Spinning Jenny
The September Starlings
A Crooked Mile
Paradise Lane
The Bells of Scotland Road
The Dream Sellers
The Corner House
Miss Honoria West
Mulligan’s Yard
Matthew & Son
Chandlers Green
The Bell House
Dorothy’s War
The Judge’s Daughter
The Reading Room
Mersey View
Sugar and Spice
That Liverpool Girl
Lights of Liverpool
My heartfelt thanks to Diane Pearson,
my editor since 1987.
Diane, you will be missed.
You were my friend and my backbone,
my teacher, my sister-in-words.
Go forth disgracefully – remember – purple
slippers in the snow.
Were I to live for ever, I could never repay you.
Love from Ruthie.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dr Rory McCrimmon, for saving my life.
Diane Pearson, my editor, for her patience and help.
Dorothy Ramsden, my secretary, for unfailing support and faith in me.
Avril Cain, my ‘bezzy’ mate, for the laughs and the poetry.
David, Michael, Sue, Lizzy and Alice, my long-suffering family.
Gill and John, housekeeper and gardener, for minding the home front.
Sweetens Books, Bolton, the best shop in the hemisphere.
Chris Watson for tech support.
Macmillan, for republishing.
Liverpool, for being here; Bolton for being there.
My readership – God bless them, every one.
A very special thank you to Bill Strain of Johnson City, Texas, USA for his support and for the forensic research he did on my behalf.
First published 2012 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-230-76493-4 EPUB
Copyright © Ruth Hamilton 2012
The right of Ruth Hamilton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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