Without Sin

Description

Meg Kirkland fears her impudent tongue has caused her father's dismissal from his job and forced her whole family from their home on Middleditch Farm. Worse still, her father abandons them outside the workhouse, leaving Meg to care for her devastated mother, Sarah, and little brother as tragedy continues to haunt the family. Isaac Pendleton, Master of the workhouse, rules the lives of all those within its walls but when Sarah becomes his latest mistress, Meg is disgusted. Her loyal friend, Jake, born and bred in the workhouse, has a maturity and understanding beyond his years. Yet it is Meg's fiery independence that encourages Jake to leave the workhouse and seek employment on Middleditch Farm. His future is assured, but who will take care of Meg? The pretty, vivacious girl, once so innocent, becomes a calculating and manipulative young woman who will stop at nothing to get her own way even if it means betraying those she has loved. Without Sin is Margaret Dickinson's spirited historical saga of a passionate young woman who learns to fight for her own survival in a cruel world.

Born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson moved to the coast at the age of seven and so began her love for the sea and the Lincolnshire landscape. Her ambition to be a writer began early and she had her first novel published at the age of twenty-five. This was followed by twenty-seven further titles including Plough the Furrow, Sow the Seed and Reap the Harvest, which make up her Lincolnshire Fleethaven trilogy. Many of her novels are set in the heart of her home country, but in Tangled Threads and Twisted Strands the stories included not only Lincolnshire but also the framework knitting and lace industries of Nottingham. The Workhouse Museum at Southwell in Nottinghamshire inspired Without Sin and Derbyshire formed the backdrop for Pauper's Gold. Part of the story in Suffragette Girl took place in Davos, Switzerland, but Forgive and Forget centres wholly on the rich history of the beautiful city of Lincoln. A visit to the wonderful National Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire, was the inspiration for The Clippie Girls, set in Sheffield during the Second World War. For Fairfield Hall the setting returns once again to Lincolnshire, with the magnificent Gunby Hall being the inspiration for the house in the story.

'Her novels bring to life her love of the Lincolnshire landscape' Lincolnshire Echo