Overview

Ireland, 1901: The workhouse gates clanged shut behind us, as me and the mammy walked down the hill towards the town. I was six years old and leaving the only home I had ever known … When Cissy Ryan’s real mother comes to claim her from the workhouse, it’s not how she imagined. Her family’s tumbledown cottage has ice on the inside of its windows and is in an isolated, poverty-stricken village in the muddy Irish countryside. But when Cissy is allowed to help neighbour Colm Doyle and his horse named Blue on their milk round one morning, Cissy starts to feel as though friendship could get her through anything. It’s Colm who looks in on Cissy’s grandfather when she starts at the village school, and Colm who tells her to hold her chin high when she interviews for a position at the grand Bretton House. But in the vast mansion with its shining floors and sweeping staircase, it’s Master Peter Bretton who captures Cissy’s heart with his dark curls and easy laugh. As Cissy blossoms from a skinny orphan into a confident young girl, Colm tells her she’s as good as anyone and she begins to believe anything is possible. But not everyone with a kind smile has a kind heart, and Cissy doesn’t know that further sorrow lies in store for her. When Cissy finds herself desperate, alone and faced with a devastating choice, can she find the strength to survive?

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9781489495686

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Sandy Taylor grew up on a council estate near Brighton. There were no books in the house, so Sandy’s love of the written word was nurtured in the little local library. Leaving school at fifteen, Sandy worked in a series of factories before landing a job at Butlins in Minehead. This career change led her to becoming a singer, a stand up comic and eventually a playwright and novelist. Aoife McMahon trained at RADA and has since appeared in leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre, the Young Vic, the Royal Court and the Abbey in Dublin. She has also appeared in numerous celebrated television roles on both sides of the Atlantic and was awarded the Canadian Gemini award for best actress in a leading role. She has narrated over 60 audiobooks. Her accolades include an AudioFile Earphones Award and a place in the Top Ten audiobooks as listed in The Irish Times, The New York Times and Amazon's top picks.

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