Freda Lightfoot

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 handouts she gleans from charity.

Jess Delaney has always longed for independence. But when the Blitz reaches Manchester, she is locked in the cellar by her feckless mother, Lizzie. As bombs rain down from a sky turned blood red with flame, Jess waits for Lizzie to return.

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.

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.

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. Even Queen Victoria will be in attendance.

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.

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.

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.

Determined to uncover her mother's past, Abbie approaches her beloved grandmother, Millie, in search of answers....

Sunday Times bestselling author Freda Lightfoot is back with a heartwarming story of life after the war. She must keep her family together… The war is over and Evie Talbert eagerly awaits the return of her three children from their evacuated homes. But her carefree daughters and son are barely...

Cecily Hanson longs to live life on her own terms - to leave the shadow of her overbearing mother and marry her childhood sweetheart once he returns from the Great War. But when her fiance is lost at sea, this future is shattered....

Growing up in a poverty-stricken, fatherless household, Dorothy Jordan overcame her humble beginnings to become the most famous comic actress of her day....

Henriette d'Entragues isn't satisfied with simply being mistress of Henry IV of France, she wants a crown too....

A beautiful and talented actress, Mary Robinson was one of the most famous women of her time. But Mary was destined always to be betrayed by the men she loved....

It is 1936 and Spain is on the brink of civil war. Across Europe, young men are enlisting in the International Brigade to free their Spanish brethren from the grip of fascism, leaving sisters and lovers at home....