Yorkshire

Historical fiction. West Yorkshire 1904. When a newly graduated nurse takes up a new position looking after the children of a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated house, it appears that there’s something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious mistress of the family.

Memoir. Frances, Helen, Janette and Niki became friends when they joined the same Saturday morning rowing club. As they rowed Yorkshire’s freezing River Ouse, they dreamt of going on a life-changing adventure. But with eight children between them, full-time jobs, households to run and every moment accounted for, it would be completely ridiculous, impossible and irresponsible. Or would it? This is the story of how four friends took on one of the world’s most gruelling sporting challenges. A two month race across the Atlantic that has defeated even the toughest athletes.

Historical fiction. Winter 1952. Isabel is struggling to adapt to the realities of married life. Her husband, a doctor, is rarely home, leaving her feeling isolated and lonely. One night, intensely cold, she discovers an old RAF greatcoat in the back of a cupboard and uses it to keep warm. Startled by a knock at her window, she sees a young man, a pilot, wanting to come in…

Daniel is heading north looking for someone. The simplicity of his early life with Daddy and Cathy has turned menacing and fearful. They lived apart in the woods in the house Daddy built with his bare hands. They foraged and hunted. Cathy, fierce and full of simmering anger, was more like their father. Daniel, gentle and kind, more like their mother. Sometimes their father disappeared and returned with rage in his eyes. But when at home he was at peace and told them that their little copse was theirs alone. But that wasn’t true and local, greedy men began to circle like vultures. And all the time the violence in Daddy grew.

Contemporary feelgood read. Loveday prefers books to people. If you look carefully you might spot the first lines of the novels she loves most tattooed on her skin. But there are some things she will never show you. Into her refuge, a book emporium where she works, come a poet, a lover, a friend and three mysterious deliveries which stir unsettling memories. Everything is about to change. Someone knows about her past and she can’t hide anymore. She must decide who she can trust. Can she find the words to tell her own story and find the courage to break a heart-breaking wrong?

Feelgood coming-of-age novel. Until now Evie’s life has been nothing special – school, Guides, cows, lost mothers, lacrosse, village fetes. But she dreams of a world far away from rural East Yorkshire – a world of glamour under the bright lights of London (or Leeds). Her soon-to-be stepmother (a money-grabbing schemer) is lining her up for a life of drudgery at the stinky local salon. With the help of a few friends and the wise counsel of her Adam Faith posters, she devises a plan to rescue her future. To succeed she will need a little luck, a dash of charm and a big dollop of Yorkshire magic.

Historical Fiction set in the Calder Valley and based on the real Cragg Valley Coiners. Based on historical accounts and legal documents,  a fictionalised account of a self-proclaimed leader and his gang-workers in a world which mirrors the wildness of the landscape and in which disloyalty is met with brutal retribution. From his moorland home David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British History. They are the Cragg Vale Coiners and their business is ‘clipping’ - the forging of coins, a treasonous offence punishable by death.

Yorkshire noir. A body is found bricked into the walls of a house, apparently having been buried alive. The victim is quickly linked to an old missing person’s file and DS Tyler is called in. But he quickly discovers that he has a connection to the case which compromises him. He must move carefully to discover the truth without destroying the case or himself. Meanwhile someone knows exactly what happened to the victim and there are watching DS Tyler closely…