Showing results by author "Lyn Andrews" in Literature & Fiction

As daughter of the blacksmith in her tiny Irish village, 15-year-old Kitty Doyle knows little of the ways of the world. But she has to grow up fast when her widowed father remarries and she has no choice but to leave the family home. Luckily, there's work to be found over the water in 1920s Liverpool and soon Kitty has a job in a grocer's, where she also catches the eye of the owner. With Kitty's input the business is soon thriving - but tragedy lies ahead, and she must endure many trials and tribulations before she can find true happiness....

The slums of Dublin are a lonely place for Katherine Donovan. Her father is one of the most hated men in the district, notorious for his viciousness. Her one friend is eight-year-old Ceppi, as much an emotional orphan as 18-year-old Katherine. When her father is murdered in the unrest surrounding the docker's strike, Katherine, fearing for her life, flees to Liverpool with her father's money, taking Ceppi with her. She finds a refuge for herself and Ceppi with the Moore family, until the eldest Moore boy's unnatural interest in Ceppi convinces Katherine that they must move on.

It is 1907. Liverpool is a bustling and busy city. Sisters Livvie and Amy Goodwin are just 16 and 13 years old when their adored mother dies in childbirth. They are still missing their mum every day when their father, Thomas, announces that he is going to marry again. His new bride is Mary Fitzgerald, a girl just a few years older than Livvie, and only time will tell whether Mary will be the kind of stepmother a motherless girl could love. There's more trouble ahead, for Thomas believes that he should make all the important decisions in his daughters' lives.

Liverpool, World War II. Monica Eustace and Joan McDonald met as next-door-neighbours living in Mersey View in Liverpool. Their friendship is a close as ever, though they're married now, and sharing Monica's grand house on the other side of the city. But war clouds are gathering, casting a shadow over the happy future they dream of with their young husbands. Meanwhile, in London, Joan's half-sister Bella is overwhelmed with the glitz and glamour of the city while she's training as a singer - but will she forget her friends back home?

Angela O'Rourke is six when her parents hand her over to an aunt and uncle in a distant village. It's a common practice for large, hard-up families in 1950s Ireland, but for Angela it means that her mother and father don't love her any more. Still, she's well cared for till she's 16, when her uncle starts to take too much of an interest in her. Moving to Liverpool in the early 1960s, she becomes a success in the world of fashion design. The pain of a disastrous love affair sends her home to Ireland just after the death of her aunt. There, among old papers, Angela makes an astonishing discovery....

1920s Liverpool is the beautifully portrayed setting for The Sisters O'Donnell - a delightful saga about three young Irish women building new lives for themselves, from best-selling author Lyn Andrews. Perfect for fans of Anne Baker, Dilly Court and Nadine Dorries. Throughout County Tipperary the three sisters were known as the Sisters O'Donnell. They all have red hair but little else in common. Together they move to Liverpool in the 1920s to make a new life for themselves - although each sister intends to go about it in her own sweet way.

Tessa O'Leary is the only daughter in a family of fatherless boys. When her mother dies, she's her brothers' lifeline to survival. So for Tessa the privations of war are just another battle to be fought for a young woman who was born fighting.... Elizabeth Harrison is oppressed by her shopkeeper mother's snobbish expectations and it seems that the coming war could offer her an escape from her family's emotional ties - but at what cost?

Liverpool, 1935. Monica Savage is delighted when new neighbours move in next door and she and Joan Copperfield quickly become firm friends. While Monica's father has a good job as a guard on the railway, Joan's family are harder up, with her sailor dad Billy mostly off at sea and restless when he's home - Mersey View is no substitute for the exotic places he sails to.

When her sister disappears, can Ellen Ryan keep her beloved niece safe? For the inhabitants of Liverpool's Milton Street a steady income and a roof over their heads are luxuries. The Ryan family have barely grown accustomed to such things when a fire destroys their father Jack's modest coal haulage business, leaving Jack broken and his family facing ruin. They're forced to turn to Conor, Jack's brother from Ireland, a man whose noisy joviality 17-year-old Ellen Ryan suspects hides a mean viciousness.

It is 1919. Liverpool has been devastated by World War I. But at last the war is over. Emily Parkinson goes back into service and enjoys the return to normality. But her sister, Phoebe-Anne, has ideas beyond her station. Working as a lady's maid, Phoebe-Ann hopes that one day she will be more than just a friend to her mistress's shell-shocked brother James Mercer. When Emily is brutally attacked, the sisters' lives come close to ruin.

The Great War is over, and sisters Iris and Rose are adjusting to life in their modest Liverpool home after their brother Charlie has returned from the front. But when their mother sends Rose to the beautiful Welsh village of Tregarron to recover from an illness she discovers a new world of possibility at her feet. There, she obtains a job as housemaid to the wealthy but tragic Rhys-Pritchard family and falls in love with the young but troubled head of house. Meanwhile at home, Charlie, keen to improve his social standing, becomes engaged to the daughter of a successful coal merchant, while Iris falls for a porter from the local fruit market. Then tragedy strikes, and the whole family must pull together if they are to survive the turmoil ahead. Their support of one another can only bring them closer together, but will they be forced to put their dreams on hold in the process?

It's 1945 and the war is finally over. For the Devlin family in Liverpool, the wartime years have been almost too much to bear. But at long last sisters Grace and Chrissie can return to their normal lives. Level-headed and hard-working, Grace wants nothing more than to meet a nice man and settle down. Vivacious Chrissie, though, craves fun and excitement - and there's not much of that to be had in the austere post-war years. So when Chrissie meets Pat Kilroy, a handsome Irishman, she's swept off her feet and eagerly follows Pat to Ireland. Chrissie soon realises she has made a terrible mistake, and Grace rushes to her side to help.

It is 1945 and the war is finally over. For sisters Sophie and Maria, though, the upheaval is just beginning. For they have no choice but to leave their beloved home on the Isle of Man. It is a huge wrench for 18-year-old Maria, who can't forget Hans Bonhoeffer, a young Austrian, interned on the island during the war.

Transport yourself to 1920s Liverpool, to be moved and delighted by this wonderful novel from one of the UK's best-loved saga authors. In 1920s Liverpool, Jane, her little brother Alfie and their mother Ellen have faced the horrors of the workhouse together. But when Ellen dies, two very different paths open up for the siblings. Jane is sent to work in the Empire Laundry and builds a new life for herself with the neighbours who take her in.

Cat Cleary is a 16-year-old Irish 'slummy' arriving in Liverpool to seek her fortune. Joe Calligan, a young steam-packet deckhand, thinks she's the loveliest girl he's ever seen and hasn't the heart to tell her that Liverpool is full of people tramping the streets looking for work. And then Cat sees the White Empress, a huge luxury liner. In that moment her ambition is born - to be chief stewardess. In spite of her poverty, her lack of education, her family background, Cat Cleary sets about realising her incredible dream.

Best friends Bernie and Molly are just seventeen when they set off from Ireland in 1928, heading for Liverpool. They quickly find jobs and rooms; soon both women are in love with local men. Tragically, though, Bernie is widowed when she's still barely an adult, while Molly has chosen a bad 'un and faces the deepest shame when he deserts her. But this difficult start only reinforces the bond between the women, and gives them the strength to build a brighter future...

Mary McGann's marriage has always been difficult, thanks to her husband Frank's drunken, jealous nature. Only because the little money he earns in the docks keeps food in the mouths of their children is Mary prepared to put up with him. But when Frank throws them all out on the street, Mary flees to her family in Dublin. There she meets Richard O'Neill, a handsome though solitary man. Despite the attraction between them, Mary's not looking for love....

It's been a good few years since Molly and Bernie left their native Ireland and settled in Liverpool. Now they're both being courted by fine young men, and the future looks bright. But 1945 is rapidly approaching and soon war is changing everything - destroying homes and lives, and snatching away long-held dreams.... The beautifully evoked backstreets of Liverpool are the perfect setting for a tale of grit, friendship - and love.

Maddy Kiernan knows her situation is desperate. With her parents dead, her brother Thomas is left as guardian to her and her sister, Carmel, and Thomas, Maddy is all too aware, only cares about himself. When his plans to marry the daughter of the Protestant canal agent backfire Thomas takes off to Liverpool, leaving the girls to fend for themselves against the lecherous agent. Taking the momentous decision to follow their brother, Maddy leaves for Liverpool. Within days the girls are destitute, reduced to living in a cellar, their money gone. Eventually, Maddy finds work as a maid to an old lady....

Incredible Science Fiction collates a collection of some of the very best science fiction stories published in the ‘50s in one volume. All these stories (with the exception of "The Goldfish") are now in the public domain and were original published in Worlds of IF Science Fiction magazine. This is a lovingly curated collection of some of the very best stories published in the ’50s. This collection includes the Hugo Award-nominated “Rat in the Skull” by Rog Phillips. It also includes an original story by the curator and editor of this collection: Andrew Gibson.