Poverty Fiction

Alicia Woodman was born into a home that should have been filled with comfort and joy. Her mother Elizabeth was bright and vivacious, Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman. But Alicia was not Humphrey’s child and he would have nothing to do with her, and before long Elizabeth, too, turned her back on her daughter. It was left to Polly Ford, widow of a dock labourer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the child the love she so desperately needed.

It's the 1940s and WWll is raging! There are six girls and three boys living with Mam in a log cabin with no electricity or running water. Pap comes home only when he feels the notion - so life's not easy. The struggles become even more real when 13-year-old Retha Pogue sees her brother, Wilburn, drafted and going off to war. Surprising twists await in this gripping tale of what life was really like for so many families. And you're invited! Come get to know Mam and the children by listening to their stories.

Rachel Saunders knows gossip is the price you pay for a rural lifestyle and outstanding schools. The latest town scandal is her divorce - and the fact that her new girlfriend has moved into the family home. Laura Spence lives in a poky bedsit on the wrong side of town. She and her son, Max, don’t really belong, and his violent tantrums are threatening to expose the very thing she’s trying to hide. When the local school introduces a new inclusive curriculum, Rachel and Laura find themselves on opposite sides of a fearsome debate.