Elizabeth Waite – författare

When Janey has to leave her home after her stepfather beats her up so badly her mother fears for her safety, she finds herself in a children''s home deep in the Sussex countryside. Unused to open space, fields and love she soons settles in and the friends she makes quickly become her new family. But, at the age of sixteen, Janey has to leave the home and is found a job in Balham as a housemaid. She feels abandoned again and the job is awful. Lonely and miserable, things get even worse when Janey falls ill with influenza and nearly dies. Although she recovers, Janey''s situation doesn''t improve until she meets Christy, a blind woman, and is employed as her companion. The two women become friends and when Janey meets Christy''s son, Charles, she soon realises that she has fallen in love with him. But Charles is married and Janey fears that she will never find the happiness she has always longed for...

Flame-haired beauty Chloe Collard watched her mother struggle through life, scraping together pennies in order to provide for her and her brothers, so Chloe promised herself something a long time ago: she would get a proper education and make something of herself. This vow would carry Chloe through her entire life.When Chloe is offered a job as a personal assistant in a prestigious firm, she finally feels that her hard work is paying off. And with romance knocking at her door, a happy and fulfilled life is just around the corner. But all is not as it seems and the decisions Chloe has to make may not be as straightforward as they first appear . . . From the East End of London to Brighton, this rags-to-riches romance is a story of how a little hope and a lot of determination will see you through the toughest of times. It''s the perfect read for fans of Maureen Lee, Annie Murray and Pam Weaver.

Carla Scofield has looked after her family since she was a teenager but it''s never been a bother because there isn''t anything she wouldn''t do for those closest to her. Warm, friendly, and with the ability to make everyone around her laugh, she carries her burden proudly.As the years roll past, Carla sees life around her change dramatically. Wartime brings new challenges and a new job for Carla in a sewing factory, and she shines. It also brings with it love and Carla has a chance at real happiness - but not everyone is rooting for her. With Christmas ahead of her, and her sights set firmly on love and the future, will she be too distracted to sense the danger before it''s too late?An East End Christmas is an emotional, compelling and page-turning story that will be perfect for fans of Katie Flynn, Annie Groves and Carol Rivers.

Tooting, 1950: After losing her husband in the war, Ida Wilcox is not so sure that bringing children into the world is such a good idea after all. However much her loving family in Tooting rally round, she still has her hands full coping with whatever life throws at her three. Ida is used to Alan chancing his luck and dreaming his life away, but had not expected Norman, usually so responsible and reliable, to give up his steady job at the post office for the sake of Alan''s latest scheme to make them all rich. And then there is poor Ruby, vulnerable to Brian Brookshaw and her father-in-law''s violent outburst and her own rebellious spirit. What kind of a future can Ruby give her little boys if she can''t find a good man or hold down a decent job?

When Annie''s father is killed after being run over by a bus, Annie decides she can''t let the two children her father took in as lodgers with their mother (now vanished) be taken into care and inevitably separated. Instead, with the help of her Grandmother, Rhonda, who lives nearby, Annie uses what little money her job at the local cafe affords her and her inheritance from her father to raise Ronnie and Mary herself. Annie continues to search for the childrens'' parents but she soons discovers that Ronnie and Mary have different fathers and that Ronnie''s father will not take Mary, only his son. Again the children face separation unless Annie can come up with a solution.With the help of her lodger, Jack, with whom Annie falls in love, Annie begins her battle to adopt the children but various obstacles promise to make her fight a hard one...

Patsy is now living a comfortable life - Eddie''s little chain of hotels is thriving, but two of her four children have problems in their marriages - can Patsy help them out? Ellen''s husband is physically abusing her. She finally leaves him, spends some time in a mental hospital, then slowly recovers at home and eventually meets Peter - a much more gentle and charming man. David is married to the restless, attention-seeking, beautiful Valerie who is having one of her more serious affairs and decides to leave him. Stepson Tim is old enough to leave home himself but is disturbed by his mother''s actions... The novel ends with Patsy having managed to keep the family together - and the birth of her first great-grandchild.

Like most people in London in the impoverished 1920s, Joan Baldwin has her crosses to bear. Her biggest one by far is her husband: a good-for-nothing drinker and gambler, but one day he perishes in a fire of his own drunken making and Joan is set free. As a maid, her talents at sewing are noticed and encouraged and when her kindly employer dies leaving her £200, she takes another plunge - setting up Distinct Designs, which soon becomes a thriving fashion establishment.But will she ever be successful in love? When she meets Eric Roussel, a charismatic businessman it looks like happiness will finally be hers. Is he everything he''s cracked up to be? With an exotic, foreign background, he''s certainly different. Just how different is something that Joan is only just beginning to learn . . .

Becky Russell and Eleanor James were girls who deserved the best in life. But in suburban New Malden in the summer of 1920, what is best for some may not be enough for others. When they leave school at fourteen, the girls who little choice but to take menial jobs in the town.Eleanor is more disposed to the toil of the laundry house and the simple charms of the local lads, but Becky wants something better. Taking a job as a ''nippy'', a waitress at one of the West End''s most prestigious tea-shops, she enters a privileged and exciting world where men like Gerald Palmer will spare no expense to court her affections, and where business success enables her to ease some of Eleanor''s struggles. Becky''s sure she has fulfilled her dreams, but in a rich man''s world, the game of love is never simple ...

Flame-haired Wimbledon girl Joan Harvey could not have chosen a worse time to fall in love with Matt Pearson. With no end in sight to the Second World War, and Joan discovering she is pregnant, a rushed marriage is her only option, despite her family''s reservations.Then, on a visit to Matt''s family in the East End, a street accident results in Joan going into premature labour. As her baby is born, a bomb plunges the hospital into darkness, before Joan has even had a chance to look at her son...No one is happier than Joan to see the end of the war. Finally she and Matt can begin to behave like a normal family, and bring up their son and two daughters. But then a call from a solicitor brings astonishing news, about the day Joan''s son was born, that is set to change Joan''s life for ever...

Ella has lived in the East End of London all her life and when her husband is determined to move to Epsom to be near the racecourse he frequents and loves, Ella''s refusal to move with him breaks up their marriage. It''s been a tempestuous marriage - sometimes they had money, often not and when he was doing well, he liked the ladies... Once the marriage breaks up, Ella loses the will to keep smart, trim and fit. Until her mother steps in, determined to pick up the pieces. And it works - Ella gets a job as barmaid in the British Legion club which gives her an income and a social life. She begins to take pride in her appearance again and, when Dennis turns up for a drink one night, he is taken by surprise - and remembers what attracted him to her in the first place. But can Dennis win back his wife? Ella has to decide if Dennis has changed - or indeed can change - his wheeler-dealer ways...

John, Rick and Derrick Underwood are the most handsome trio of brothers in town and it takes three exceptional women to convince them to settle down.For Jodie, marrying John seemed exciting and romantic at the time but the reality of life is proving too much. Jodie loves her husband but she doesn''t know how much more she can take of his dishonest ways.Rick''s marriage to Laraine is filled with love and adventure; their life is blissful - until one day it delivers a cruel blow. Everything begins to unravel and Laraine isn''t sure she''s strong enough to survive.Dee is smitten with her husband, Derrick. He does all he can to provide for her so when he''s sent away to sea, she knows she will be all right. But suddenly she stops hearing from Derrick - where is he?From the 1950s all the way through to the 1980s, Three Brides For Three Brothers is a nostalgic story of love and loyalty during the most testing of times.

Linked through marriage to three brothers, the Underwood women prove time and again that they are a force to be reckoned with.Jodie has travelled a hard road to reach her own prosperity, despite her husband''s constant unreliability. Yet she can''t bring herself to fully sever ties with John. But now with a potential new love waiting nearby, Jodie must make a decision she has been avoiding for too long.Widowed at a young age, Lariane believes her marriage to Rick was perfect. He also left behind twin daughters, but is Lariane sacrificing their future happiness by looking for perfection? Will another man ever be good enough to fill Rick''s shoes?Dee has everything she ever wanted: a husband she adores and a beautiful little girl. But she knows that her family''s happiness is founded on half-truths. How long before she must come clean with those she holds most dear?Heartfelt and captivating, Three Brave Women is a story of loyalty, family and finding strength when all seems lost.

In 1951, the whole of London thrills to the Festival of Britain, but not Evie Smith. Mistress to Ted Hopkins these thirteen years, marriage is still little more than a dream. Ted has always resigned himself to caring for his bed-ridden wife in Lytham St Ann''s, only seeing Evie and their two girls for a few weeks every year.Then, just as Evie finds she is pregnant with their third child, Ted takes his wife abroad for new medical treatment. Five years passing with no word from him, Evie selflessly devotes herself to bringing up her daughters under the loving and protective gaze of her mother Flossie and stepfather Jim, until one day she meets and falls for charming George Higgins, a popular businessman with an almost endless supply of gifts for her family.Tragically, George is killed saving his mother from a fire, leaving Evie lonelier than ever... but through grief may lie her chance of finding lasting happiness.

South London, 1932. Times are hard for ten-year old Lizzie Collins and her family. With her father dead, it is up to her mother, grandmother and aunt to scrimp and save to rear Lizzie and her three siblings. But the whole family is blessed with the indomitable Cockney spirit - and in particular the physically frail but strong-willed and intelligent Lizzie.So it is only her strong instinct for survival that sees Lizzie through the snobbish school to which she wins a scholarship, through the life-threatening horrors of consumption, and through the dark clouds of impending war. After school and a stint as a butcher''s clerk, she goes to work as a bus conductress and, through hard work and inheritance, manages to save enough to invest in a property. And then fortune smiles on her in the game of love. Happily married after the war to Charlie Wilson, she relishes the prospect of a now secure future with her family. But Charlie has other ideas. Ideas that will take Lizzie to a lonely life in Devon, to the challenges of a new career, and away from her beloved London.

Patsy Kent is just fourteen when her beloved mother Ellen dies of consumption in November 1918. The pregnant but unmarries Ellen fled her respectable family and landed up in Tooting, desperate to find somewhere to live and a place to work. Thus she found Florrie Holmes'' place in Strathmore Street. Patsy, born there, has grown up surrounded by loving people who more than compensate for the lack of a family. On her mother''s death Patsy gets a job in the same market where Ellen had worked. At sixteen she is pretty and innocent, so when she meets the gipsy Johnny Jackson at a fair she is bowled over. Hop-picking in Kent with the Jackson clan tarnishes her illusions but then Patsy becomes pregnant and the ill-suited pair marry. Divorce isn''t on for people like her; when she really falls in love, with kind Eddie Owen, it looks as if she must stay shackled to the feckless Johnny . . .

Kate''s father owns a boatyard and they have a comfortable, loving family life until her father gets drunk, something which is increasingly frequent - then he gets violent. Kate and her mother survive it together until the father attacks Kate one night when she is almost eighteen. Her mother stabs him in the back with a kitchen knife, kills him, is tried and hung for murder. Kate''s loving grandmother and friends help her through her trauma. The only thing she doesn''t have is a man - until she meets Bernard Pinfold (Toby). They walk out together and have a night of love just before he goes off on a two-year contract in South Africa. He doesn''t write and Kate is saddened by his let down. However, she gets on with her life, converting her grandmother''s house into a home for handicapped children, caring for a motherless child, Joshua, whom she comes to love and almost brings up as her own. Almost two years later she receives red roses and a letter from Toby wondering whether she is free, or found someone else. He is due to return and still loves her, but doesn''t want to upset her if she''s got another life. Of course, she forgives him...