National Network for Equitable Library Service

The captivating new novel from Diney Costeloe, bestselling author of The Throwaway Children and The Girl With No Name. London, 1912. It is two years before the outbreak of World War 1, and the Oakley family are typical of their time. Andrew has been clerk at a City solicitors for twenty years. Alice, his wife, keeps the home fires burning. Their sons plan on becoming skilled apprentices. And Mabel, their daughter, says she would rather die than go into domestic service like her cousin. She is going to go to train as a secretary. Andrew Oakley little imagines, as he sets off for work one February morning, that their lives are about to change in the most dramatic and tragic fashion. In one fateful instant the family dreams are crushed. And Mabel will have to swallow her pride to take that position as in-between maid after all. It is every bit as unpleasant as she expected. But help is going to come from a quite unexpected direction and bring her dreams to life again. Brilliant storytelling, wonderful characters, here is everything we have come to love about a Diney Costeloe novel.