Item category 1: Family Saga

Born into the worst of families in Sunderland's filthy, crime-ridden East End, Pearl Croft's childhood is miserable. Shortly after her violent, drunken father is killed in a fight, Pearl's elder brothers are sent to prison leaving her, still a child herself, to care for her baby brothers.

Born into the worst of families in Sunderland's filthy, crime-ridden East End, Pearl Croft's childhood is miserable. Shortly after her violent, drunken father is killed in a fight, Pearl's elder brothers are sent to prison leaving her, still a child herself, to care for her baby brothers.

'The Carpenter's Children' follows the lives, loves and adventures of Tom Munday's three children. In 1914, Tom's son, Ernest, a serious-minded and sensitive young man, struggles to subdue his pacifist beliefs when called upon to sign up in the army. He leaves his family home in order to fight.

When her father kills himself, Eugenie finds a job as a house-maid for the Stannard family. Anything is better than what her mother has planned for her, and she finds the hard work a good distraction from her pain. But her past catches up with her and she is forced to flee to Lambeth.

This is a moving family drama of one young woman's fight to survive, to find her long-lost relatives, and to find a place to call home.

Jessica Stirling's 'A Corner of the Heart' is set in 1930s England, where an East End girl with ideas of her own makes a surprising journey from the back streets of Shadwell to the salons of Mayfair.

London, 1924. As Britain comes to terms with the aftermath of war, Evelyn Gifford is still haunted by the death of her younger brother James in the trenches. So when the doorbell rings late one night and a woman appears, claiming to have been James's lover, her world is overturned.

1919. As the euphoria of the Armistice fades, the nation counts the cost: millions dead or disabled, unemployment, strikes and shortages. As prices and taxes rise, it becomes harder to remember what the war was for. 'The Dancing Years' continues the saga of the Morland family, now with its many b...

'Distant Horizons' continues the story of Alice Chase and her family in the days leading up to the Second World War. It is the early days of the Phoney War and Alice is awaiting the birth of a fifth child. With the arrival of two young evacuees it seems that the war is finally changing life in th...

It's the time of the Tolpuddle trial and unrest. The Dorset labourers work under terrible conditions for starvation wages. When her mother and stepfather perish in a fire, an illegitimate peasant girl, Siana Lewis, is left destitute, with a young brother and baby sister to support.