From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of The Chocolate Girls and The Bells of Bournville Green, comes another gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . .
September 1940, Birmingham.
While her husband and daughter work at the Cadbury's Bournville factory, Ann Gilby has her hands full at home with her youngest Martin and other daughter, Sheila newly returned home with baby Elaine. With Sheila's husband away doing his bit in the RAF, Ann knows she should be grateful to have all her children safe under one roof. But she can't help but fear for their uncertain future as bombs fall ever closer to her Birmingham home. Part of her yearns for the carefree days of her youth when she also worked the line at Cadburys, filling trays of chocolate shells.
But mostly Ann tries not to think of the past at all since that would mean she would have to confront her oldest secret, one she's kept since the last war and the one that could easily rip her family apart . . .
Black Country Orphan is a moving story of the courage and strength of women, by the Sunday Times bestselling author Annie Murray.
The early 1900s: Cradley Heath, a town in the Black Country near Birmingham and centre of the world’s chain-making trade.
Lucy Butler, a young girl crippled by a cruel accident, lives with her two brothers and widowed mother, a chain-maker barely making ends meet. When tragedy strikes, the Butler family is separated and Lucy is taken in by Bertha Hipkiss, another impoverished chain maker, struggling to look after her own family.
Lucy, while feeling the loss of her own family, relies on the company of Bertha’s two sons, charming Clem and straight-laced John. Though clever at school, Lucy knows she must leave and earn her keep, working many hours in the backyard forge. The five women toiling side by side, inevitably have their own friendships and squabbles. But they’re united in their hatred of loathsome middleman Seth Dawson, who treats the women with contempt, and keeps their pay punishingly low.
But by the 1910s, there is a movement stirring, as across the country workers begin unionising for their rights. For Lucy, Bertha and the women of Cradley Heath, the promise of a better life seems almost too much to hope for - and the fight may end up costing them everything . . .
1940 - Small Heath, in the heart of Birmingham, is facing the darkest days of the war.
Two very different girls from this tight-knit community join up as ARP wardens to do their bit for the Home Front.
Violet Simms lives with her controlling, widowed mother who runs the local pawn shop. At just twenty-years-old, Violet longs for friendship, love and escape. It seems her dreams might come true until tragedy strikes on one of the very worst nights of the Birmingham Blitz.
Grace Templeton is the eldest in her family of ten children. Spirited Grace is determined never to become burdened by child bearing and drudgery like her mother. Adored by childhood sweetheart, Jimmy Oval, Grace believes she can do better. Volunteering as an ARP warden feels like a chance for adventure - until she sees the horror and reality of war first hand. In this blacked out city, where not everyone is quite what they seem, she comes to realize she is less in control of events than she had thought.
The war will have long-lasting effects on every family... Long buried secrets come to light, and their stories are woven together amid the intense bombing of Birmingham.
The girls' lives will be changed forever by friendship and love, by tragedy and joy.
Girls in Tin Hats is the heart-wrenching generational saga by Sunday Times top ten bestselling author Annie Murray.
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.
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.
What could tear the sisters apart?
Sisters Margaret and Annie lost their mother years ago, they long for her every day. Their frightfully protective father keeps the girls close but he can't protect them forever . . . When a scandal rocks the family, the girls are forced to leave their home.
The girls flee to Birmingham's jewellery quarter to stay with the one person they can rely on - their uncle, goldsmith Ebenezer Watts and his warm-hearted wife, Hatt. Annie takes up work at a nearby factory, where she learns to forge cutlery, and Margaret is employed as a chain maker.
By day Margaret works in cramped confines, alongside a local silversmith, and soon the links between the pair begin to bond . . . Annie's work in the factory exposes her to great horrors but it also opens her heart to great possibility.
But what are the Sisters of Gold hiding? They've escaped their past once - can it remain hidden?
Sisters of Gold is an emotional and heart-warming story set against a richly imagined Birmingham setting, from Annie Murray, author of The Doorstep Child.
From a tender age little Evie struggled . . .
Evie spent her early years left outside on the step. With a drunk for a father and a neglectful mother, all little Evie has ever craved is a safe home and a normal existence.
Her young eyes had seen so much but this never tainted her spirit. If it wasn't for her best friend Gary, and friendly dog called Whisky, Evie might never have made it to her sixteenth birthday.
At sixteen she meets Ken, a sweet, brown-eyed boy, not much older than she is. Perhaps her fortunes have changed? But as soon as she gives over her heart she is betrayed, not for the first time in her young life . . .
Will Evie ever find the love and warmth she's always craved?
Now the War is Over is a moving story of post-war hardship and the struggles of a reunited family, featuring characters from Annie Murray's bestselling War Babies.
The Second World War has finally come to a close. Birmingham is welcoming home its menfolk, and a new chapter is beginning in Rachel Booker's life. Her husband has returned, and the family that struggled for survival throughout the uncertain war years is now together. But family life settles into a routine and Rachel, unsatisfied, starts to yearn for more'
Melly, Rachel's eldest daughter, is a child of the war. She grew up in the bombed-out streets of Birmingham and has never known anything other than the hungry ration years and supporting her mother and younger brother Tommy. But times are changing and Melly now has a fresh future ahead of her. She's determined to make the most of life and her greatest wish is to become a nurse.
As the gloom of the 1940s passes by and the promise of the 1950s dawns, a whole new world of opportunity opens up to Rachel and Melly - but with this come new challenges and tough choices. They will each have to decide whether their loyalties still lie with the family and friends they clung to throughout the war years or if it's time to move on . . .
It is 1942, and after a childhood of suffering in Birmingham, Maryann Bartholomew has built a life of happiness and safety with her husband Joel and their children, working the canals on his narrowboat, the Esther Jane. But the back-breaking work and constant childbearing take their toll on Maryann, and the tragic loss of her old friend Nancy, followed by a further pregnancy lead her to a desperate act which nearly costs her her life.
The walls of her security are broken down when Joel suffers an accident, and to keep the boats working, Maryann is forced to allow Sylvia and Dot, two wartime volunteers, into the privacy of their life. And when she discovers that someone keeps calling for her at Birmingham's Tyseley Wharf, the dark memories of her past begin to overwhelm her life. For that someone, who seems to be watching her every move, is becoming more dangerous that even she could imagine . . .
Sequel to The Narrowboat Girl, Water Gypsies by Annie Murray is the gripping story of life on the Birmingham canals.
Rachel Booker has a difficult start in life. When her father dies, deep in gambling debt, her mother must harden herself to make ends meet, but becomes so hard she has little room left for affection or warmth. Mother and daughter work at the open market in Birmingham, selling second-hand clothes or whatever they can find just to put a little food on the table.
But the market has a silver lining: it's there that Rachel makes her first childhood friend, Danny. As they grow older, the friendship grows into something more and their innocent romance gives Rachel the care and comfort she's always craved. But at just sixteen, as World War II breaks out, Rachel falls pregnant. They marry in haste but it isn't long before Danny is called up.
Left on the home front with a new baby and little else, Rachel must scrape by with the other residents of Sparkbrook. But if Danny ever makes it home, will he be the same boy she loved so fiercely? And if Rachel can sustain the family until then, will she end up as hard-hearted as her own mother?
Annie Murray's War Babies is a moving and insightful novel, read by Annie Aldington, about hardships on the home front and how the war changed everybody it touched . . .
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, read by actress Annie Aldington.
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 their lives.
Little Lucy Fernandez is a 'cripple' and an epileptic. Through her, Gwen meets Daniel Fernandez, the elder brother in a fatherless household. The family has roots in a Wales' small Spanish community, and Daniel is a young man as fierce and passionate in his emotions as in his social concerns. Gwen falls in love, and is quickly engaged in his battle to win rights for the working classes. As the Brigades are mobilized to fight the Spanish Civil War, Gwen has to face the fact that Daniel has secrets in his past which she would rather not face up to . . .
August 1939. Genie Watkins, a Birmingham kid, would love to have a proper happy family like her Italian friend, Teresa. But Genie hasn't reckoned with the outbreak of war, her already rocky family being split up and the strangely liberating effect it all has on her mother . . .
Under Birmingham skies darkened by blackout, Genie shares her fears and hopes with Teresa, keeps her spirits up with her nan and glamorous auntie Lil, and tries to hold her family together. And amid it all, she discovers love . . .
Read aloud by Julia Franklin, Birmingham Blitz is a heart-warming story of family, friendship and resilience during the Second World War by Annie Murray.
