Margaret Dickinson

It is the early 1920s and the Maitland family are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the Great War. After her brave work as an ambulance driver and nurse close to the Front, Pips is restless and without purpose. Determined to enjoy life after the years of misery, and to help her forget a broken love affair, she seeks excitement in the London parties and balls of the Roaring Twenties.

No family or community escaped the ravages of this war, and Pips knows her own has its share of troubles. Her brother, Robert, returned injured and is now battling demons of his own. Struggling to find a purpose in life, he is convinced his career as a doctor is over. It is Pips's young niece, Daisy, on whom the family dotes, who brings them joy and hope for the future.

But when faces from the past reappear, Pips is posed with a dilemma. Can she ever trust a man's promises and allow herself to love again?

It is 1920 in the Derbyshire dales. The Ryan family are adjusting to life now that the war is over. Walter has returned home a broken man and so it falls to his son and daughter, Josh and Emily, to keep the family candle-making business going. Then Emily finds employment as a Buffer Girl, polishing cutlery at a local factory. But, as time goes on, problems and even dangers arise that the Ryan family could not possibly have foreseen.

In a small market town in Lincolnshire in the early 1900s, Kitty Clegg becomes maid to Miriam Franklin at the Manor Farm. But she has no idea how far Miriam will stretch her ties of loyalty and duty. Will Kitty's dreams be scattered like chaff upon the wind? Or can she hold on to a very special kind of love which will bring both heartache and joy in the turbulent decades to come?

Rose and Myrtle Sylvester look up to their older sister, Peggy. She is the sensible, reliable one in the household, but when war is declared in 1939 they must face the hardships together and huge changes in their lives are inevitable. For Rose, there is the chance to fulfil her dream of becoming a clippie on Sheffield's trams like Peggy. But for Myrtle, the studious, clever one in the family, war may shatter her ambitions.

Ambrose Constantine is determined that his daughter, Annabel, shall marry into the nobility. When Annabel is courted by James Lyndon, the Earl of Fairfield, she accepts his offer of marriage. It is only when she arrives at Fairfield Hall that she realises the true reason behind James's proposal and the part her scheming father has played.

Polly Longden's china-doll looks hide a strong and fiery personality. When typhoid strikes her home city of Lincoln, she needs every ounce of that strength in order to cope. With the death of her mother, thirteen-year-old Polly has to give up her ambition of becoming a teacher to care for her family.

Even amidst the horror of the trenches, friendship will survive . . .

Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother's wishes that she settle down and raise children. However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all. But the year is 1914 and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father's friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses and asks Alice Dawson, her maid, to go with her. Robert and Giles offer their services as doctors, and Alice's brother William joins them as a stretcher bearer.

Nothing could have prepared them for the horrific sights they encounter. Moving their unit close to the fighting to offer first aid as quickly as possible puts them all in constant danger. But even amidst the barrage of shelling and gunfire, the unending stream of injured being brought to their post, the love between Pips and Giles survives and blossoms just like the poppies of Flanders fields.

Following the disastrous floods of 1953, Ella Hilton is compelled to live at Brumbys' Farm with her grandmother, Esther, and is soon acutely aware of the mysterious surrounding her family's past. Fleethaven Trilogy, volume 3; sequel to 'Sow the Seed' (011620)

Life had always been tough for Mary Ann so she jumped at the chance to marry Dan Ruddick and become a skipper's wife. She soon realises that she hates life aboard a ship. When Mary Ann is seduced by the promise of a happier life, the family is torn apart!

In Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . . In 1929, life for ten-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband's brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings. But Mattie has others rooting for her too. The Spencer family, who live at the top of the same street, and Mattie's teachers recognize that the girl is clever beyond her years and they, and Joe, are determined that she shall have the opportunity in life she deserves.

Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London's Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants. At eleven years old, Victoria is sent to boarding school where, for the first time in her young life, she is able to make friends of her own age. Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation's secrets and helping to win the fight. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them . . .

Lincolnshire, 1926. Kate Hilton is devastated when her mother tells her she is to be sent away to boarding school. For the more Esther tries to keep her from her childhood sweetheart, Danny, the more determined she is to marry him. Fleethaven Trilogy, volume 2; sequel to 'Plough the Furrow' (11598)

It is the 1930s and the Maitland family have spent the years following the Great War struggling to come to terms with its catastrophic aftermath, and their hopes now lie with the next generation. Their Lincolnshire village of Doddington suffered terrible loss and it has taken great courage for the bereaved families to rebuild their lives without their loved ones.

When war is declared again, it is Daisy Maitland and her peers who must now take up the fight for freedom. Feisty and a daredevil like her beloved Aunt Pips, who spent World War One on the front line serving with a flying ambulance corps, Daisy had persuaded a family friend to teach her to fly as a young woman. Now her country is at war, she is determined to put her skills to good use, enlisting in the Air Transport Auxiliary. There she forges new friendships - but she never forgets her childhood friend and cousin, Luke, who has joined the RAF as a fighter pilot.

As war rages in the skies and on the ground, Daisy, her friends and her family - at home and across the Channel - will find their bravery and strength tested to the very limits in their determination to save their country. And they have learned one of the most valuable lessons of all: true love will find a way.

When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. She's imprisoned for her militant actions, and goes on hunger strike. With her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her - Gervase.

Maddie March was abandoned as a baby but was given a new start when she went to work for Frank Brackenbury. Although the work was hard she found love and happiness until the harsh winter of 1947 threatened their livelihood. Would Maddie's idea save them?