A Sister’s Sorrow

 Liverpool, 1940. There comes a moment in every child’s life when they must learn to stand on their own two feet. For 15-year-old Ellie Lancton, that time has come all too soon. The death of her mother and the increase in air raids leaves Ellie alone and in grave danger. It’s not long before she is forced to leave her beloved Liverpool behind and cross the Mersey to seek refuge in the countryside. But as the war takes comforts away, so too does it bring new opportunities: for work, new friendships and perhaps a little love.... 

When Elsie and Bert Jones move with their children, Ann and Arthur, to Candle Lane, a modest street in Battersea, they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But the move is the right thing to do, as it will enable Bert to finance his new removal business. They are a warmhearted family, and Elsie soon makes friends with her less fortunate neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally. But before long Elsie realises that all is not well in the house next door.... 

Christmas 1860: Polly, living in grinding poverty, loses her mother in childbirth and finds herself alone on the streets of Hull. Rosalie, brought up in affluence and comfort on the other side of town, loses her own mother in similar circumstances and on the same day. Polly takes a job as scullery maid in Rosalie's lonely house, and the two girls form an unlikely friendship. Travelling to the North Yorkshire Moors they discover a new kind of life and find unexpected joy and fulfilment.

When Dot McCann, playing with her pals, decides to hide in Butcher Rathbone's almost empty dustbin, she overhears a conversation which could send one man to prison and the other to the gallows - and suddenly finds herself in possession of stolen goods. Dot lives with her aunt and uncle, abandoned after her parents died. She feels very alone until she meets up with Corky, who has run away from a London orphanage. They join forces with Emma, whose jeweller's shop has been burgled, and Nick, a young reporter who is investigating the crime.

Taken in by the firm but kind-hearted cook, the young friends can hardly believe their luck. But behind Bracken House’s impressive façade lies a household steeped in troubles and mystery, with residents above and below stairs battling their own demons and dark secrets. Not everyone is happy about the new arrivals, and soon the orphans’ safety is in danger. If they want to stay in the first home any of them have known for years, they must unravel the past and bring hope to the future. Will they succeed? Or will they come to regret ever leaving the mean slum streets they once called home?

From a tender age, Flora felt unloved and unwanted by her parents, but she finds safety in the arms of caring nanny Pru. But when Pru is cast out of the family home, under a shadow of secrets and with a young baby boy of her own to care for, it shatters little Flora. But over the years, Flora and Pru meet in secret - unbeknownst to Flora’s parents. Pru becomes the mother to Flora she never had, and Flora grows into a fine young woman. When Flora signs up to become a nurse with the St John’s ambulance, she begins to shape her life.

Her strength is all she has left.... When Dorothy meets Robbie, she falls for him quickly, and it’s not long before the pair are engaged. But then an unexpected pregnancy puts everything at risk, and Dorothy is left alone - with Robbie nowhere to be seen. Heartbroken, Dorothy picks up the pieces of her life as a working girl in Battersea, helping to support her mother and father. But before long, things start to become difficult. Her father’s health is worsening, money is tight and, worst of all, Robbie hasn’t come back for her. 

Everyone recognises the cry of Meg Sutcliffe as she plies her trade along the back streets of Ryhope. She learnt the ropes from her dad when he returned from the war. But when tragedy struck, Meg had no choice but to continue alone, with only her trusty dog, Spot, and beloved horse, Stella, for company. Now the meagre money she earns is the only thing that stands between her family's safety and predatory rent collector Hawk Jackson....

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.

Ellen thought she’d always live in the remote, pretty coastal village where she grew up. After all, her husband, Harry, works on a farm where he’s guaranteed a job and home for life. But when the old landowner dies and the couple and their young children are forced from their cottage, the future is suddenly bleak. Rather than stay - and starve - in the countryside they love, Harry sets out to find a job in the factories and mills of nearby Hull, and Ellen must leave behind everything she’s ever known to follow her husband and build a new life for her family.

Eliza was left as a small baby at the workhouse in Whitechapel, wrapped in her mother’s shawl, which is all she has of the mother she never knew. At 11 years old, she has survived sickness, near starvation and harsh beatings. Master Simpkins and his cruel daughter rule the workhouse with a rod of iron, but when Romany boy Joe arrives at the workhouse, his spirit and courage give Eliza hope. When she is sold into service, Eliza is relieved to be out of the workhouse and hopes her fortunes are changing for the better, but cruelty and unkindness are everywhere....

After her mother's death, Dora is sent to live with her father and his other family. But Dora is mixed race and illegitimate, two facts that see her treated as little more than a servant by her stepmother and half siblings. This doesn't stop the son of the house abusing his position, and Dora finds herself on the streets and pregnant....

When young Jinnie Howlett’s widowed father, a tinker man, died a pauper, she was already a reluctant inmate of a northern workhouse. But she thought herself fortunate - the alternative might have meant she ended up on the streets. When close to her 15th birthday and after years of toil and drudgery, she was at last offered a position as a maid-of-all-work. 

Times are hard for all on Mulberry Lane as the war rages into yet another year. Desperate times push people into dangerous situations, and the residents of Mulberry Lane are not exempt. Menacing shadows lurk on dark street corners, threatening the safety of those who are alone and vulnerable. When Peggy's twins are born early, Maureen and Nellie are there to lend a helping hand. The mothers of Mulberry Lane stick together despite the grim conditions of war-torn London and a shadowy fear that stalks their lives. Neighbours and friends look out for each other, and new life brings hope and joy to the lane.

Sent to the workhouse as a child, all Ella Hathaway can remember is a voice whispering, 'Dearie, promise you will never forget what you saw. Your Ma was killed deliberate...and someone oughter pay for it.' When wealthy spinster Letitia Fairchild witnesses Ella being ill treated, she takes her in as a scullery maid. But as Ella grows up, she is determined to find the truth about her mother's death and appeals to Letitia for help, revealing her only personal possession, a black silk purse. Intrigued, Letitia agrees to begin a quest to solve the mystery of Ella's past.