Following her mother's untimely death, market trader's daughter Lizzie Allen is facing desperate times. Her father Tom, crippled in the fighting during WWI, has been left a broken and bitter man; her elder brother Vinnie is in serious trouble with the local hard man; her two younger sisters are i...
‘My dearest girls,’ he wrote in handwriting that was barely legible and on crumpled, brown-stained paper, I read your letters every day, Flora. They give me hope that I am not too far removed from sanity. Whilst this nightmare around me seems real, your words remind me of the world I came from an...
Next to her sat Rose, who held Matthew in her arms, and Donnie sat on Rose’s other side. Will was curled in the rear space behind the passengers along with the shopping bags, outdoor clothes and parcels of food that Rose had brought with her. ‘About another twenty minutes,...
But she was shooed away by a bad tempered grunt. Leaving the tray on the bedside table she paused at the door. ‘I’ll be home in time to cook Harold’s dinner and do the chores,’ she promised but received no response. All day at the cottage, she was thinking about money. Her patch of watercress had...
Noah Kelly left his bedroom, making his way downstairs. The house was still, only the sounds of the river squeezing in through the windows. The faint whiff of coke fumes and tar caught at his throat and he coughed, attempting to clear the rattle of phlegm on his chest. He cursed the congestion an...
The Duke’s was filling up with well-dressed men and women taking their places at the tables; some of the men already had drinks in their hands and were talking at the bar. The piano player was with two other men dressed in dark suits; one sat behind a set of drums and the other held a bass. ...
Polly was sitting with Bill, playing dominoes. A currant bun was half-eaten on the table beside the small wooden bricks. ‘He’s not very well.’ ‘Has he got a cold like I had?’ ‘Something like that.’ ‘Can I go and see him?’ ‘Next time,’ said Bill before Lizzie could reply. L...
Good King Wenceslas had been done to death, but no one cared. The East End was making the most of a few hours of aerial silence before another night’s bombardment. Connie touched Ada’s arm. ‘Those poor kids must be frozen.’ Ada grinned. ‘Not too frozen to risk nicking a couple of chestnuts while ...
Vi was now sitting up in her chair in the bedroom, positioned strategically by the window to watch the world pass by. ‘Babs can’t fetch them today as she’s at work,’ continued Kay, still a little uncertain about leaving her friend alone. ‘After that school was bombed in south London last month, I...