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Recent
Publications
After the Rain
Lottie O’Brien
is a bright,
feisty, and
pretty sixteen
year old living
in an
impoverished
part of
Wellington, New
Zealand with her
parents and
younger brother
and sister. The
year is 1921 and
her father has
returned from
the war a mental
and physical
invalid for whom
her mother has
neither sympathy
nor affection.
Life in this
deeply
dysfunctional
family is hard
for Lottie who
aspires to
something
better, and she
is befriended by
her class
teacher
Madeleine
Carson who
introduces her
to her affluent
family living in
a prosperous
part of
Wellington. At
first Lottie
resists becoming
involved with
them, but is
gradually drawn
into their
orbit.
This perceptive
and atmospheric
novel is the
story of how
Lottie’s life is
transformed by
her involvement
with the
glamorous Carson
family,
particularly
Madeleine’s
brother Hugh, as
she gradually
achieves her
aspirations, but
at what cost.
June 2012,
Severn House
£19.99
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The Holly Tree
Sasha, the
attractive
inspiring tutor
of a watercolour
evening class,
is tired of her
sterile
relationship
with a fellow
artist. Among
her students is
Caroline, a
soldier’s wife,
desperately
anxious about
her husband
serving in
Afghanistan.
Alice, the
oldest of the
group, has
unexpectedly
found a new life
and forms a deep
and rewarding
friendship with
Moira, recently
widowed, who is
wracked with
worry about her
beautiful
married daughter
Vanessa engaged
in an illicit
love affair.
Roger, recently
divorced, is
lonely and
looking for new
love and
Pauline,
although
successful in
business, is
afraid of being
left on the
shelf. The
talented Martin,
who mysteriously
comes and goes,
is an unsettling
almost ominous
presence.
Love and
friendship is
the theme of
this engrossing
novel about a
group of people
brought together
through their
love of
painting, whose
lives over the
course of a
single year
become
interwoven in
often surprising
and unexpected
ways …
July 2010,
Severn House
£19.99 paperback
£10.99 (also
audio)
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On
a Day Like Today
When Eleanor
sets off for
lunch in a
seaside pub one
glorious
September day,
she has nor idea
that her world
is about to be
turned upside
down. Divorced,
and having taken
early retirement
from a glamorous
career in
London, she is
enthusiastic
about the
prospect of
making a fresh
start and
enjoying the
gentler pace of
life in the
country seeking
out new friends.
The ensuing
near-fatal car
crash changes
everything.
Confined to
hospital for
several weeks,
and facing a
long
convalescence,
the fiercely
independent
Eleanor must
reluctantly
learn to rely on
others. Her
daughter Alex,
starting out on
her own career
and caught up in
a tempestuous
relationship,
reluctantly
returns home to
care for her
mother. Under
the most
difficult of
circumstances,
the two women –
never close –
are forced to
reassess what
they mean to
each other, and
to those around
them …
June 2008,
Severn House
£19.99
paperback £10.99
(also audio)
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