Arrow Books The Mersey Girls Flynn Katie

Liverpool, 1923 • Lizzie is an orphan living with her Aunt Annie, Uncle Perce and two boy cousins in Cranberry Court, within a stone's throw of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Lizzie loves her aunt but is hated by her uncle and escapes whenever she can • She makes friends with Geoff Gardiner, another orphan, and is teaching him to swim in the Scaldy when Clem Gilligan rescues the pair of them from drowning. Clem works on the Canal boat, The Liverpool Rose, with Jake Pridmore and his wife, plying between the great cities of Leeds and Liverpool • But Lizzie's situation at home starts to worsen as her uncle grows surlier and more violent. Eventually the worst happens and Lizzie is forced to flee from the Court or risk serious injury, perhaps even death

It takes courage to overcome the odds • Liverpool 1928: abandoned by her mother at a very young age, Dot McCann lives a lonely life with her distant aunt and uncle. A cuckoo in the nest, she spends her days trying to keep out of trouble • When Dot overhears a conversation whilst playing in the street, her life changes for ever. What she discovers could send one man to prison and another to the gallows. In a desperate attempt to right a wrong, Dot teams up with runaway orphan Corky, Emma, a local jeweller whose shop has been burgled, and Nick, a handsome young reporter investigating the crime • But Dot and Emma have been recognised and they soon find themselves in very real danger. Will they uncover the truth before it’s too late?

Will she find love in her wartime home? • 1939. All over Britain children are being evacuated, and Eve Armstrong is headed for Devon. As the train pulls out of London she takes a last look at the crowded platform, the shabbily dressed evacuees, and a rude little boy sticking his tongue out. She’s looking forward to a change of scene • And at first Eve is happier than ever at Drake’s Farm. Not even her daily chores dampen her spirits. It’s a different world that invites fresh starts, and so when Eve runs into the boy from the station, Johnny Durrell, they call a truce and soon become firm friends • The war might be a distant reality, but the arrival of new evacuee Connie Hale makes every day a battle. Connie is lazy, stuck up and spiteful – and Johnny’s new best friend

Liverpool, 1939: Sixteen-year-old Lizzy Atherton is forced to flee her violent step-father in the middle of the night, and finds herself stranded on a station platform completely alone • Desperate to know what has become of her beloved mother, who she had no choice but to leave behind, Lizzy returns the next day only to find her home deserted. Devastated, Lizzy joins forces with her old school friend Dolly and Clara, an escaped evacuee, and vows to find her mother whatever it takes • But the war rages on and demands on the home front take Lizzy's life in a host of unexpected directions, and hopes of finding her mother gradually start to fade • If Lizzy can muster the strength to keep searching, she might just get her Christmas wish after all

A family divided by war but united by love • Marianne seems to have everything. She is married to a handsome naval officer, Neil Sheridan, commander of a corvette. They have a daughter, Libby, and a beautiful home near Prince's Park in Liverpool • When war comes, Marianne takes war work and moves into Crocus Street with her mother, Mrs Wainwright, and younger sister. Neil disapproves because the Wainwrights live so near the docks, which are bound to be a bombing target, but Marianne is firm • Meanwhile, Libby is evacuated to the country to stay with Miss Williams, who lives in an ancient house, Tregarth, at the head of a valley in North Wales and Libby, the wheelchair-bound Matthew and Miss Williams assume they can settle down to see out the war in comparative safety

March, 1942: new mother Alice Milwood is itching to return to her job as a shop assistant at Liberty’s • Despite her husband still being missing in action, Alice is determined to give baby Arthur the best possible start. She soon settles back into the rhythm of life on the shop floor, and the Liberty Girls rally to help keep everything on an even keel • But when the American GIs start swarming into London, there are more complications to come. And each of the Liberty Girls has their own impossible storm to weather • As they each fight their battles on the home front, only their close friendship will give them the strength they need to carry on

December 1943 • As the war effort gathers steam in Europe, it's all hands on deck on the home front • Gloria is over the moon to be reunited with her sweetheart Jack. But her sons Bobby and Gordon are away with the Navy and still know nothing of their mother's divorce and new half-sister • Rosie's squad of welders must work gruelling hours in the yard as they prepare for the Allied invasion of Normandy. All the while Rosie herself waits anxiously for news of her husband Peter, who is carrying out dangerous work as an undercover operative in France • Meanwhile welder Dorothy has a feeling that her beau Toby is planning to pop the question when he's next on leave. But it seems that her head is being turned by someone closer to home • It will take great strength and friendship if the shipyard girls are to weather the storms to come

Love is in the air, and together the railway girls can overcome even the hardest of times • Mabel has finally put the past behind her, and her relationship with the dashing Harry is stronger than ever. That is, until an old flame shows up, leaving Mabel questioning her future • Meanwhile Joan has made amends with Bob - if only she could do the same with Gran. And there's still that family mystery she wants answer to, isn't there? • As a mother and grandmother, Dot Green has always put her family first. Her job as a parcels porter has brought new purpose to her life, so is it finally time to start following her heart • Life as a railway girl is busy but as war rages on and air raids disrupt daily life, the women realise they need each other more than ever, especially when there might be wedding bells on the horizon

Sunderland, 1940, and the women go to the shipyards to do their bit for the war effort • Polly never dreamed she would be able to work in the shipyards like the men in her family but times are tough. However, her new job ends up giving her more than she ever expected when she meets enigmatic dock diver Tommy Watts • During the day, head welder Rosie teaches her fledgling flock of trainees their new trade, but at night she hides a secret life • And mother hen Gloria signs up to escape her brutal husband, but finds she cannot run from her problems • The Shipyard Girls start off as strangers - but end up forging an unbreakable bond of friendship in the most difficult times

The first novel in the wonderful new Railway Girls series, perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Ellie Dean • In February, 1922, at the western-most entrance to Victoria Station in Manchester, a massive plaque was unveiled. Beneath a vast tiled map showing the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway network, a series of seven bronze panels recorded the names of the men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who gave their lives for King and Country in the Great War - a total of 1,460 names • In March, 1940, a group of women of varying ages and backgrounds, stand in front of the memorial, ready to do their bit in this new World War • Mabel is determined to make a fresh start as a railway girl where no one will know the terrible thing she did and she can put her guilt behind her

Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in 1936, while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, but also desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen is the quiet one, a mystery to her fellow nurses, avoiding fun, gossip and the limelight. In fact she is in the formidable shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life. Can a nursing career free Helen at last? The third of our heroines is naughty, rebellious Millie an aristocrat on the run from her conventional upper class life. She is doomed to clash over and over again with terrifying Sister Hyde and to get into scrape after scrape especially where men are concerned