LESLEY PEARSEAUTHOR

In 1786 a fisherman's daughter from Cornwall called Mary Broad was sentenced to be hung for theft. But her sentence was commuted, and she was transported to Australia, one of the first convicts to arrive there.

How Mary escaped the harsh existence of the colony and found true love, and how she was captured and taken back to London in chains, only to be released after a trial where she was defended by no less than James Boswell, is one of the most gripping and moving stories of human endeavour (based on an amazing true story) you will ever read.

REMEMBER ME

Liverpool, 1893, and tragedy sends Beth Bolton on a journey far from home . . .

Fifteen-year-old Beth's dreams are shattered when she, her brother Sam and baby sister Molly are orphaned. Sam believes that only in America can they make their fortunes so, reluctantly leaving Molly with adoptive parents, brother and sister embark on the greatest adventure of their lives.

Onboard the steamer to New York there are rogues aplenty. But Beth's talent with the fiddle earns her the nickname Gypsy – and the friendship of charismatic gambler Theo and sharp-witted Londoner Jack. And after dodging trouble across America, finally the foursome head for the dangerous mountains of Canada and the Klondike river in search of gold.

How far must Beth go to find happiness? And will her travels lead this gypsy to a place she can call home?

GYPSY

One young woman in search of a past - and a future...

Sweet-natured but dappy Daisy Buchan drifts from job to job and takes her policeman boyfriend Joel for granted. She's happy, but she doesn't know what she wants from life.

But when her adoptive mother dies and leaves her twenty-five-year-old daughter a scrapbook of memories, Daisy finally discovers who she is and where she came from. Her real mother was a teenage farmer's daughter from Cornwall - and Daisy drops everything to go and find her. But in going in search of her past, is Daisy risking the future of her relationship not only with her adored dad but also with Joel? And will she be able to deal with the truth about her real parents and the real Daisy?

FATHER UNKNOWN

Matilda Jennings was a poor flower girl in Covent Garden until the day she saved the life of a minister's daughter called Tabitha. Drawn into the bosom of little Tabitha's family, she little realises it will soon mean uprooting her own life.

For Matilda leaves Victorian London's slums and heads first for the darkest corners of New York, then beyond into the plains of the Wild West and San Francisco's gold rush. With only her beauty, intelligence and the strong will she forged on London's streets to guide her, Matilda must create a new life for herself and Tabitha. Between the sweat and tears, heartbreak and passion, she encounters Captain James Russell, a man in whom she might find true love. A love that must withstand separation, war and the birth pangs of a new nation. But through it all, Matilda knows she must never look back ...

NEVER LOOK BACK

“In her time Central Park had been swampy waste ground, and the most desperate of the Irish labourers who built the Croton Aqueduct, that miracle which brought piped clean water to the city, squatted there in squalid shanties with their pigs and goats. The park was wonderful, and she was so glad that the people of the city had somewhere serenely beautiful to escape to, but to her mind the new Brooklyn Bridge was more splendid. While nature had created the true magic of the park, the bridge was an entirely man-made miracle, engineering and artistry working hand in hand to make something which looked fragile and beautiful, yet was strong enough to withstand the elements and the heaviest of traffic.”

“Finders Court was ten two- and three-storey ramshackle houses leaning drunkenly on each other around a tiny squalid yard. The upper windows, many of them boarded up with bits of wood and rags, almost touched the ones opposite. Each house had some ten or twelve small rooms, and most of these were occupied by more than one family. It was just off Rosemary Lane, London’s largest second-hand clothes market, and just a few minutes’ walk from the Tower of London and the river Thames.

At dusk on a chilly March evening, as always the court was teeming with noisy activity, costermongers trying to entice the frowzy women in grubby caps leaning out from upper windows to come down and buy the remaining goods on their handcarts, groups of dirt-smeared dock workers discussing the day’s work, or the lack of it. Old men and women were flopped down on doorsteps, taking a rest before staggering up the stairs with their sacks laden with the proceeds of a day’s scavenging work. Ragged children manned the water pump, filling their buckets and jugs, while younger siblings fought and played around them.”

“She knew of courts where there were as many as thirty people huddled in one filthy room, without even a blanket to cover themselves. In those, runaway children and orphans as young as five or six slept alongside criminals, prostitutes, beggars and the feeble-minded, and their corruption began from their first night in such places.”

“She found this part of London curious as it changed so much during the course of the day. Now in early morning it was busy with shop girls and businessmen rushing to work, side-stepping the many street sweepers and scavengers. Occasionally she was lucky enough to sell a couple of posies to men at this time of day, but mostly people were in too much of a hurry to stop. By noon a different class of people emerged, ladies and gentlemen arriving in carriages and cabs for luncheon and shopping. There would be throngs of young, pretty girls too, hoping to catch the eye of a gentleman.”

THE PROMISE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHVIZ4Twjwg

Joana F, 12 M (ESJR)

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