Dilly Court

The compelling new saga set in turn-of-the-century London by the author of A Mother's Courage.Despite living by the side of the Thames, with its noise, disease and dirt, eighteen-year-old Rosina May has wanted for little in life. Until her father's feud with a fellow bargeman threatens to destroy everything. To save them all, Rosina agrees to marry Harry, the son of a wealthy merchant. But a chance encounter with a handsome river pirate has turned her head and she longs to meet him again.When her father dies a broken man, Harry goes back on his promise and turns Rosina out onto the streets. She is forced to work the river herself, ferrying rubbish out of London and living rough. In spite of her hardships, she cannot forget her pirate and when tragedy threatens to strike once more she is forced to make a choice. But is she really prepared to risk everything for love?

Wanted : perfect partner: How to meet and marry a man in Seattle? There are all the usual ways, of course, but here's how Meg Remington did it: her teenage daughter, Lindsey, had the nerve to place a personal ad on her behalf - Wanted: Perfect Partner. Worse, Steve Conlan, who answered the ad, was perfect, according to her. Did a teenage matchmaker get it right? You decide! Father's day: Robin Masterson's ten-year-old son, Jeff, figures he needs a dog more than anything in the world. And there just happens to be one right next door! But the friendly black Lab belongs to Cole Camden, the "unfriendliest" man in the neighborhood. Still, Jeff persists...and soon his mom and Cole are looking at each other in a whole new way.

"When Hetty Huggins made a promise to her dying mother that she would look after her younger sister and brothers, little did she know how difficult this would be." -- BOOK JACKET.

She sang with the voice of a nightingale...Gifted with a beautiful soprano voice, young Clemency Skinner is forced to work as a pickpocket in order to support her crippled brother, Jack. Their feckless mother, Edith, has fallen into the clutches of unscrupulous pimp, Todd Hardiman, whose evil presence threatens their daily existence. Befriended by Ned Hawkes and his kindly mother, Nell, Clemency struggles to escape from life in the slums of Stew Lane. She finds work with a troupe of buskers run by larger than life Augustus Throop, and is spotted by the manager of the Strand Theatre. Clemency looks set for operatic stardom, but a chance meeting with the mysterious Jared Stone brings danger and intrigue and threatens to change her life forevermore...

When Eloise Cribb receives the news that her husband's ship has been lost at sea she wonders how she is ever going to manage. With two young children, the rent overdue and left with her charming but irresponsible husband's debts hanging over her she has no alternative but to turn to his estranged family for help. She sets off on the long and arduous journey to Yorkshire, but is met with hostility and soon realises she has little choice but to return to London. Virtually destitute and desperate, after several nights sleeping rough on the streets, Eloise is faced with her worst nightmare: she must either go to the workhouse, or abandon her children at the Foundling Hospital. She is determined to keep them safe and under her protective wing at all costs.

Robert Montague, a fiery preacher with an adventurous past, is a perfect catch for any girl in the parish of Ravenshill. Stockbroker Cuthbert Armitage certainly thinks so and sets his daughters, Cassie and Pippa, into competition for the minister's attention. But Montague is not all he seems to be, as Cassie, his pretty, biddable bride, discovers soon after the wedding. Trapped in a dangerous marriage, and an unwitting partner in financial fraud, Cassie finds her only ally in the servant Nancy Winfield and her only friend in Allan Hunter, manager of the local ironworks. Together, they hold her future in their hands. The dark currents that run beneath the smooth surface of Cassie's conventional Victorian marriage, and the power of an evil man over all around him, lead first to disaster and then to tragedy.

Ruby and Rosetta life in the slums of the East End holds little promise. Although very similar in looks they dream of very different future.

Motherless since she was five, Mirabel Cutler was raised by her father to be a lady. But when he dies suddenly, Mirabel finds herself cast out on the street by her ruthless stepmother. She is taken to a place of refuge by charismatic sea captain, Jack Starke. But the safe haven turns out to be house of ill-repute. Here she becomes a parlour maid and catches the eye of an elderly, retired army officer, Hubert Kettle. Mirabel has fallen in love with Jack Starke but when she hears that his ship has foundered and all were lost, she has little choice but to accept Hubert's offer of a home and marriage. Although desperately unhappy, Mirabel is determined to make the best of her life. Until she receives unexpected news and her life is thrown into turmoil once more.

The Thames carried him away from her, but would it bring him home...? Twelve-year-old Eliza Braggs has known little in life but the cold, comfortless banks of the Thames. Living above her uncle's chandlery, she has grown accustomed to a life of penury and servitude, her only comfort - the love and protection of her older brother, Bart. But, one day, Bart accidentally kills a man and is forced to flee to New Zealand. Alone, barefoot, beaten down and at the mercy of her cruel uncle, Eliza realises that her very survival is at stake...

From the age of eight, sixteen-year-old Charity Crosse has been living rough with her grandfather and begging on the streets. When her grandfather passes away, Charity is helped by a kindly doctor who introduces her to bookseller, Jethro Dawkins. Jethro takes Charity in to help in his bookshop and keep house in their one room behind the shop. Charity sleeps under the counter and is not well treated, but Jethro instills in her the love of books that began when her grandmother taught her to read. And she starts to hope for a better future for herself. But Jethro dies unexpectedly, and Charity is faced with eviction when the rent is raised by the unscrupulous landlord. Must Charity give up her dream of running the bookshop herself, and worse, be forced to return to the streets?

Decribes the evolving nature of the small midwestern town, from 1800's to present. Long held as an iconic place in American culture, the reality is more complex. This is a collection of writings from historians, novelists, social scientists, poets and journalists featuring well know authors such as Sherwood Anderson, Carol Bly, Willa Cather, Hamlin Graland, Sinclair Lewis, Garrison Keillor, Mark Twain as well as many lessor know but important writers. The five choronological sections trace the founding, growth and decline of the midwestern town.