"Annie Murray's The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and triumphs of the Fletcher family.
Working at the local pearl button factory, Ada Fletcher is doing her best to make ends meet in trying times.
When tragedy strikes and her siblings are taken to a workhouse orphanage, Ada is saved from a similar fate by her neighbour, Sarah Connell.
But the roof over Ada's head doesn't come without a price: the Connells have too many children, not enough money, and Sarah's reliance on drink means that it isn't long before Ada needs to escape.
Determined to be more than just a factory girl, Ada embarks on a journey to reunite with her siblings. But in a teeming industrial city, will she be able to find long-lost family as well as a home and life to call her own?"
"'A heart-warming and affecting tale.' - Woman's Weekly
1946: The war might be over, but for the Gilby family there are still battles to be fought at home . . .
For Birmingham and the Gilby family the war years have been a time of great change. With husband Len having left her for another woman, Ann Gilby is finally free to follow her heart. While the neighbours may be scandalized by having a divorcee in their midst, Ann is determined to rise above the local gossip and make a happy home with her former sweetheart, the father of Ann's youngest child.
Daughters Joy and Sheila are lucky enough to have their menfolk back home, but Joy's husband has returned a broken man from his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. And Sheila's husband is finding his wartime adventures and travels have made Birmingham feel small by comparison.
Then there's Anne's youngest child, Martin, who is still coming to terms with learning who his real father is, as well as having secrets of his own . . .
From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of Secrets of the Chocolate Girls and Wartime for the Chocolate Girls: Homecoming for the Chocolate Girls is the heartfelt and dramatic conclusion to this gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . .
'A portrait of four generations of a Birmingham family as they struggle to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of World War Two. With intimately drawn characters grappling with emotional dramas, this is a writer at the top of her game.' - Joanna Toye, author of The Shop Girls"
"From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of Chocolate Girls, The Bells of Bournville Green and Secrets of the Chocolate Girls, Wartime for the Chocolate Girls is a gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . .
April 1941.
Almost losing her life in a bomb blast while serving in the Women's Volunteer Service has made Ann Gilby take stock of what's really important - her family.
With daughter Sheila back home, and Joy still working munitions at the Cadbury factory and engaged to her soldier sweetheart, home life feels more settled too. Ann has even come to an uneasy truce with her husband, Len, despite her recent discovery of his infidelity and the fact that he has fathered a child with another woman.
But what Ann has not reckoned with is Marianne, Len's other woman, turning up on her doorstep - a woman with a mysterious past.
Only Ann has secrets of her own and one day soon she knows she will have to tell her youngest child, Martin, who his father really is . . ."
"From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of The Bells of Bournville Green, comes Secrets of the Chocolate Girls, another gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . .
September 1940, Birmingham.
While her husband and daughter work at the Cadbury's Bournville factory, Ann Gilby has her hands full at home with her other daughter, Sheila, newly returned home with baby Elaine. With Sheila's husband away doing his bit in the RAF, Ann knows she should be grateful to have all her children safe under one roof. But she can't help but fear for their uncertain future as bombs fall ever closer to her Birmingham home. Part of her yearns for the carefree days of her youth when she also worked the line at Cadburys, filling trays of chocolate shells.
But mostly Ann tries not to think of the past at all since that would mean she would have to confront her oldest secret, one she's kept since the last war and the one that could easily rip her family apart . . ."
"Black Country Orphan is a moving story of the courage and strength of women, by the Sunday Times bestselling author Annie Murray.
The early 1900s: Cradley Heath, a town in the Black Country near Birmingham and centre of the world’s chain-making trade.
Lucy Butler, a young girl crippled by a cruel accident, lives with her two brothers and widowed mother, a chain-maker barely making ends meet. When tragedy strikes, the Butler family is separated and Lucy is taken in by Bertha Hipkiss, another impoverished chain maker, struggling to look after her own family.
Lucy, while feeling the loss of her own family, relies on the company of Bertha’s two sons, charming Clem and straight-laced John. Though clever at school, Lucy knows she must leave and earn her keep, working many hours in the backyard forge. The five women toiling side by side, inevitably have their own friendships and squabbles. But they’re united in their hatred of loathsome middleman Seth Dawson, who treats the women with contempt, and keeps their pay punishingly low.
But by the 1910s, there is a movement stirring, as across the country workers begin unionising for their rights. For Lucy, Bertha and the women of Cradley Heath, the promise of a better life seems almost too much to hope for - and the fight may end up costing them everything . . ."
"1940 - Small Heath, in the heart of Birmingham, is facing the darkest days of the war.
Two very different girls from this tight-knit community join up as ARP wardens to do their bit for the Home Front.
Violet Simms lives with her controlling, widowed mother who runs the local pawn shop. At just twenty-years-old, Violet longs for friendship, love and escape. It seems her dreams might come true until tragedy strikes on one of the very worst nights of the Birmingham Blitz.
Grace Templeton is the eldest in her family of ten children. Spirited Grace is determined never to become burdened by child bearing and drudgery like her mother. Adored by childhood sweetheart, Jimmy Oval, Grace believes she can do better. Volunteering as an ARP warden feels like a chance for adventure – until she sees the horror and reality of war first hand. In this blacked out city, where not everyone is quite what they seem, she comes to realize she is less in control of events than she had thought.
The war will have long-lasting effects on every family . . . Long buried secrets come to light, and their stories are woven together amid the intense bombing of Birmingham.
The girls’ lives will be changed forever by friendship and love, by tragedy and joy.
Girls in Tin Hats is the heart-wrenching generational saga by Sunday Times top ten bestselling author Annie Murray."
"Mother and Child by Sunday Times bestseller Annie Murray is a moving story of loss, friendship and hope over two generations . . .
Jo and Ian’s marriage is hanging by a thread. One night almost two years ago, their only child, Paul, died in an accident that should never have happened. They have recently moved to a new area of Birmingham, to be near Ian’s mother Dorrie who is increasingly frail. As Jo spends more time with her mother-in-law, she suspects Dorrie wants to unburden herself of a secret that has cast a long shadow over her family.
Haunted by the death of her son, Jo catches a glimpse of a young boy in a magazine who resembles Paul. Reading the article, she learns of a tragedy in India . . . But it moves her so deeply, she is inspired to embark on a trip where she will learn about unimaginable pain and suffering.
As Jo learns more, she is determined to do her own small bit to help. With the help of new friends, Jo learns that from loss and grief, there is hope and healing in her future."
"1915. Margaret and Philip Tallis are happily married, have a thriving business and three children, Daisy, John and Lily.
At 20, Daisy is an impassioned, headstrong girl, determined to follow her parents’ footsteps in Birmingham’s jewellery trade. While studying at the college for silversmiths she meets an old rival of her father’s. James Carson is married, but Daisy finds herself dangerously drawn to him . . .
As war tightens its grip on the country, the Jewellery Quarter is thrown into anguish as the men are forced to decide who will enlist. In the turmoil, will Margaret be able to hold her business and her family together?
The Silversmith’s Daughter is the emotional sequel to the Sunday Times bestseller Sisters of Gold by Annie Murray."
"What could tear the sisters apart?
Sisters Margaret and Annie lost their mother years ago, they long for her every day. Their frightfully protective father keeps the girls close but he can’t protect them forever . . . When a scandal rocks the family, the girls are forced to leave their home.
The girls flee to Birmingham’s jewellery quarter to stay with the one person they can rely on – their uncle, goldsmith Ebenezer Watts and his warm-hearted wife, Hatt. Annie takes up work at a nearby factory, where she learns to forge cutlery, and Margaret is employed as a chain maker.
By day Margaret works in cramped confines, alongside a local silversmith, and soon the links between the pair begin to bond . . . Annie’s work in the factory exposes her to great horrors but it also opens her heart to great possibility.
But what are the Sisters of Gold hiding? They’ve escaped their past once – can it remain hidden?
Sisters of Gold is an emotional and heart-warming story set against a richly imagined Birmingham setting, from Annie Murray, author of The Doorstep Child."
"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 her sixteenth birthday.
At sixteen she meets Ken, a sweet, brown-eyed boy, not much older than she is. Perhaps her fortunes have changed? But as soon as she gives 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?"
"Now the War is Over is a moving story of post-war hardship and the struggles of a reunited family, featuring characters from Annie Murray's bestselling War Babies.
The Second World War has finally come to a close. Birmingham is welcoming home its menfolk, and a new chapter is beginning in Rachel Booker's life. Her husband has returned, and the family that struggled for survival throughout the uncertain war years is now together. But family life settles into a routine and Rachel, unsatisfied, starts to yearn for more'
Melly, Rachel's eldest daughter, is a child of the war. She grew up in the bombed-out streets of Birmingham and has never known anything other than the hungry ration years and supporting her mother and younger brother Tommy. But times are changing and Melly now has a fresh future ahead of her. She's determined to make the most of life and her greatest wish is to become a nurse.
As the gloom of the 1940s passes by and the promise of the 1950s dawns, a whole new world of opportunity opens up to Rachel and Melly - but with this come new challenges and tough choices. They will each have to decide whether their loyalties still lie with the family and friends they clung to throughout the war years or if it's time to move on . . ."
"It is 1942, and after a childhood of suffering in Birmingham, Maryann Bartholomew has built a life of happiness and safety with her husband Joel and their children, working the canals on his narrowboat, the Esther Jane. But the back-breaking work and constant childbearing take their toll on Maryann, and the tragic loss of her old friend Nancy, followed by a further pregnancy lead her to a desperate act which nearly costs her her life.
The walls of her security are broken down when Joel suffers an accident, and to keep the boats working, Maryann is forced to allow Sylvia and Dot, two wartime volunteers, into the privacy of their life. And when she discovers that someone keeps calling for her at Birmingham's Tyseley Wharf, the dark memories of her past begin to overwhelm her life. For that someone, who seems to be watching her every move, is becoming more dangerous that even she could imagine . . .
Sequel to The Narrowboat Girl, Water Gypsies by Annie Murray is the gripping story of life on the Birmingham canals."
