Kirjahaku

Solider Girl is a sequel to A Hopscotch Summer and is followed by All the Days of Our Lives in Annie Murray's epic saga of friendship and heartbreak.Molly Fox has grown up in the back streets of Birmingham at the mercy of her cruel grandfather and her drunken mother. Though she has grown into a tall, beautiful woman, Molly is haunted by terrible family secrets. When she is found lying drunk in a gutter, Molly reaches a turning point. She decides to escape by joining the army as an ATS girl.At first her new start seems fated to be a disaster but the army gives her the encouragement she hungers for and soon her life is flourishing. But war brings tragedy as well as triumph, and when Molly receives news from home, it becomes clear that she can't escape her past so easily . . .

Shortlisted for Historical Romantic Novel in the Romantic Novelists Association Books Awards.Birmingham, almost a decade after the end of the Great War, and the women of Lilac Street have had more than their fair share of troubles . . .Rose Southgate is trapped in a loveless marriage. Shy and isolated, she makes the best of life, until she meets a man who changes everything.Jen Green is struggling to make ends meet, with a sick husband and five children to support. Aggie, her eldest daughter, is twelve years old and longs for excitement. But prying into the adult world shows her more than she had bargained for.And Phyllis Taylor is a widow who has managed to put a dark and traumatic past behind her. But the return of her daughter Dolly threatens all that . . .These women find strength in friendship, as they discover that the best way to solve their problems is to face them together, in Annie Murray's compelling The Women of Lilac Street.

An emotional tale of resilience by Annie Murray, A Hopscotch Summer tells the story of a young girl and her struggle to keep her family afloat.In the impoverished area of Nechells in Birmingham in the 1930s, young Emma Brown's life is turned upside down when her mother, Cynthia, has another baby.Emma has always been a happy-go-lucky child, content as long as things were all right at home with her parents, and her brother and sister. But when the baby is born, Cynthia doesn't seem able to cope, and even her lifelong friend and neighbour, Dot, can't seem to get through to her. Cynthia's husband, Bob, tries to do his best, but when he feels he's losing the wife he loves so much he turns to drink. Poor Emma can't seem to keep up with looking after the household, and soon it seems that the only thing to do is for Cynthia to go and stay with her tyrannical older sister across the city.Life gets even tougher for Emma with her mother away, and she decides it's time to travel across Birmingham and bring her mother home. But the woman she discovers is very different to the mother she remembers . . .A Hopscotch Summer is followed by Solider Girl and All the Days of Our Lives, which follow the stories of Molly and Katie.

A tale of hardship and survival, The Doorstep Child is a heart-rending story from bestselling author Annie Murray.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 the sixteenth birthday.At sixteen she meets Ken, a sweet brown-eyed boy, not much older than she is. Perhaps her fortunes have changed? But no sooner does she give 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?

Beautiful, dark-haired Lily was abandoned in a Birmingham slum as a tiny child. With few clues as to her identity, she endured a childhood of loneliness and loss. Now, at eighteen, she applies for a post as nanny with the family of a Captain Fairford, a soldier in Ambala in northern India, and his highly strung wife Susan. Lily is drawn into the emotional life of the Fairford family and adores her charge, two-year-old Cosmo.When, in 1907, Captain Fairford orders a new Daimler car, it is brought out by a young motor mechanic, Sam Ironside. Sam and Lily fall deeply in love, but it is only later that Lily learns that Sam is married and she feels utterly betrayed. When Cosmo is then sent back to Birmingham for school, Lily finds another post with a Dr McBride and his invalid wife in a beautiful Himalayan hill station. The place is idyllic, and Lily settles in for a quiet life. However, she is unprepared for the pain and misunderstandings that follow and force her to run from everything she has known . . .Where Earth Meets Sky by Annie Murray takes us from Edwardian England and the British Raj, through the darkness of the Great War to the glamour of Brooklands Race Track in the 1920s. Spanning two continents, it is a story of enduring friendships and two hearts which cannot be kept apart.

An unmissable and much-loved favourite, Birmingham Blitz by Annie Murray is the tale of everyday courage and determination in wartime Britain.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 . . .