Arrow Books The Beggar Maid Court Dilly

The enthralling saga set in turn-of-the-twentieth-century London from the Sunday Times bestselling author • Gifted with a beautiful soprano voice, young Clemency Skinner is forced to work as a pickpocket in order to support her crippled brother, Jack • Their feckless mother, Edith, has fallen into the clutches of unscrupulous pimp, Todd Hardiman, whose evil presence threatens their daily existence • Befriended by Ned Hawkes and his kindly mother, Nell, Clemency struggles to escape from life in the slums of Stew Lane. She finds work with a troupe of buskers run by larger than life Augustus Throop, and is spotted by the manager of the Strand Theatre • Clemency looks set for operatic stardom, but a chance meeting with the mysterious Jared Stone brings danger and intrigue and threatens to change her life forevermore

Despite living by the side of the Thames, with its noise, disease and dirt, eighteen-year-old Rosina May has wanted for little in life. Until her father's feud with a fellow bargeman threatens to destroy everything. To save them all, Rosina agrees to marry Harry, the son of a wealthy merchant. But a chance encounter with a handsome river pirate has turned her head and she longs to meet him again • When her father dies a broken man, Harry goes back on his promise and turns Rosina out onto the streets. She is forced to work the river herself, ferrying rubbish out of London and living rough. In spite of her hardships, she cannot forget her pirate and when tragedy threatens to strike once more she is forced to make a choice. But is she really prepared to risk everything for love?

Circumstances force eight-year-old Sarah and her widowed mother to enter the notorious St Giles and St George’s Workhouse • When her mother dies in childbirth, the independent-minded Sarah falls foul of the workhouse master, Trigg and his cruel wife • Sarah’s ordeal seems to be over when a sugar mill owner takes her into his home • But her wealthy benefactor reports Trigg and his wife. And blaming Sarah for their misfortune, in a fit of revenge, the couple decide to take the law into their own hands

East London, 1865 • Eighteen-year-old Irene Angel lives with her parents in a tiny room above the shop where her mother ekes out a living selling pickles and sauces while her father Billy gambles away their earnings. It is all Irene can do to keep the family together • Billy’s addiction soon leads him into trouble. Despite having been brought up by her father to fear and distrust the police, Irene finds herself forced to collaborate with them to save him from ruin. But Billy’s errant ways finally catch up with him and he is imprisoned in Newgate jail. With her mother away from home, Irene has little choice but to seek help from Inspector Edward Kent – her sworn enemy. Only she can clear her father's name and unite the family once more

London, 1874 • When Lucetta Froy awakes in a hospital bed, she remembers nothing of the events that brought her to her present state • She is taken home by two rough-speaking individuals who claim to be her brothers. However, as her health improves and her memory returns, she realises she has been kidnapped • The men hope to claim Lucetta's fortune as a ransom, for she is the daughter of a prosperous importer whose ship went down at sea. Her parents tragically drowned, but Lucetta survived • Abandoned and destitute, it seems as though the world is against her. But Lucetta's spirit will never be broken, and so she sets out to reclaim what is rightfully hers

She longed to be reunited with her family. The compelling new novel from the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Workhouse Girl • Eleven-year-old Stella Barry is forced into service when her family find themselves living hand-to-mouth • Leaving her mother and younger brother and sister behind, Stella goes to a big country house outside London. When she returns home one Sunday, she discovers they have disappeared. Thrown out of their lodgings, no one knows where they have gone • Seven years later it looks likely Stella will soon become Cook. But circumstances compel her to flee with no references and only a few personal possessions to her name • She has never forgotten her loving family and is determined to find out what happened to them – once and for all

Deal, Kent, 1812 • Eighteen-year-old Winnie Lennicker yearns for a peaceful life as a respectable married woman. However, when she becomes involved in her family's free-trading operations and caught by the Revenue, she is sent before the magistrates. Forced to confess that she is with child, now more than ever, Winnie is determined to give up smuggling. But the only way she can support herself and her unborn child is to carry on • An opportunity presents itself to carry despatches on behalf of British agents and spies, and gold for Wellington's army. Needing the money, Winnie can’t afford to refuse, but the journey across the Channel is treacherous. When Winnie discovers the despatches she’s carrying aren’t what they seem, she’s determined to right her wrongs in the hope of achieving her dream and leaving the free trade behind for good

A gripping and heartwarming novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller, Dilly Court • Lottie Lane is all alone in the world. As a chambermaid at one of London's busiest inns, condemned to a life of drudgery and at the mercy of a vicious landlady, Lottie is too worn out to even dream of a better life • Until one night an injured soldier is brought to The Swan. Lottie nurses him back from the dead and suddenly everything changes. She finds herself following the drum of the soldiers, all the way from the docks of Chatham to the darkness and despair of a far flung battlefield • When tragedy strikes, Lottie is alone once more and thrown back into the jaws of London's streets. With the threat of destitution nipping at her heels, Lottie is in dire need of a miracle…

London, 1854: twenty-year-old Essie Chapman lives with her father in poverty stricken Limehouse, working on the river as a boatman. Her life seems set before her, never to leave this part of London and forever at her father’s beck and call • Then, one night, she must transport a mysterious man from a foreign ship to the banks of the Thames, a man who ends up renting a room in Essie’s house, identifying himself only as ‘Raven’ • When curiosity gets the better of her, Essie follows him and unwittingly becomes involved in something far greater than she could ever have guessed. Finding herself on a ship bound for the penal colonies in Australia with Raven and his cousin Alice, this is only the start of a remarkable journey taking her to the other side of the world and back again…

The heartwarming and nostalgic new novel from the Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling author of The Beggar Maid • Motherless since she was five, Mirabel Cutler was raised by her father to be a lady. But when he dies suddenly, Mirabel finds herself cast out on the street by her ruthless stepmother • She is taken to a place of refuge by charismatic sea captain, Jack Starke. But the safe haven turns out to be a house of ill-repute. Here she becomes a parlour maid and catches the eye of an elderly, retired army officer, Hubert Kettle • Mirabel has fallen in love with Jack Starke but when she hears that his ship has foundered and all were lost, she has little choice but to accept Hubert’s offer of a home and marriage. Although desperately unhappy, Mirabel is determined to make the best of her life

The Thames carried him away from her, but would it bring him home...? • Twelve-year-old Eliza Bragg has known little in life but the cold, comfortless banks of the Thames. Living above her uncle's chandlery she has grown accustomed to a life of penury and servitude, her only comfort the love and protection of her older brother, Bart • But one day Bart accidentally kills a man and is forced to flee to New Zealand. Alone, barefoot, beaten down and at the mercy of her cruel uncle, Eliza realises that her very survival is at stake

'The dream team delivers big time ... Clinton's insider secrets and Patterson's storytelling genius make this the political thriller of the decade.' - Lee Child • The President is Missing. The world is in shock • But the reason he's missing is much worse than anyone can imagine • With details only a President could know, and the kind of suspense only James Patterson can deliver • 'A bullet train of a thriller. The Day of the Jackal for the twenty-first century.' - A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window • 'Yes, The President is Missing is fiction - it's a thriller - but James Patterson and I have come up with three of the most frightening days in the history of the presidency. And it could really happen... These days, the seemingly impossible can happen