Lizzie Lane

Bristol, 1939. Feisty, hard-working Mary Anne Randall runs a pawnbroking business from the washhouse at the back of her terraced home. Determined to keep her three children fed and clothed, she puts up with a drunken and abusive husband, who has never forgiven her an earlier, tragic love affair. When Michael Maurice inherits a neighbouring Bristol pawnshop, Mary Anne's hackles are raised, and the two are at loggerheads. But as the war clouds gather...

Can her family ever be reunited? Magda Brodie's world is torn apart when her mother dies in the workhouse two weeks before Christmas. Her wastrel father arranges for her sisters to be sent to their grandparents, her brother to be adopted, and Magda to live with her Aunt Bridget. But her aunt holds a bitter resentment towards her, and Magda's dreams of reuniting her family seem hopeless ...

The war is over and Europe rejoices. May 1945 - VE Day. After battling against the odds, the three friends are uncertain of their futures. Maisie Miles must wait on tenterhooks for Japan to surrender and for poor Sid to return home. Will they still be sweethearts and have a future together? But tragedy strikes when Maisie's lodger Carole dies leaving 2-year-old Paula orphaned, Maisie is determined to keep the child she has grown to love as her own....

Bristol, 1938. A shadowy presence overshadows Coronation Close, watching and waiting. Jenny Crawford is the first to notice the stranger and wonders why his attention is fixed on Thelma Dawson's house. When challenged he makes a hasty retreat. Meanwhile Thelma is having trouble with her precocious daughter Mary who is about to leave school and start work. Mary considers herself an adult but to Thelma she's still a little girl; an attitude resented...

The war is now over and people must count the cost. Three women from very different backgrounds meet when they find themselves on Bristol Temple Meads station waiting for the return of their loved ones.

1925 - The Midland Canals. Born on the canals, feisty Beth Dawson, knows danger lurks in the shadows. When she falls victim to a vicious attack and knowing she might be pregnant, she quickly marries a fellow boatman. Her mundane existence is interrupted by the arrival of Anthony Wesley whose mission is to organise the impoverished boatmen for strike action. Anthony makes her feel valued and she wants to help the cause in any way she can. Along the...

In the face of changing fortunes, the Strong family must unite to keep their wealth and status?or risk losing it all. As Cholera sweeps through the streets of Bristol, no one is immune. Blanche and her husband Conrad Heinkel, sugar merchant and master sugar baker, are devastated when their seven-year-old daughter Anne, is taken by the deadly disease. Lost in her own immense grief, her childhood sweetheart Tom Strong, is the only man who can heal Blanche?s...

Joanna Ryan's father has gone off to war, leaving her in the care of her step-mother, a woman more concerned with having a good time than being any sort of parent to her. But then she finds a puppy, left for dead, and Joanna's becomes determined to save him, sharing her meagre rations with him. But, in a time of war, pets are only seen as an unnecesary burden and she is forced to hide her new friend, Harry from her step-mother and the authorities....

The war is drawing to a close and the men are coming home. But the struggles of the Sweet sisters continue... When Ruby finds John Smith in hospital, recovering from severe starvation courtesy of Changi jail, she vows to care for him, no matter what. And Mary soon learns that if her marriage is to flourish, she must go to Canada with her husband, leaving her family behind. As for Frances, she has fallen in love with a man old enough to be her father....

The war has had a devastating effect on the Sweet family with young Charlie Sweet, lost at sea, presumed dead and bombs falling on nearby Bristol. Still there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon in the form of Mary Sweet's upcoming wedding to her Canadian beau. But even that has failed to rouse their father from his grief. But in London a baby has been found in a bombed out house, sheltered in the arms of his dead mother. A child to make life worth...