How Could She – Dana Fowley

A frightened girl sits on the stairs.  It’s Christmas Day but she is gripped by fear.  She can hear them downstairs, waiting for her.  Laughing like they have nothing to be ashamed of.  Afterwards, her mother will indulge her because it’s Christmas.  And just for one day the girl won’t wonder, ‘How could she?’

At just five years old, Dana Fowley learned that there was no one she could trust and nowhere she could escape to.  She and her younger sister endured years of terrible abuse, subjected day after day to unimaginable attacks, and not only did their own mother do nothing to protect them, she willingly helped.

In a high-profile and traumatising court case Dana’s lifelong suffering was at last revealed when she bravely faced her demons and testified against her own mother.  Finally, Dana’s nightmare is coming to an end.

My Rating 5/5 Heartbreaking  (Biography/Autobiography)

A very hard read. Very disturbing, this book will stay in my mind for a long time. 

About The Author

Despite her appalling childhood, Dana Fowley has grown into a strong woman whose courage and determination to make a better life for her own family shine through on every page of this deeply disturbing, but ultimately triumphant, true story.

Dana lives in Edinburgh with her partner, their children and her sister. How Could She? Is her first book.

Quilting In No Time - Emma Hardy

50 step by step weekend projects made easy.

50 inspirational soft furnishings projects for your home.

Designer style can be achieved at a fraction of the cost.

Perfect for people who are big on ideas but short of time.

Beautifully illustrated with specially commissioned photographs and easy-to-follow, step by step diagrams.

My Rating 5/5  My daughter bought this book for me. (Craft)

About The Author
Emma Hardy is a stylist and designer who has worked on various lifestyle and interiors magazines.
Married with two daughters, Emma lives in South London.

Better Days – June Tate

Despite Living in the shabby docklands of Southampton, in 1954 Gemma Barrett has much to be thankful for.  She has a good job in a big department store, a best friend with whom she shares her hopes and dreams, and a blossoming romance with Nick Weston, a first officer with Cunard.  Life would be great if it wasn’t for her mother, Eve, who likes more to drink than is good for her.  And when Gemma’s dad walks out and Eve starts bringing strange men home, Gemma doesn’t know where to turn.

Desperate to escape, she seizes the opportunity to be a stewardess on the Queen Mary, voyaging to and from New York, and when she discovers that Nick is also on board, it seems an affirmation that she made the right decision.  But a chance encounter with Vince Morelli, a gang boss in the New York docks, looks set to jeopardise her newfound happiness.  Vince has friends in high places and is used to getting what he wants – and when he sets his sights on Gemma, the results could be devastating.

My Rating 5/5 Loved This Book (Fiction/Saga)

About The Author

June Tate was born in Southampton in the 1930s and spent the early years of her childhood in the Cotswolds before returning to Southampton after the start of the Second World War.  After leaving school she became a hairdresser and spent several years working on the cruise ships, first on the Queen Mary and then on the Mauritania, meeting many Hollywood film stars and V.I.P.s on her travels.  After her marriage to an airline pilot, she lived in Sussex and Hampshire before moving to Estoril in Portugal.

June Tate, who has two adult daughters, now lives in Sussex.

A Mother's Secret – Dilly Court

When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer, she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry.  When he is reported missing, believed killed in action, Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin, she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, knowing she must keep the secret of her child’s birth for ever.

Reluctantly she sends her beloved daughter to a foster mother in Cripplegate, little realising she has entrusted Cassy’s care to Biddy Henchard, a woman who runs a notorious baby farm in an area full of poverty and disease.  Despite her terrible upbringing, Cassy survives the old woman’s cruel neglect.  All the while she dreams of a mother she has never known, hoping she will come and save her from her dreadful fate.  But when Biddy dies suddenly, ten-year-old Cassy finds herself destitute and with little hope of ever finding the mother she so longs for...

My Rating 4/5 Liked This Book (Fiction)

About The Author

Dilly Court grew up in North-east London and began her career in television, writing scripts for commercials.  She is married with two grown-up children and four grandchildren, and now lives in Dorset on the beautiful Jurassic Coast with her husband and a large, yellow Labrador called Archie. 

9 Miracles – Leigh Watson

When Leigh’s husband is unable to accompany her to see their Air Force son, Luke, off to Iraq, Leigh mentally prepares herself to make the trip alone, knowing she will have to be strong for Luke’s sake.

Along the way, she encounters extraordinary people and incredible circumstances that could only be defined as heaven-sent.  Rejoice, how as one exits – another appears, carrying her on the wings of mercy all the way home.

Join us now on this amazing journey as you witness the grace of God’s loving hand upon a mother’s aching heart.  Discover to what lengths God will reach, proving the depth of His love and concern. Rest in the knowledge  that He will provide the strength you need to get through even the most difficult day.

God is willing to work a miracle in your life today, if you will only trust Him.

My Rating 5/5  A  truly remarkable story of a mother seeing her son off to war.

(Non Fiction)

A Cut Above – Lynda Page

A Cut Above

For Kacie Cooper, life in Leicester in 1959 is almost perfect. Jobs are plentiful, shops are filled with the latest fashions and dance halls are packed with people jiving to rock ‘n’ roll hits.  Kacie is the top stylist in a reputable hair salon and her machine-mechanic husband Dennis is dreaming of the big time with his band, Vernon and the Vipers.  Only one thing mars her happiness: her parents’ constant disapproval that she doesn’t have a ‘proper’ job or a more respectable husband, like her sister Caroline.

But when Caroline turns up on Kacie’s doorstep, asking to stay for a while, it’s clear that her sister’s marriage has been far from idyllic.  It is a revelation that plunges Kacie’s own life into chaos and threatens everything that matters...

My Rating 3/5 Liked This Book.  (Fiction/Saga)

About The Author

Lynda Page was born and brought up in Leicester.  The eldest of four daughters, she left home at seventeen and has had a wide variety of office jobs.  She lives in a village near Leicester.  

A Cut Above 

The Girl In The Painted Caravan - Eva Petulengro

Born into a Romany gypsy family in 1939, Eva Petulengro’s childhood seemed to her to be idyllic in every way.  She would travel the country with her family in their painted caravan and spend evenings by the fire as they sang and told stories of their past.  She didn’t go to school or visit a doctor when she was unwell.  Instead her family would gather wild herbs to make traditional remedies, hunt game and rabbits for food, and while the men tended horses to make a living, the young girls would join the women in reading palms.  But in the post-war era, Eva’s perfect world would be turned upside down...

Eva describes the wonderful characters in her family, from her grandfather ‘Naughty’ Petulengro to her five beautiful aunts who entranced everyone they met, as well as the fascinating people they came across on the road.  Moving and evocative, The Girl In The Painted Caravan vividly captures a way of life that has now, sadly, all but disappeared.

My Rating 5/5  Easy Read I Couldn’t Put It Down   (Non Fiction)

About The Author

Eve Petulengro is a member of the last generation of true Romany gypsies.  She spent her childhood on the road with her family in their beautiful painted caravan, before going on to become one of the country’s leading clairvoyants and astrologers, with many famous clients.  Today she lives in Brighton near her three sons, Warren, Bradley and Gregory, and her daughter Claire, who followed the family tradition and is a popular astrologer and author.

20th Century Photography - Museum Ludwig Cologne

The photographic collection of the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, is one of the most important collections of contemporary photography in the world.  The book provides a fascinating insight into its rich diversity; conceptual art, abstraction, reportage – 860 works by around 300 of the 20th century's most famous international photographers,

from Ansel Adams to Piet Zwart.

My Rating 4/5 Inspiring For Anyone Into Photography  (Art/Photography)

In Harm's Way - Sean Hogan with Michael Cameron

Sean Hogan was eight years old when he was confined in the notorious Artane Industrial School under the brutal regime of the Christian Brothers.  In and out of care throughout his childhood, Sean was so badly neglected by his alcoholic parents that he never even knew what day his birthday fell on, or how old he was – things he only learned as an adult.  But when he arrived at the Artane, instead of receiving the care he so desperately needed, he entered into months of horrific sexual abuse at the hands of some of the Brothers.
Now, for the first time, he feels able to tell his story – and reveal the devastating truth of what really happened inside some of Ireland’s industrial schools.  In Harm’s Way is a powerful and moving story of astonishing hardship and near despair, but also of triumph over terrible adversity.

My Rating 5/5 Heartbreaking   (Biography)

What can I say about this book, heartbreaking isn't enough.

It's a story that needed to be told and I feel that it needs to be read. At times I didn't want to keep reading it as the tears just kept flowing, but I knew I had to carry on because I had to see him come out the other side. I was longing for someone to hold him and take care of him and keep him safe.

When you get taken from your family and put into care, that's not care but mental and physical abuse and people know it's happening and look the other way. How can this happen?

About The Author

Sean Hogan was born in Dublin and spent much of his childhood living in the infamous Keogh Square estate and in various Irish care homes.  He now lives in the north of England, and has been happily married to Mary for over twenty years.  They have two children. He still suffers from the effects of the violent abuse he received as a child but in his own words, he copes '...because that's all I can do!'

Strolling With The One I Love - Joan Jonker

Strolling with the One I Love

Kate Spencer and her best friend Monica Parry have plenty to keep them busy – their boisterous young families seem to need constant supervision, and it’s not easy running their Liverpool households on the meagre wages their husbands bring in.  But the plight of a neighbour’s teenage daughter soon brings home to them just how lucky they are.  Seventeen-year-old Margaret Blackmore is pregnant, and her boyfriend insists he can’t be the father.

Unable to stand by and watch while a young life is ruined, Kate and Monica determine to help poor Margaret if they can.  Is her boyfriend telling the truth? And if so, who on earth is responsible? The local busybody, Winnie Cartwright, may be able to provide the answer...

My Rating 3/5  Liked It   (Fiction/Saga)

About The Author

Joan Jonker was born and bred in Liverpool.  Her childhood was a time of love and laughter with her two sisters, a brother, a caring but gambling father and an indomitable mother who was always getting them out of scrapes.  Then came the Second World War - a period that Joan remembers so well - when she met and fell in love with her late husband, Tony, while out with friends at Liverpool's St George's Hotel in Lime Street.
For twenty-three years, Joan campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of violence, and her first book, Victims of Violence, is an account of those years.
Strolling with the One I Love

The House On Lonely Street - Lyn Andrews

For Katherine Donovan the slums of Dublin are a lonely place.  Her father, a pawnbroker, is the most hated man in the district, and Katherine an outcast.  Her only friend is tiny Ceppi Healy, underfed, irrepressible and, the youngest in a neglected family of eight, as much an emotional orphan as eighteen-year-old Katherine.
Then, one night, the unthinkable happens.  Katherine’s father is murdered, a victim of local revenge for an act of cruelty even she couldn’t have anticipated.  Fearing for her life, Katherine flees, taking with her the desperate young Ceppi.  Liverpool is her longed-for haven and, with the last of her father’s money, she rents a lodging house in a street decimated by the sinking of the Titanic.  But, far from finding a refuge for herself and the little girl she promised to protect, she realises she has put them into the path of terrible danger...

My Rating 5/5 Loved This Book   (Fiction/Saga)

About The Author

Lyn Andrews was born and brought up in Liverpool, she is the daughter of a policeman who also married a policeman.  After becoming the mother of triplets, she took some time off from her writing whilst she raised her children.

Echoes Across The Mersey - Anne Baker

It’s August 1914 and the threat of war is weighing heavily on the people of Liverpool, but not on Sarah Hoxton.  For Toby Percival, the dashing son of the owner of the factory where she and her mother work, has told her he loves her.  Her mother is afraid they will both lose their jobs but Sarah is prepared to risk everything for Toby’s love.
Maurice Percival is furious when he discovers his son is involved with a factory girl and they become locked in a fierce battle.  Fired with the fever of patriotism and determined to defy his father, Toby volunteers to fight in the trenches.  Sarah is left facing what seem to be insurmountable obstacles but with the help of her friends, family and a strength she never knew she possessed she struggles on while the escalating tragedy of the Great War unfolds.  It’s not until the fighting is over that she finds peace, and even then it’s not where she expected it.

My Rating 5/5 Loved This Book     (Fiction/Saga)


About The Author

Anne Baker trained as a nurse at Birkenhead General Hospital, but after her marriage went to live first in Libya and then Nigeria.  She eventually returned to her native Birkenhead where she worked as a Health Visitor for over ten years.  She now lives with her husband in Merseyside.

East End Girl -Sally Worboyes

The Story of bestselling author Sally Worboyes’ own family life in post-war Stepney is no less engrossing and dramatic than her gritty East London sagas. Sally grew up in a two-up, two-down with an outside lavatory and no hot water, where her parents raised four of their six children. From carol singing for the Kray twins to a family secret, Sally’s childhood was full of the spirit of adventure.

This is the vivid story of Sally’s days spent ‘raking’ the East End streets for useful scraps or crowding into her family’s tiny parlour rooms for Saturday tea. As well as the tribulations of a poor family, there is the deep love she felt and still feels for the old East End and its people.
This is probably Sally’s most gripping saga yet – and it’s all true.

My Rating 5/5 Loved This Book    (Autobiography)


About The Author

Sally Worboyes was born and grew up in Stepney with four brothers and a sister.  She is the author of many bestselling novels of East London life, including At the Mile End Gate, Over Bethnal Green and Whitechapel Mary. She has also written several plays broadcast on Anglia Television and Radio Four, and she has adapted her own play and novel, Wild Hops, as a musical, The Hop-Pickers. She now lives in Norfolk with her husband, with whom she has three grown-up children.