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'A page-turner...a terrific read' Susan Sallis "A powerful tale of survival and hardship, very well crafted and with strong characters" - Publishing News Hearts of Gold - Book One in the Hearts of Gold series Trainee midwife Bethan Powell lives in the shadow of the workhouse during the Depression. It's difficult to say which is harder for her and fellow nurse Laura Ronconi - their gruelling work in the hospital, or the frictions and financial hardships at home. Bethan's Communist miner father, rigidly Chapel mother, unruly brothers, dubiously honest aunt, and Laura's vast Italian cafe-running family, cause the girls as much worry as any difficult case or strict ward sister. But working-class Pontypridd agrees on one thing - the 'crache', or gentry, who live in the big houses on the Common, may be just the other side of town, but they inhabit a different world. So when Bethan and Laura are smitten by two young doctors, can love really bridge the divide? Or is the pull of family too strong, the gulf too wide?One Blue Moon - Book Two in the Hearts of Gold series Maud Powell and her cousin Diana had always dreamed of becoming nurses, but their hopes are shattered when Maud contracts TB - a death sentence in 1930s' Pontypridd. With pits closing, Haydn abandoning a steady job for a stage career, and their cousin Diana's secret burden, the Powell family are facing hard times. Meanwhile Ronnie Ronconi, eldest of the large, cafe-owning family, has two simple beliefs: his sisters must marry good Italian Catholics, and determination and hard work will get him anything he wants. But his dreams are shattered when he realises that what he wants is Welsh, chapel-going, consumptive Maud. For once, high-handed, ruthless Ronnie seems to be facing the impossible...A Silver Lining - Book Three in the Hearts of Gold Series In strictly chapel Pontypridd in 1938, tongues are quick to wag when Alma Moore, abandoned by her lover, is rushed to hospital with stomach pains. The doctor may call it appendicitis, but the scandal-mongers think they know better.And then Bethan John, who's too good for the rest of them since she married a doctor, comes back to her mining family's house with her new baby - but without her husband, or any word of explanation. Ostracised by most - even their own mothers - Alma and Bethan face a lonely struggle to survive. Then taciturn Russian Charlie, an outsider haunted by his own past, reaches out the hand of friendship to them both, and in so doing begins to thaw his own heart... |