It’s 1941 and Rowena, a doctor in Kowloon is having a night out although war threatens. That night she encounters more than she bargained for – a man she falls in love with and another man who collects beautiful things – and has her in mind.

At Christmas that year her world sets fire. She’s at a hospital where terrible atrocities occur, one in particular that will affect her for the rest of her life. There is also a danger that follows her into a prisoner of war camp.

Survival is a precious commodity that she holds onto with two hands and hopes to see the future.

Somerset, March 1930

Born in the workhouse and adopted by a former suffragette, Frances Brakespeare was encouraged from an early age to be strong, independent and to pursue a career as a doctor. The tragic loss of the love of her life in the Great War propels Frances to commit to her one true vocation.

Rebelling against the unfair treatment of female doctors Frances is dismissed from her London post and things continue to take a turn for the worse when Izzy, her benefactress dies and Frances finds herself homeless.

With no employment or roof over her head her future seems uncertain until she’s offered a residency at the Orchard Cottage Hospital in Norton Dene, Somerset. a town where quarrying and coal mining scar the land.

It’s a far cry from London and towns narrow minds are not so welcoming of a young, female Doctor, but she’s determined to win through.

At first sight the town seems quaintly old fashioned, a place where nothing much happens but there are secrets and sins bubbling beneath the surface plus a mystery she’s determined to solve.

There’s a stranger in Coronation Close. Why is he staring at Thelma’s house? When Jenny Crawford challenges him he dashes away.

Thelma is unsure who he might be and anyway she’s more concerned about her daughter Mary. she’s growing up and getting hard to handle.

Jenny herself has a problem when a postcard arrives from Roy, her estranged husband. How will he be? Will she be able to cope?

There are dark shadows for both the old friends and for Thelma especially the secrets of the past have come home to roost and Mary is at the heart of it.

After battling against the odds, the three friends are uncertain of their futures.

Maisie Miles must wait on tenterhooks for Japan to surrender and for poor Sid to return home. Will they still be sweethearts and have a future together? But tragedy strikes when Maisie’s lodger Carole dies leaving 2-year-old Paula orphaned, Maisie is determined to keep the child she has grown to love as her own.

Meanwhile Bridget O’Neill’s husband has been patiently waiting her arrival in America but Bridget’s been struggling to leave her family and friends behind. Will she stay or will she go?

Phyllis Fairbrother receives the devastating news that husband Mick has relapsed and suffering a life changing diagnosis. Their dreams of a new life in Australia lie in tatters, or so she thinks.

With a new dawn, there are high hopes and boundless dreams.

Can the Tobacco Girls unite once more to overcome life’s troubles and find the happiness they so deserve?

Through love, good times and hard times, Blanche has survived and adjusted to her new life. But as the prospect of being with Tom Strong forever seems possible she’s visited by the others of her family, the ones descended from slaves and now free to go where they will. There’s happiness but also pain and the prospect that she might not be with Captain Tom for as long as they would have wished. And then after all these years there’s the prospect of returning to Barbados not because she’s forced to but because she has to. Can a little happiness with Tom be snatched from tragedy on the sunlit island? It may be that she has no choice.

A sultry night on a Barbados sugar plantation and an incident ending in murder has repercussions for both the Strong family and the child conceived that night.

Following her mother’s death and a promise by one of the Strong brothers Blanche is taken to Bristol – she thinks to join the family but instead ends up as a scullery maid.

It’s here she meets the handsome sea Captain Tom Strong who was adopted by a member of the Strong family some years before.

Jealousies and rivalry threaten to tear the family apart especially when Blanche too is favoured by one of the brothers, a man keen to make amends for what happened in Barbados on a night when he was young.

The story begins in Portugal. Catherine is watching the rabalos the port wine lodges racing on the river when a shot rings out. Her mother is dead and it’s all the fault of her father for marrying another woman.

She’s shipped off up into the mountains to stay with a strange aunt who converses with wolves. On becoming an adult her father regards her as a pawn to be bargained as part of his business.
Unfortunately for him he has no inkling that there is as much of him in her as there is of her mother and she’s far more defiant than he’d anticipated.

When Naomi, a natural born dancer, confronts her father with regard to a terrible truth he married her off to the owner of a rubber plantation in Singapore. When what was thought an impenetrable fortress falls to Japanese invasion she finds herself in a camp for ‘Comfort Women’, entertainers to the Imperial Forces. It is here that she uses her skill as a dancer. She also makes valuable friends including a Japanese/American major. They find common ground in the fact that both are of mixed race and not quite accepted by either side of their families.

Shameful Secrets on Coronation Close is the second in the series. It was 1936 in the first book and a new King, Edward the Sixth was about to be crowned. In the second it’s 1937 and the flags are out for King George the Sixth and his Queen Elizabeth (who became the Queen Mother when their daughter Elizabeth came to the throne.)
The residents of Coronation Close are in the throes of arranging a street party, but not everything is as it seems. There is happiness on the surface but some in the street have secrets they would prefer to keep.

One of these is Thelma. She’s over the moon when her son comes home but the day is spoilt. Then there’s Harriet at number one and Thelma’s best friend Jenny is torn between two possible lovers.

Personal problems are pushed into the background. This is supposed to be a fun time and they will all do their best to make it so.

It’s a party at Moss End Guest House, but things do not go according to plan. The new owners are totally in capable of running the event. The guests run out of food and drink necessitating a trip to the local pub to bail them out. Honey is one of those unfortunate to land at the party with no alcohol, though not so unlucky as the new owners. Someone has shoved them out of a top floor window and there they are, legs in the air, head first into a couple of giant plant pots.