A Stitch In Time
1845: Clara Phipps is eight when her brother is born with one leg. Everyone around her assumes he will never be able to work, as her family are framework knitters, a job which needs two good legs. Clara sees him as more than a cripple, promising to do all she can to support him throughout his life. But new factories are undercutting their knitting, and the whole family must work all hours to earn enough to eat. Clara can only make any real difference if she can gain an education, a near impossibility for a working class girl from a penniless family.
Clara needs to support her family and is determined to keep her promise to her brother at any cost to herself. Married women's employment options are almost non-existent, except in the home, and with framework knitting in decline she assumes she will never wed.
When Clara falls in love with Samuel Hurst, must she choose between supporting her brother and a chance of happiness for herself?
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Vi for Victory
1916: Six months after being informed of Billy’s death, Violet Dobson comes face to face with her injured husband. His body might be broken, but her love for him is not. Finding a way to make their life work won’t be easy and, as they struggle to deal with the challenges, Vi needs the escape that playing football provides.
Billy feels useless, not being able to do the things he could before. Coaching from the sidelines is helping to restore his confidence, but it’s a long way from finding employment again.
Vi works hard to provide for her family, kept going by her dream that the Billingbrook women’s football team can win the cup. At every turn they seem destined to fail. As Vi battles her way through Billy’s disabilities, the dangers of working in a munitions factory, the flu pandemic and redundancy, surely nothing else can go wrong?
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Violet’s War
1915: Violet Dobson is horrified when husband Billy signs up to fight for King and Country. Billy is already her hero — she doesn’t need him to prove it. As Billy heads to France, Violet has her own battles to fight, living with Billy’s mam and dad.
To Violet’s surprise, teaching her young son Tommy to play football proves a pleasure rather than a chore, but when she’s invited to coach the women’s team at work Violet’s not so sure. In Billy’s mam’s opinion, nice women don’t play football and married women certainly don’t.
Caught between her mother-in-law’s old-fashioned views and her own love of the game, Violet is coming under growing pressure to play. The team is raising money for the military hospital. What if Billy was one of the wounded?
As Violet takes to the pitch, Private Billy Dobson faces the enemy on the Western Front. Their problems are only just beginning. Will Billy ever come home from the war and see Violet play?
Justice Be Damned – Tales of Flynn and Reilly Book 4
1870 - William Dixon will not ignore injustice. The Reese brothers have been released from prison and no one has been made to pay for the life they took, nor the damage they caused to Cochrane’s Farm. As his sister, Molly and her husband Daniel set out to rebuild their farm, William takes the fight onto the political stage.
Whilst his wife, Cecilia, runs Dixon’s Attorneys’ office in Pierceton, William begins on the campaign trail. He may not have the backing of the establishment, but his oratory is outstanding. The Fifteenth Amendment has broadened the electorate, but politics is still a white male preserve. William sets out to speak for those who have no voice. He stands on a ticket of equality and fairness. Lauded by some and vilified by others, everyone has a view on William Dixon and some will go to great lengths to stop his progress.
How do you fight for justice against those whose interests it does not serve? William Dixon is about to find out.
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Unequal By Birth – Tales of Flynn and Reilly 3
1866 - Daniel Flynn and Molly Reilly’s lives have been dogged by hardship since their orphan days on the streets of New York. Finally, the future is looking bright and Indiana is the place they call home. Now they can focus on making Cochrane’s Farm a success.
The Civil War might have ended but the battle for Cochrane’s Farm has only just begun. The Reese brothers are incensed that land, once part of their family farm, has been transferred to the ownership of young Molly. No matter that their Daddy had sold it years previously, jealousy and revenge have no regard for right. Women should know their place and this one clearly doesn’t.
Times are changing and a woman’s place is changing with it. How far will Daniel and Molly go to fight injustice and is it a price worth paying?
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New York Orphan (Tales of Flynn and Reilly Book 2)
From fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, to losing his parents on the ship to New York, seven-year-old Daniel Flynn knows about adversity. As Daniel sings the songs of home to earn pennies for food, pick-pocket Thomas Reilly becomes his ally and friend, until he too is cast out onto the street.
A destitute refugee in a foreign land, Daniel, together with Thomas and his sister Molly, are swept up by the Orphan Train Movement to find better lives with families across America. For Daniel will the dream prove elusive?
How strong are bonds of loyalty when everything is at stake?
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The Blight and the Blarney – Part 1 – The Story (Tales of Flynn and Reilly Book 1)
Ireland has suffered from potato blight since 1845. Friends and neighbours have died, been evicted or given up what little land they have in search of alms. Michael Flynn is one of the lucky ones. His landlord has offered support.
Michael and his family have done all they can to help their immediate household, but as the famine and its aftermath continue, have their efforts been enough?