Julie Maisey

In defending herself against her brutal husband, eighteen-year-old Ruby Clark is forced to flee London.

She has no idea where Cliffehaven is, or what she will find there, but she knows that she will never be able to return home again.

At first it seems she's fallen on her feet. She gets a job at the local armaments factory, and the couple she is billeted with are kind and supportive. But when her host makes advances, Ruby is left homeless once more.

Until Peggy Reilly welcomes her into the warmth of Beach View boarding house and Ruby dares to hope for a brighter future…

This is a moving story of a wildlife sanctuary. Stone Hills is a game sanctuary and safari lodge in Zimbabwe. It is a place where you can share your shower with an owl or share the sofa with a warthog..

As the Japanese begin their assault on Singapore, Sarah Fuller and her sister are forced to leave their parents behind. They arrive in Cliffehaven, on the south coast of England, and here Sarah must find work to support them both. As time goes on and the news of events in Singapore worsen, Sarah fears she will never see her fiancé, Philip and her parents again.

When Steven Dransfield loses his fortune in the Depression, his wife Leonie is forced to save the family from ruin. But Steve resents the success of her dressmaking business and, trapped in a loveless marriage, Leonie is drawn into the arms of another man...

In the throes of a high fever, a woman lies bedridden. Suddenly, she is struck with an urge to revisit a particular novel from her past. Inside the book is an inscription: a message from an ex-girlfriend.

Pages from her past begin to flip, full of things she cannot forget and people who cannot be forgotten. Johanna, that same ex-girlfriend, now a famous TV host. Niki, the friend who disappeared all those years ago. Alejandro, who appears like a storm in precisely the right moment. And Birgitte, whose elusive qualities shield a painful secret.

Who is the real subject of a portrait, the person being painted or the one holding the brush? 

Molly and Bernie, childhood friends, left Ireland for Liverpool together. When WWII they were both married and enjoying life. As Liverpool is bombed and their families suffer, Molly and Bernie know their friendship will give them strength to carry on.

It is 1940 and Staff Nurse Polly Brown has had to part with her beloved five-year-old daughter, Alice, who is travelling to safety in Canada. Polly's heart is torn in two and she throws herself into her work at Cliffehaven Hospital. But then a telegram arrives; the boat Alice was on has been torpedoed by a German U-boat....

London, 1945 and as the end of the war is declared, the nurses of the East End are joining in the celebrations. But Nurse Connie Byrne's mind is on another celebration - the wedding to her sweetheart, Charlie, when he arrives home. But when Connie meets Charlie off the train, she finds that his homecoming doesn't quite go according to plan. If nursing in the East End has taught Connie anything, it's that life is full of surprises...

Scotland, 1940: Isla Donaghue is just sixteen when her mother dies, and her idyllic life comes to an abrupt end. Unable to cope, Isla's father sends her to the poorhouse when he joins the merchant navy.

Horrified at the harsh conditions of the poorhouse, Isla is determined to escape. Enlisting the help of her newfound friends Meg and Sophie, she devises a plan to flee to Liverpool.

Despite the difficulties of her new life and the dangers of the Luftwaffe, Isla falls in love for the first time. But her beau is not all that he seems… Will true love prevail or will secrets from the past put an end to their happiness?

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they're frozen - or so their inside joke goes. Most people don't know that they travel back in time to complete their research.

The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman...

Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.

Could the two cases be connected?

Book 1 in the Ali Dawson mysteries.

Peace has finally been declared in the Far East, but for those living at Beach View Boarding House, the news brings mixed emotions. Peggy Reilly is devastated that her husband Jim will not be coming home for Christmas. And Sarah and Jane, who have lived at Beach View throughout much of the conflict, dread what they will find when they go back to Singapore. Life in Cliffehaven is in a whirlwind of change as the men return from the war and Peggy's evacuee chicks begin to spread their wings and start new lives in different corners of the world. Peggy and Jim have longed to be together after so many years apart, but war has left them profoundly changed. Can they rekindle the loving, close relationship they'd shared before?

June 1940. Despite losing her mother at a young age and with her father away on important war work, seventeen-year-old Rita Smith has plenty of people to turn to in the close-knit community of Cliffehaven. As war rages across Europe, Rita volunteers as a fire warden, longing for the day when she can be reunited with those she loves best...

Mae Strickland is only a few days old when her mother dies. Her aunt Maggie brings Mae up together with her own children, Eddie and Alice, and the girls become like sisters. In spite of Mae's unhappy start, life feels full of promise. Then, as the First World War looms, everything changes...

Liverpool, 1901. The Tempest family is barely able to put food on the table and when 13-year-old Lizzie finds herself parentless, she knows that she must find work to keep herself off the streets. In a stroke of luck, she gets a job in the match factory, and foreman George Rutherford takes her under his wing. But the years ahead will be far from trouble-free. And when Lizzie gives her heart, how can she be sure she has chosen a better man than her own father?

On a spring day in 1947, Millie and Pete Maynard take their daughter Sylvie on a boat trip that is to end in tragedy. Millie needs all her strength to comfort her children and overcome her grief. Then Pete's will is read and further heartache lies in store...

Cliffehaven, December 1946. From a hill above the town of Cliffehaven, a young woman makes a heart-breaking choice that will change the course of her life forever.

Hours later, a baby is found in the Nativity crib of the local church. Who could have left him there, and why?

The mystery preoccupies everyone in Cliffehaven - not least Peggy Reilly, who has enough to contend with at Beach View Boarding House without this extra secret to unravel.

What's certain is that the whole community will pull together to keep the baby safe - and to support his mother when the truth of her identity is finally discovered...

Phoebe Giamatti lives with her lively Italian family in the heart of London's East End. Despite her widowed English mother Annie's feckless ways, Phoebe is fiercely protective of her. When Annie falls dangerously ill, Phoebe has little choice but to turn to the man she holds responsible for all her family's troubles....

Maisie Dobbs investigates the case of a veteran of the Great War, a controversial artist who fell to his death the night before the opening of an exhibition of his work.

Cliffehaven, 1946. The war is over and those who have spent years fighting behind enemy lines are finally coming home. Peggy Reilly is over the moon that her husband Jim is safely back from Burma. But after the horrors he has endured, adjusting to life at Beach View will not be easy. Can he and Peggy find a way through?

Meanwhile evacuee Ruby Clark has much to contend with when her estranged mother turns up, having completed a long prison sentence. There is huge heartache still to come for Ruby, and she will need her Beach View family more than ever. Will the sanctuary of home give them each the strength they need to face the challenges ahead?

When Kate Swan's overbearing father demands that she marry a man she despises, she refuses and is cast out of her comfortable home in Whitby. Then she meets, Malcolm McFadden, heir to the Shetland's Garstan Estate, and they are instantly attracted to one other. But the Highland Clearances have begun, and old loyalties draw Malcolm back to Shetland where he vanishes without trace.

A regular weekday morning veers drastically off-course for a group of strangers whose paths cross in a London café - their lives never to be the same again when an apparently crazed gunman holds them hostage. But there is more to the situation than first meets the eye and as the captives grapple with their own inner demons, the line between right and wrong starts to blur. Will the secrets they keep stop them from escaping with their lives?

Elsie's worked her way up at Swift's Jam Factory from the shop floor to the top, and now it's her time to shine. But when she's involved in an incident involving her half-sister Millie's new husband, she is forced to keep it secret - the truth could threaten their sisterly bond.

Dot is dogged by fear, coming to terms with her mother's rejection of her. She should be enjoying the happiness she craves with her beloved Cess; instead, she's trapped in an asylum, haunted by the horrifying cries of inmates. All she wants is to get married, but what chance is there for her if she's locked away? Millie is trying to build a life with her new husband. But the man she loves is not all he seems . . . Can the Jam Factory girls create the future they all deserve?

Nineteen-year-old April Wilton has just enlisted in the WRENs in Portsmouth, where she works servicing engines on ships.

She finds herself immersed in dockyard life and surrounded by soldiers - from England and America. The atmosphere is one of spontaneity and impulsiveness, brought on by the unpredictability of war. So when April meets Daniel, a young American soldier, whose mother is Sioux and father is of African descent, she doesn't hesitate when she starts to fall for him. The attraction is immediate, and coming from strict racial segregation in South Carolina, Daniel finds the freedom he has in England overwhelming.

Daniel and April endeavour to spend as much time together as possible - every moment is precious with the threat of Daniel being sent to fight overseas looming over them.

But with war and race both involved, their relationship was never going to be simple... 

May 1942. Kitty Pargeter loves the life she's leading as a talented young pilot, serving her country.

But tragedy strikes when she is forced to crash-land and is badly injured.

She is taken to a specialist hospital in Cliffehaven, where she must come to terms with the disabling injury that threatens her career. Then comes the shattering news that her beloved brother has been shot down and presumed dead. And she wonders if she'll able to find the courage and fortitude to carry on.

As Kitty slowly recovers - with the help of Peggy Reilly and her family at Beach View boarding house - she is more determined than ever to return to the job she loves, whatever it takes.

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.

When Commander Martin Black is shot down over enemy territory and ends up in a POW camp, his wife Anne comes back from the country to live with her mother, Peggy Reilly at Beach View Boarding House whilst they wait for news...

Liverpool, 1950. Violet Duffy is asked to give a home to the orphaned children of a distant relative. Abby and Will have had young lives full of tragedy. Life with Violet offers love and safety. But as they grow up, their past won't let them be. Will they choose Violet, or the lure of bigger cities and new horizons?

Slapton Sands, 1943. War has not been kind to Carol Porter. It took her husband and baby, and with them her heart. At last she's found some peace, working as a land girl at Coombe Farm. But Carol's sanctuary, the whole local area in fact, is about to be disrupted.

When Pauline Reilly hears Carol's news she's worried for her little sister. But as rumours about Slapton Sands reach Cliffehaven, Pauline can't help be more concerned for her only surviving son. And despite her sister-in-law Peggy's best efforts, nothing soothes Pauline's fears.

As Carol prepares to face the impending upheaval alone her beloved mother, Dolly, swoops in to Slapton, and packing up Carol's life presents unexpected opportunities for them both: Carol looks to her future while Dolly confronts a ghost from her past, and they both have a chance to mend their broken hearts.

Liverpool, 1942. As the threat of war draws closer, Isla Donahue seeks solace in her sweetheart, Rory.

Their love for one another has never been stronger, but Isla struggles to ignore doubts surrounding her beau's tainted past.

So when Rory unexpectedly comes face-to-face with his first love, her world is shaken.

Can Isla draw on her own grit and determination to build a brighter future? And can she make her dreams of a perfect white wedding come true this Christmas?

Cliffehaven, May 1944. The tension is rising for Peggy Reilly and the inhabitants of Cliffehaven as the planes continue to roar above the town and there is still no news of the long-awaited Allied invasion into France. There seems to be no end in sight of this war which has scattered her family and brought conflict right to the door of Beach View Boarding House, but Peggy cannot work miracles and the toll of the war is beginning to weigh on her slender shoulders.

Meanwhile, Ron Reilly has landed himself in hot water with his sweetheart, Rosie - and this time, his Irish charm will not be enough to get him out of trouble.

The war has forever changed the lives of Peggy's loved ones, but with the promise of an Allied invasion comes the hope that her beloved husband and family will at last be coming home. It will take an enormous amount of spirit to keep that hope alive and bring harmony back to Beach View.

Spanning four decades of Chinese history, this is an epic tale of friendship, love, and idealism betrayed.Two couples meet, marry and become inseparable just as China is shaking off the memory of war and before the hardship of the years of famine and the terror of the Cultural Revolution.

Patty Jenkins has come a long way from her poverty-stricken days in Brownlow workhouse. She now has a coveted position in the kitchens at Freeman's Department store in Liverpool and even the prospect of advancement. For Patty has always enjoyed baking and her flair for it has caught the attention of the store owner who intends to have her create elaborate cakes and pastries to serve at afternoon tea to Freeman's clientele. But when you're a workhouse girl you can never quite forgive your past and when you've fallen on hard times before, you're always aware how easy it is to lose everything...

Sisters Mattie, Nell and Renie have all managed to escape their oppressive and bullying father, but now separated, the girls must draw upon their strength and courage to build new lives for themselves. Book 3 of series.

Molly and Nellie have been friends and neighbours for over twenty years and have never fallen out. When the two learn there is to be a wedding that will bring their families even closer they plan a shopping trip to Liverpool.