ISIS Publishing Ltd

Synopsis

Reeling from the death of her beloved friend and business partner Edwin, Katherine Carter can hardly believe the solicitor's news. Edwin has not left a will, so his genteel house and flourishing restaurant will revert to his brother Gerald, leaving her and her twelve-year-old son Joseph with nothing. Gerald, a notorious womaniser, hints at the condiUons under which the attractive young mother might share his home, but it soon becomes brutally clear that she must leave. She and Joseph flee to the only lodgings she can afford. Rotherhithe in East London is a world away from their former life - but they have to adapt. And to their surprise, they do. Ensconced in the warm heart of her landlady Milly's family, welcomed by her stevedore husband Charlie and teenage son Ted, Katherine finds first a refuge, then a job in the local pie- and-mash shop. Slowly she becomes part of the close-knit - and inquisitive - community, where poverty and deprivation vie with cheerful stoicism for the souls of Milly's neighbours. But yet worse difficulties lie ahead. Gerald's bullying influence continues to loom over her, and little do any of them know the horrors that will be unleashed as August 1914 approaches . . .