Kitty Neale

Penny's childhood was spent in the shadows of her mother's business schemes, feeling alone and unimportant. It fell to Lorna, her mother's acquaintance, to take care of the lonely little girl, but the rejection always cut deep. When Penny turns 16 and tragedy strikes, Lorna's cousin Maureen, a feisty ex-stripper from London, strides into her life. Penny determines to make her own way in the world and, with Maureen, throws herself into a thrilling new life on the grimy streets of Soho. In this seedy world of dancing girls and gangsters Penny must grow up quickly, she must be brave, and she's forced to face the truth about some very dark secrets from her past.

Celia Frost has always thought herself a cut above the other residents of Lark Rise in Battersea. When her beloved son, Thomas, marries Amy Miller, a girl from the bottom of the Rise, Celia disapproves, thinking her common. As a tide of jealously and hate grows, Amy must fight for her marriage, and her baby.

When the Jones family first move to Candle Lane, Battersea they miss their comfortable house in Wimbledon. But they soon start to fit in when they make friends with their neighbour, Ruth, and her daughter, Sally.

Val Thorn, Paula Richardson, Cheryl Cutter and Betty Grayson have one thing in common - they have all been betrayed by men. Now these four women want revenge. Masterminded by Val, the four women set out to right past wrongs. But will their role of avenging angels take them down a terrible road?

The Drapers rule the streets of South London, everyone's afraid of them. But when tempers flare and a family feud spirals out of control, tragedy strikes, leaving eldest son Danny in charge. He has shocking plans for the family business and Petula, the baby of the family, becomes the scapegoat for the Draper’s dirty dealings.

When Jenny’s mother abandons her and her younger siblings, Jenny is left at the mercy of her abusive father Henry. And when Henry beats his eldest daughter so badly that she ends up in the hospital, it seems like there’s nowhere left for them all to go. Desperately trying to make ends meet, Jenny is alone and working round the clock. Will she ever be able to give her siblings the happy home they deserve? Or is the worst yet to come…?

Jennifer Lavender learns she was adopted, but her dream of finding her real family can never be fulfilled - her mother died alone giving birth. Then Jenny meets a young woman who will change her life forever. Together they search for the truth, but what they discover may be more than they can bear.

Bullied by everyone around her for years, has Mavis Jackson finally found happiness? Or is it a case of going from the frying pan straight into the fire?

After losing everything in the Blitz, Hilda Stone is desperate for a miracle. But her world is shattered when her beloved husband is lost at sea. In the depths of despair, Hilda is one day approached by a strange woman with a message - and both she and her daughter Ellen are astounded when the prediction becomes a reality...

When Sally and her family have to move back to Candle Lane to look after her grandmother, the cracks in her marriage soon begin to show. Both Sally and Arthur must work out where their priorities lie before it's too late…

Sally Jones is heartbroken when she finds her husband in the arms of her friend Patsy. Devastated, she returns to her mother's house, only to find that Patsy is hiding a dark secret. It is only when divorce proceedings are in progress that the shocking truth emerges, but for Sally, it has come too late . . .

Abandoned on the steps of an orphanage, just hours old, Pearl Button had a hard start to life. Now 16, Pearl's life is thrown into jeopardy when she becomes tangled up in the murky South London underworld, while at the orphanage where she spent her wretched childhood, a terrible secret is about to be revealed... Contains explicit scenes.

Daisy Bacon has an ordinary, happy life until tragedy strikes and her mother is killed in a devastating accident. Blaming herself, Daisy retreats into a world of silence, unable to utter a word. When her father remarries, the family home becomes unbearable at the mercy of cruel stepmother Vera. But when shocking truths about Vera come to light, could it bring the possibility of a fresh start for Daisy after all?

Left to raise eight siblings after her mother's death, 17-year-old Emma Chambers faces a daily battle with hunger and her father's drunken rages. Until she is offered a way out. If she marries landlord Horace Bell, twenty years her senior, Emma can swap abject poverty for comfort - but it might just destroy her to take it…

When Sarah Jepson’s mother Annie dies, she is left with her little brother Tommy to care for. When Tommy is struck down by illness, Sarah’s new life collapses. Lost in grief, she turns to the handsome Roger to save her – only to find that he is not who he seems… Waiting in the wings is George – kind, but brutally scarred, Sarah’s never seen him as anything more than a friend. But could all that be about to change?