Christmas Past

Description

A poignant and mesmerizing story of tragedy and triumph from the author of The Stanford Lasses When seventeen-year-old Mary O'Connor collapses one Sunday in church she is taken to live with Dr Roberts and his wife in a beautiful Yorkshire village for her health. Though initially employed as a maid, Mary soon becomes the daughter the couple were never able to have. ;;With Britain at war, unable to remain idle, Mary finds employment in the local steel works but when her fiance Tom Downing is killed in action Mary is convinced it is retribution for their night of sin during Tom's Christmas leave. ;;However, Mary grows to love Jack Holmes, a local miner. They marry and move into a humble terrace house with little but their love to keep them going. As the years pass Mary is determined to achieve success for herself and her family. She sets up her own dressmaking business and it seems as if she has finally found peace of mind. But the business starts to dominate her life until tragedy once more threatens to destroy all she most cherishes...

Glenice Crossland lives in Sheffield. She has loved writing from an early age, only taking it seriously after early retirement from her job in a leisure centre. She has read one of her poems of BBC2, had several read on Radio Sheffield and more published in various anthologies. She is well known locally for her watercolours of churches and local traditions. Married with one son and grandchildren she still lives a few hundred years from the house in which she was born. She is also the author of The Stanford Lasses.

Catherine Cookson would not have been ashamed to have her name on this seasonal wartime saga. Readers will love heroine Mary O'Connor * Peterborough Evening Telegraph * A poignant and mesmerising story of tragedy and triumph from the author of The Stanford Lasses * Country Gentleman's Association * This charming tale will be perfect for when you want to escape the festive preparations * First magazine *