Book description
Ada Williams once believed money and power would bring her happiness.
But now she is all alone except for her greedy son Peter, who waits only
for the day he will inherit her fortune. Ada, however, has a different
plan altogether. A few miles away in Blackburn, the Bolton family may be
poor - but the love they share means they can overcome almost any
adversity. But no one could foresee the shocking events of Christmas
night, 1932, which split the family asunder, leaving Larry crippled and
the twins, Ellie and Betsy, in a foster home. Events that began many
years ago, when Ada Williams was young and foolish. The story of
Josephine Cox is as extraordinary as anything in her novels. Born in a
cotton-mill house in Blackburn, she was one of ten children. Her
parents, she says, brought out the worst in each other, and life was
full of tragedy and hardship - but not without love and laughter. At the
age of sixteen, Josephine met and married 'a caring and wonderful man',
and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to
college and eventually gained a place at Cambridge University, though
was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home.
However, she did go into teaching, while at the same time helping to
renovate the derelict council house that was their home, coping with the
problems caused by her mother's unhappy home life - and writing her
first full-length novel. Not surprisingly, she then won the 'Superwoman
of Great Britain' Award, for which her family had secretly entered her,
and this coincided with the acceptance of her novel for publication.
Josephine gave up teaching in order to write full time. She says, 'I
love writing, both recreating scenes and characters from my past,
together with new storylines which mingle naturally with the old. I
could never imagine a single day without writing, and it's been that way
since as far back as I can remember.'
