Overview

After losing her family in the Great War, Nell is grateful to marry Stan Hibbert, believing she can recapture a sense of family with him. But five years on, she is just another back-street housewife, making every penny do the work of tuppence and performing miracles with scrag-end. When she discovers that Stan is leading a double-life, she runs away to make a fresh start. Two years later, in 1924, Nell has carved out a fulfilling new life for herself and her young children in Manchester, where her neighbours believe she is a respectable widow and a talented machinist. But the past is hard to run from, and Nell must fight to protect the life she has made for herself and her children.

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9780749023416

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Reviews

England in the early 1920s. Nell meets a veteran of the Great War, marries him, has a child, and discovers that her husband, Stan, isn't the man she thought he was. She leaves him, taking their son with her, and, telling people she is a widow, works hard to build a new life in a new place. But eventually Stan reappears, demanding custody of their son (and also of the second child, with whom Nell was pregnant when she left him), tearing apart Nell's new life. Feeling in many ways like something Jeffrey Archer might have written, complete with a jaw-dropping twist near the end, this is a well-crafted novel with a strong, compassionate lead character and a splendid sense of time and place (the author peppers the dialogue with words like sommat, owt, and nowt, giving the book the flavor of its Manchester setting). A grippingly creepy thriller. --Booklist

A well-crafted novel with a strong, compassionate lead character and a splendid sense of time and place. - Booklist [An] endearing historical romance... Bavin's finely sculpted cast of secondary characters, most of whom are struggling with postwar poverty, give the story true substance. The focus on historical and emotional authenticity will leave readers heartily satisfied. Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Susanna Bavin is originally from Manchester and her writing is strongly inspired by her Mancunian roots. She now lives in Llandudno in North Wales and is a keen member of the RNA. Her first novel, The Deserter's Daughter, was published in 2017.

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