie Flynn

Marianne is married to a naval officer, Neil Sheridan. They have a daughter, Libby, and a home in Liverpool. When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves into Crocus Street with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live so near the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm.

Sample

Harriet Martineau

When the Ibbotson sisters, Hester and Margaret, arrive at the village of Deerbrook to stay with their cousin Mr Grey and his wife, speculation is rife that one of them might marry the local apothecary Edward Hope. Although he is immediately attracted to Margaret, Hope is ultimately persuaded to marry the beautiful Hester. The unhappiness of their marriage is compounded when a malicious village gossip accuses Hope of grave-robbing.

Sample

Pamela Evans

Since the end of the war, when Bob Brown had taken over the car workshop in London, Frank Bennett had been trying to get his hands on it. An East Ender made good, Frank was determined to get the prime site - whatever the cost. As children, Bob's daughter Bella and Frank's son Dezi became unlikely friends, though both families disapproved. Years later, their love blossomed, and it seemed that nothing, not even the feud between their fathers, could prevent their marriage. Until Bob's tragic death and his dying request to Bella.