Molly Cutpurse

The Herb Girl is a psychological novel set in and around Purfleet in Essex in 1923 and concerns the great divide; spiritualism, the complication that may be the after-life and our relationship with it. By way of a damning gypsy's curse, a Scots-born female rogue, savage inexplicable accidents, murder and two of the oldest sexual dysfunctions known to civilisation, The Herb Girl chronicles a few months in the life and close family of a bewitching, heavily-pregnant, Cornish-bred herbalist, whose life is not entirely guiltless. The Herb Girl is a self-contained maze, a story involving poisoning, manslaughter, spiritualism, explosives, and rage. But who is the narrator? What is his wholly abhorrent secret and why is he so personally judgmental?

In 1975, Mary Park, the only daughter of a wealthy and respected dynasty whose family accommodation is in Bloomsbury Square, London, is being driven beyond endurance by domestic and marital responsibilities, financial pressures and intellectual frustration. A separation from her philandering husband and the concern of her teenage daughter taking drugs occupy a large amount of her time. However, rumours, arriving from an unprincipled and grievous mathematician, a man desperate to redeem his own family heritage, informs her that her grandfather once built an extraordinary machine which offered the possibility of changing the entire world. Mary will need to confront her family's shadowy past and endure obscure and repugnant painful memories before she can unravel the mystery of what her mother used to call, 'Bleak House'.

Obsessions is an irregular glimpse into the pennilessness life of Miss Hester Martin-Compter, the only child of a once wealthy banking family, destined by a deranged mind to live amongst the poverty of the Whitechapel area of London during the interwar years, World War Two and the nineteen fifties. A bewildering, self-obsessed passion, infatuations by others and a tenuous, bizarre connection with Whitechapel's most infamous murderer, Jack the Ripper shapes her life and destiny as she and her mother, Cecelia learns to live amongst the impoverished residents about which the child previously had no knowledge. At first, living a hand-to-mouth existence, and becoming friends with a variety of idiosyncratic local characters, as decades pass, Hester's introverted self disappears as through marriage and friendships gained, she learns to trust herself as she embraces the opportunities of the middle of the twentieth century.

A phantasmagorical ghost story. In Victorian London, two elderly spinster sisters who have not spoken to each other for fifty years because of a youthful tragedy, share a house that once belonged to their parents. The reason for their bitter feud remains unknown even to their closest friends. But on Christmas Eve, 1881, the past returns to offer them one last chance to redeem themselves, and show that Christmas really is a magical time of year.

Miriam's Early Years tells the beginnings of her Edwardian, East London family. From her welcome birth to her newly married parents in the summer of 1907, we follow her through her early childhood, her schooling, the Great War, and the births of her three sisters, Emily, Sarah and Penelope. Upon reaching the gay twenties, she meets, Ray, her first husband, and gives birth to Peter. Then, with World War Two approaching, darkness settles over her once happy life. When the electrical accident occurs, her life disintegrates until the fateful Saturday when two policemen knock at her door...

When purity is not enough. North London 1936. Father Forrest is an inherently decent priest consumed by impure corporal thoughts. He has little possibility of ethical growth. When his secretary's young daughter dies, the tragedy stimulates a series of events which contribute to obsession, misfortune and blackmail. It will take a chance meeting with an unscrupulous young woman, the sudden reasonless death of his demented mother, a fortuitous brush with an elderly ex woman prisoner and combating an evil and vicious thug before he is able to come to terms with his moral struggle. This is a character-driven novel. You won't get any cute Hollywood endings here

The Angel From The Sea is a supernatural story and describes the events which occur after an Edwardian young lady called Clara pleads for assistance against a member of her family who is brutal towards her. Whereupon, one of the oldest feminine forces in the world appears as the uncontrollable Moganna. However, having demanded the presence of this ungovernable intelligence, Clara and her heinous family find themselves at the mercy of Moganna's ruthlessness and inhumanity. Moganna refers to herself as an angel, but as the innocent Clare soon discovers, a better name for the power she has unleashed is, a Cacodaemon.

Waterleigh Care Home is primarily about a young carer, Ms Erin Fylnn and, Sarah Graham, a new type of patient who is forced to take up permanent residence due to early onset dementia. Although Erin is regarded as one of the best carers in the home, she is not without personal family problems. However, the elderly and confused Sarah brings out more than the caring side of her, proving that even during our last days, all of us can be useful as we connect with each other. Because of where it is set, there can be no happy ending. What happens is logical and unavoidable. Yet life continues.