National Network for Equitable Library Service

Lancashire, 1858. Annie Hallam has at last found complete happiness. She has three healthy children and adores her husband Frederick.

Rachel Smedling is not like other women in her isolated Pennine village: she is taller, stronger and weaves cloth like a man.

For Mattie Willit, caught in a thunderstorm running away from her bullying stepfather,rescue comes in the form of Jacob Kemble,a widowed farmer living with his two young children.

Miranda Fox desperately wants to find the daughter her family took from her when she was young.

Keara Michaels doesn't want to leave home in Ireland, but fate sends her first to Lancashire, then across the sea to Australia, pregnant and penniless.

Gwynna had fallen from grace once, bearing a stillborn child out of wedlock. Determined to have a respectable future, she finds a position for herself as a nursemaid at Hungerton House.

Calico Road runs through a tiny Lancashire hamlet up on the edge of the moors, miles from anywhere.

When, after the death of her mother, Cassandra Trent is told that she must join her aunt and have a London Season, she is full of rage.

Gideon, recently discharged from the Army, has arrived in Hedderby only to discover another man has stolen his name and inheritance.

When Captain Merrivale dies, his daughters Martha and Penelope are left almost penniless.

Ismay Deagan has one wish in the world - to leave Ireland and join her brother, Bram, in Australia. However, her father has other ideas and orders her to marry their vicious neighbour Rory Flynn.

Carrie Preston is used to hard work - oldest of ten, with an imcompetent mother and a drunken father, she struggles to find food for the younger children.

There is no joy in Helen Merlin's household, no love. Her mother cowers to her severe and controlling father and Helen tries to follow suit.

Recently widowed, Hannah Firth is still young enough to dream of a new life.