Christmas for the Halfpenny Orphans

Call the Midwife meets Dr Barnardo's in this gritty drama that will appeal to fans of Katie Flynn. St Saviour's will never turn a homeless child away.... When there is nowhere else to turn, St Saviour's will give them hope.... It's 1948, and London's East End is still a bombed-out landscape. Sister Beatrice, who runs the St Saviour's Children's Home, knows that life is still a precarious existence for many children, and it seems that there is no end to the constant stream of waifs and strays who appear at their door....

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....

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.

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 a friendly dog called Whisky, Evie might never have made it to her 16th birthday.

A warmhearted and nostalgic festive family saga. Will Tilly finally find a family to call her own? As Christmas grows nearer, Tilly, a young maid, is sent away from her home in London to care for a sick child in an old cottage on the Isle of Sheppey, and she little imagines how her life will change.... Having settled in with her new family, Tilly dares to believe that the happiness she's longed for could be hers at last and that she might finally be free from the secrets of her past. 

Alone at Christmas, will she find somewhere to call home? No more than 18 years old, alone and heavily pregnant, Kathleen stumbles through the snow, desperate for somewhere to rest her weary head. As the Christmas bells chime around her, she glimpses a man through the haze before collapsing into his arms.

Will she ever be reunited with her real father? Angelina was abandoned on the doorsteps of Brownlow Workhouse when she was just a baby - her only possession the rag doll she held in her arms. Nicknamed 'Angel' for her golden curls, she is adopted by Mr and Mrs McBride. At first Angel is so happy to have found a caring family to save her from the drudgery of the workhouse. But her new parents are not the benevolent guardians they first appear.

Inspired by the true story of the Quality Street factory and its loyal workers, this is a nostalgic and compelling novel and the perfect Christmas treat. At 16 years old, Irene ‘Reenie’ Calder is leaving school with little in the way of qualifications. She is delighted to land a seasonal job at Mackintosh’s Quality Street factory. Reenie feels like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, but trouble seems to follow her around, and it isn’t long before she falls foul of the strict rules. 

Can she follow her dreams when she has lost everything? Young Bridie O'Hara is torn away from her native Ireland by her father - a freedom fighter turned traitor - when he has to flee the wrath of the republicans. Violated by those who should protect her and betrayed by her dashing gypsy lover, Seamus Finney, she struggles to find her way in Victorian England.

Life has always been tough for May and Gus Lavender. Their father went away to sea never to return, and then their mother falls victim to the typhus sweeping through Liverpool. Regarded as orphans by the authorities, May and Gus are sent to the Brownlow Hill Workhouse. Like all workhouses, Brownlow is the last resort for the poor and the destitute. May and Gus will have to rely on each other more than ever if they are to survive the hardships to come....

It is 1913, and for best friends Megan and Hattie, born at the turn of the century and brought up in a convent orphanage in Leeds, the time has come to make their way in the world. Megan is to become an apprentice seamstress, and Hattie is to work as a scullery maid at Lord Marley's country residence. Once separated, Megan begins to excel at dressmaking, but Hattie is less fortunate. After a devastating encounter with Lord Marley, she is forced to earn a living working the streets....

Summer, 1936. Newly trained midwife Hazel Price returns to the Yorkshire streets of her childhood, only to find that her modern methods and 'stuck-up' ways bring her into conflict with her family and other formidable residents of Raglan Road. Determined, Hazel battles on, assisting with home deliveries and supporting the local GP. The days are long and hard, but Hazel brings knowledge and compassion to the work she loves.

Christmas may be the season of goodwill and festive cheer, but not for the poor of 1950s Liverpool. And for St Angelus Hospital in Lovely Lane, it is frantically busy. There are the old, the dying, the children and the emergencies.

The nurses, known locally as the Angels of Lovely Lane, are run off their feet. Dana, Beth, Pammy and Victoria hardly have time to catch their breath, let alone have a Christmas of their own.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of A Shilling for a Wife by Emma Hornby, read by Penelope Freeman. A dismal cottage in the heart of Bolton, Lancashire, has been Sally's prison since Joseph Goden 'bought' her from the workhouse as his wife. A drunkard and bully, Joseph rules her with a rod of iron, using fists and threats to keep her in check. When Sally gives birth, however, she knows she must do anything to save her child from her husband's clutches.

It is 1953, and five girls are arriving to start their training at St Angelus Hospital. Dana has escaped from her family farm in Ireland. Victoria is running away from an aristocratic background. Beth is an army brat and throws her lot in with bitchy Celia Forsyth, and Pammy has come from the wrong side of the tracks. When an unknown girl is admitted after a botched backstreet abortion, a tragedy begins to unfold which will rock the world of St Angelus to its foundations.