Showing results by author "Margaret Dickinson" in All Categories

Fleur Bosley didn't believe in love at first sight, at least not until she bumped into Robbie Rodwell on a railway station in the blackout of wartime Britain. Posted to a newly built Lincolnshire airfield, Robbie as a wireless operator on bombers and Fleur as an R/T operator in the watch office, their only escape is to the little cottage in the nearby village where Fleur is billeted with another WAAF, Ruth. The two girls become good friends, but Ruth, already hurt by the loss of one of the pilots, does not approve of wartime romances.

For twelve-year-old Mary Ann Clark life has always been tough. The pretty daughter of a wife-beating drunk, it is no surprise that she has grown up afraid of her own shadow. That is until 'Battling Bessie Ruddick' takes the young girl under her wing and into the heart of her bustling family. Growing into an attractive young woman, Mary Ann yearns to be loved and when her affection for Bessie's son, Dan, is finally returned and she becomes a skipper's wife.

Abandoned outside an orphanage as a newborn baby, spirited Maddie March has had to fight her way through life. So when she finds a home at Few Farm with Frank Brackenbury and his household, she welcomes the chance for a fresh start. Work on the farm is hard, but believing herself truly loved for the first time in her young life by the farmer's son, Michael, even the animosity of the housekeeper Mrs Trowbridge cannot mar Maddie's newfound happiness.

Emma Forrest has waited three long years to welcome home the man she loves from the horror of the trenches, but now her father's bitter feud with Jamie Metcalfe's family threatens everything she has dreamed of.

It is 1914, and Eveleen Hardcastle, now in in her early thirties, has married Richard. As the First World War breaks out, Eveleen, a sophisticated young woman, is left to manage the factory while Richard goes off to fight for his country. Eveleen's mother Mary has found happiness at last in her marriage to Josh. Her young granddaughter, Bridie, still lives at home, and is beautiful, but has a spirited, strong will which her grandmother finds hard to control.

Lincolnshire, 1926. Kate Hilton is devastated when her mother tells her she is to be sent away to boarding school. For the more Esther tries to keep her from her childhood sweetheart, Danny, the more determined she is to marry him.

Flame-haired Jeannie Buchanan has spent all her life in the shadow of the dark North Sea. Working with freezing fingers to gut the precious herring, she follows the fleet south, travelling far away from her Scottish home. When her beloved father's trawler goes missing, Jeannie must face up to life on her own. But her fiery temper and fierce independence attract powerful and devious enemies.

Lincolnshire, 1910. Shunned by her own family, desperate for work and a place to stay, Esther Everatt walks through the night to Sam Brumby's farm, seeking the chance to earn her keep. Reluctantly, the old man takes her on. But her peace and security are cruelly shattered when old Sam dies. As a woman she has no right to inherit the lease on the farm.

After a family tragedy and a broken engagement dramatically alter her circumstances, Lady Elizabeth Ingham seeks employment by training to be a nanny. Known only as Lizzie, she secures a post at Alstone-in-the-Dale Manor to care for a four-year-old boy, Charlie, who badly needs her kindness and understanding. When Lizzie arrives at the manor, she is appalled at Charlie’s condition. He is a little wild thing; his hair is a tangled mass of ringlets, and he does not speak but screams and kicks most of the time. The family and staff are at their wits’ end and no one expects Lizzie to stay.

When Kitty Clegg becomes maid to Miriam Franklin, she knows she is taking a risk. But she has no idea how far Miriam will stretch Kitty's ties of loyalty and duty.

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.

A young girl stands alone in the cobbled market place of a small Lincolnshire town, bedraggled, soaked through, and very afraid. Who is she? Where has she come from and from whom is she running away? No one knows or cares. Only kindly farmer Eddie Appleyard recognises something in the girl that touches his heart. Eddie takes her home, even though his wife is a tyrant, who will believe the worst.

Enjoy these poems by women authors, tackling the soul, society, and heart. This collection is ideal for women’s history programs.