Showing results by author "Josephine Cox" in All Categories

On a moonlit night in 1898, Kathleen Wyman lies in labour at Bessington Hall. Her husband, Edward, is sure that she has been unfaithful to him. In his blind, jealous rage he later gives away the baby to gypsy Rona Parrish, summoned to help with the delivery. Kathleen, frenzied with grief, is soon after locked away in an asylum.

A dream honeymoon. A shocking discovery. A secret that refuses to stay buried. Will the shadows of the past haunt her forever? Newlyweds Cathy and Matt Slater can’t wait to start married life together. Planning their honeymoon to Australia, Matt wants to retrace the mysterious life of his...

Blackburn, 1947. In the tiny front parlour 14-year-old Laura Blake watches her beloved father die. But not before he tells her she will make something of her life. Laura never forgets his words. Yet her path to success proves to be a rocky one. Forced to trundle a cart around the back streets, selling other folk's cast-offs to support her family, Laura learns enough to start work in her uncle's furniture shop. But then fate deals another cruel blow when Laura is brutally raped. Bearing the child of her attacker in secret, she vows to make the world pay for its injustice towards her.

Vagabonds is the final instalment of Josephine Cox's best-selling Emma Grady trilogy, which finds the heroine content, yet still struggling with the ghosts of her past. 1885. Ex-convict Emma Grady has returned to her hometown of Blackburn and been reunited with her lover Marlow. Now married, with a beautiful home, loving husband and wonderful son, she is still haunted by the past, unable to forget the cruelty of her uncle Caleb Crowther, who ignored her desperate pleas to save her and her tragic first-born.

One winter's night, in the coal-hole in her yard, Rosie finds that a woman sheltering there has been severely beaten by thugs. At a glance, Kathleen looks like an unkempt, aged vagabond who tramps the roads carrying all her worldly possessions in a grubby tapestry bag. Her only friend is the mangy old dog who accompanies her; the sum of her life is in the diaries she so zealously guards. Yet close up, Rosie can see that Kathleen has a gracious beauty – the 'look' of a respectable lady of means.

How much will it cost to find her true family? A captivating story of hidden pasts, fractured families and a journey to uncover the truth Can she piece together the shards of her broken past? Cassie Thornton believed that she knew who she was. But when she receives a mysterious letter, from a...

In 1975 Lucinda Marsh throws herself in front of a speeding train leaving her 12-year-old daughter Kitty alone, confused and abandoned – save for a selfish aunt, a violent father and her childhood sweetheart Harry Jenkins. When Kitty is sent to an orphanage after the death of her father, she meets Georgie, a lively cockney girl who, through the following difficult years, becomes her loyal friend. Convinced that her feelings for Harry will ruin the brilliant future that lies ahead of him, Kitty turns her back on his love.

The marriage of Marcia and Curt Ratheter seems idyllically happy. As much in love now as on their wedding day, nothing can mar their joy. But one fateful day in 1931, Curt disappears, leaving Marcia her two daughters bereft. Then Barty Bendall admits his love to Marcia. Desperately trying to forget the past, Marcia moves to Blackburn with him, but soon Barty sinks into bad ways, tyrannising the family. He particularly focuses his aggression on Polly, Curt and Marcia’s first-born, blonde as an angel but afflicted since birth with an ominous shadow over her health.

The brand new epic family drama from the nation’s favourite storyteller. Where can a daughter turn when her father’s love is stolen away? When heart-broken Sarah Quinn is left to care for her father and siblings when her mother dies, it’s hard to watch their loving dad, Fred, drift into...

Don't miss the brand new epic family drama from the nation’s favourite storyteller… Will a dark shadow destroy her family? As a servant below stairs at the big manor house, Rose dreams of running her own teashop one day, and carefully saves a few shillings each week from the money she sends...

‘I can take him away from you any time I want.’ Her mistress’s cruel taunt is deeply disturbing to Jenny Dickens—why would Claudia be interested in a servant’s sweetheart? All the same, Jenny reckons without Claudia’s vicious nature. Using a wily trick, Claudia seduces Frank who, overcome with shame, leaves the household for a new life in Blackburn. Losing Frank is just the first of many disasters that leave Jenny struggling to cope alone.

Lizzie Miller worries for her family – money is short in their little house, but her beautiful daughter Ruby vows to give them all a better life. Working as a maid for Mr Banks, Ruby befriends his shy and gentle daughter, Cicely. The two girls hatch a mischievous plan to introduce Ruby to society at a party for the ‘gentry’ of Blackburn, where Ruby meets Luke Arnold, the dissolute heir to his father’s fortunes.

The brand new dramatic novel about the power of a father’s love, a little boy’s journey,and the desperate search for a place to call home, from Number 1 best-selling author Josephine Cox. Eight-year-old Casey’s mother Ruth is a cruel woman, with a weakness for other women’s husbands...

Despite a deathbed warning from her beloved mother, Phoebe Mulligan has no choice but to throw herself on the mercy of her uncle, Edward. Wrenched from all she holds dear, the tragic young girl is delivered to Blackburn town, where she must live in a household terrorised by the cold, forbidding presence of her mother's brother. Phoebe cannot understand why she is treated so harshly by Edward Dickens. She is not to know the guilty secret that lies in his past, a secret that casts a sinister shadow over his feelings for his lovely niece.

Will its words uncover a dark family secret? Readers love Josephine Cox! ’Loved the story and the characters’ ’Family secrets hidden away for years. I really loved this story’ ’I was hooked from start to finish’ ’This one goes to the top of my list … a five star read’ Another...

Kelly knew that, although Barney would always love her, his restless soul would never allow him to stay, but she could never have envisaged how his leaving would alter her life. Alone once more, Kelly finds herself remembering the past – in particular, what happened in the autumn of 1877 and how it destroyed her family. Filled with regrets and wishes that life may have been different, Kelly begins to see that she must confront her past – and only then will she finally be free.

Queenie Bedford fled her native Blackburn and the bitter knowledge that she and Rick Marsden, the man she loved, could never marry. But in 1965, she returns north again to stand by her friend Sheila Thorogood, imprisoned for running a brothel with her mother Maisie. Though Rick had vowed to find her, Queenie takes care that he should not know of her whereabouts. The magnificent Edwardian house in Blackpool is sadly neglected – but Queenie moves in with the ailing Maisie, and sets about transforming it into a sparklingly clean, highly respectable guesthouse.

Nell Reece has never known her mother, and her father's burden of guilt about his wife has kept him cowed for years, working as a common labourer on his sister's farm. For all her aunt's spiteful attempts to break Nell's independent spirit, she has never succeeded. But now Nell, pregnant and alone, is forced to leave behind the men in her life, believing she might never be able to return. With little but the clothes she wears, she travels across the Bedfordshire countryside of 1890. When she encounters a scruffy urchin called Kit, she takes him under her wing.

Bridget Mulligan loves her husband. He is caring, loyal and dependable – everything a woman could ask for. But she can't quite forget Harry – the one that got away – and when a snowstorm drives her into his arms, the inevitable happens. Nine months later a child is born. Overcome with remorse, Bridget is determined that her husband should know the truth, but her confession can lead only to heartbreak. Although he allows his wife and her child to continue living in his home, Tom Mulligan makes it clear that their marriage is over.

'You're everything to me. I'd have to lose my life before I'd lose you.' This is the vow Silas made to Cathleen on the day he asks her to marry him. Throughout their childhood their love has grown stronger and now, in 1900, they start to plan a life together. But a jealous woman is determined to ruin their happiness and uses Silas's father – a good and honest man – to do so, forcing him to make an impossible sacrifice. As a dutiful son, Silas has no choice but to obey his father, and Cathleen must pay the bitter price.