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About the Book
Hope On Hope
Love, secrets and hope against the odds.
Can hope become…a lifeline…a defining attitude…a powerful reality?
In WW2 as her homeland France is occupied by enemy forces, Chantal receives a letter with a missing page – what wartime secret did her beloved Sam want to divulge? She is drawn into the French Resistance network and when the war ends, she embarks on her quest to trace her lost love.
On the cusp of womanhood, Darcy is headstrong, impulsive and outspoken. It’s 1946 and reuniting with her aunt, Chantal, the two strong women form a tight bond. But soon conflicting opinions force a wedge in their relationship.
Can secrets from the past and life altering circumstances, refine Darcy’s attitudes?
Sadness has blighted Henri’s young life, but a chance encounter heralds a brighter future. Moving to northeast England he begins a new career and finds romance – only for his hopes to be dashed with an unexpected discovery.
From war-torn France to postwar northeast England, engage in this romantic drama as Chantal, Darcy and Henri discover how the presence of hope can transform their lives.
Author Bio – ‘Never too old to follow your dreams’ has become Susan Gray’s mantra since beginning to write novels after celebrating a significant birthday. She endeavours to combine the genres of mystery and romance and sets her novels in the first half of the twentieth century. She lives with her husband in northeast England setting her books in this picturesque area. She has a son and a daughter, both married, two granddaughters and a grand dog. When not writing she loves to spend time reading, puzzling, walking and catching up with friends over a coffee. She enjoys travelling and tries to include many of the places she has visited in her books. Susan’s plots are inspired by ‘life’ and how her characters navigate the waters. She loves to ‘people watch’ and creates her characters based on the many strangers she has observed. She has written seven novels, but only three are published so far. SPANISH HOUSE SECRETS was her debut novel. HOPE ON HOPE is the sequel to BLOSSOMING OF TRUTH.
nautical adventures set during the Golden Age of Piracy
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THE SAXON SERIES
The story of the events that led to The Battle of Hastings in 1066 Harold the King (UK edition) I Am The Chosen King (US edition) AND 1066 Turned Upside Down an anthology of 'What If'' tales
Introduction: Cathie Dunn. Bramble Creep by Annie
Whitehead, Six Pomegranate Seeds by Jean Gill, One Black Dog by
Marian L Thorpe, In the Shadow of Ghosts by Helen Hollick, A Fateful
Encounter by Alison Morton, Following Fate by Elizabeth St.John, The Black
Onyx Box by R. Marsden, Beware the Crows by Anna Belfrage, Dame
Fortune’s Wheel by J. P Reedman, Saints Aliveby Debbie Young
If you had a crystal ball to predict what
lay ahead,
would you be tempted to use it?
Or would you leave the
future to the turn of Fate?
Tales
of Variety. Tales of History, Mystery and Magic – some comprising just one of
these popular fiction genres, others, a mild mixture of all three.Perhaps
you prefer historical fiction rather than a story about magic or fantasy? Maybe
you enjoy exploring new themes or prefer sticking to the familiar? Historical
fiction can often inform, imparting knowledge of the past, of its events and
its people. Stories of mystery exercise the ‘little grey cells’ as Poirot would
say, while fantasy and magic create new worlds and awed wonder.
Whatever result, this is where anthologies
come into their own, and where short stories are often appreciated as
enjoyable, entertaining, quick or easy reads shown through the eyes of a
variety of extraordinary characters and situations. In this instance: an
Anglo-Saxon woman facing the consequence of conquest, the pursuit of alchemy,
the concern of a mother for her daughter, the shifting of time, the necessity
of hidden identity, souls who will linger as ghosts, a warning from the
supernatural, the necessity for (justifiable?) revenge. All mingled with the
rekindling of romance through a mutual quest, and the preparations for a
Cotswold village celebration. (Along with a good tip if illicitly snaffling
cakes.)
The binding theme? Destiny... Kismet...
FATE!
Content warning: some stories have
adult content/language
AUTHOR INFORMATION
INTRODUCTION BY CATHIE DUNN
author, and host of The Coffee Pot Book
Club Author Services
When the Normans arrive at a peaceful
Anglo-Saxon village, do the women, children and old men submit... or fight?
ABOUT ANNIE:
Annie Whitehead is a prize-winning writer,
historian, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has written four
award-winning novels set in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Mercia. She has contributed to
fiction and nonfiction anthologies and written for various magazines. She has
twice been a prize winner in the Mail on Sunday Novel Writing Competition, and
won First Prize in the 2012 New Writer Magazine's Prose and Poetry Competition.
She has been a finalist in the Tom Howard Prize for nonfiction and was shortlisted
for the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award 2021. She was the winner of
the inaugural Historical Writers’ Association (HWA)/Dorothy Dunnett Prize 2017
and was subsequently a judge for that same competition. She has also been a
judge for the HNS (Historical Novel Society) Short Story Competition, and was a
2024 judge for the HWA Crown Nonfiction Award.
Her nonfiction books are Mercia: The Rise
and Fall of a Kingdom (published by Amberley books) and Women of Power
in Anglo-Saxon England (Pen & Sword Books). In 2023 she contributed to
a new history of English monarchs, published by Hodder & Stoughton, and in
February 2025 Murder in Anglo-Saxon England was published by Amberley
Books.
Jean Gill is an award-winning Welsh writer
and photographer living in the south of France with a scruffy dog, a beehive
named 'Endeavour', a Nikon D750 and a man.
First published in 1988, her twenty-six books are varied in genre, including
novels, memoir, military history, dog books, poetry, and a cookery book on goat
cheese. With Scottish parents, an English birthplace and French residence, she
can usually support the winning team on most sporting occasions. She taught
English for many years and was the first woman to be a comprehensive school
headteacher in Dyfed, Wales. Life has been hectic as she is also mother or
stepmother to five children.
A
warning of Fate, or simply too much beer and a tale well told?
ABOUT
MARIAN
A
dual Canadian/British citizen who divides her year between Ontario, Canada, and
Norfolk, UK, Marian published the first of her eight-book Empire’s Legacy
series, historically-inspired speculative fiction, in 2015. The series is set
in a world ‘on the edge of history’: reminiscent of Britain, Northern Europe,
and Rome in the latter centuries of the first millennium, but a world where
society evolved differently after the Eastern Empire left; a world where one
young fisherwoman answers her leader’s call to defend her country, beginning a
journey into uncharted territory.
Does
the fate of those who survive linger forever?
ABOUT HELEN
Known for her captivating
storytelling and rich attention to historical detail, Helen’s historical
fiction, nautical adventure series, cosy mysteries – and her short stories –
skilfully invite readers to step into worlds where the boundaries between fact
andfiction blend together.
Helen started writing as
a teenager, but after discovering a passion for history, was initially
published in 1993 in the UK with her Arthurian Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy
and two Anglo-Saxon novels about the events that led to the 1066 Battle of
Hastings, one of which, The Forever Queen (USA title – A Hollow Crown
in the UK) became a USA Today best-seller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are
nautical-based adventures inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. She also writes
the Jan Christopher cosy mystery series set during the 1970s, and based
around her, sometimes hilarious, years of working as a North London library
assistant. Her 2025 release is Ghost Encounters, a book about the ghosts
of North Devon.
Helen and her family
moved from London to Devon after a Lottery win on the opening night of the
London Olympics, 2012. She spends her time glowering at the overgrown garden,
fending off the geese, helping with the horses and wishing the friendly,
resident ghosts would occasionally help with the housework...
When time turns in the wrong direction, fate will
always step in…
ABOUT ALISON
Alison Morton
writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her
eleven-book Roma Nova thriller series is set in an imaginary European country
where a remnant of the ancient Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century
and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but with a
sharp line in dialogue
Six years’
military service, a fascination with ancient Rome and a life of reading crime,
historical and thriller fiction have inspired her writing. On the way, she
collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
For the latest
news, subscribe to her newsletter at https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/ and receive
'Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’ as a thank you gift.
A Lost Portrait, a Hidden Conspiracy, and a Second Chance at Love
ABOUT ELIZABETH
Elizabeth St.John’s acclaimed
historical fiction brings to life her ancestors – remarkable women linked to
England’s royalty – offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart
times. Inspired by family archives and historic sites like Lydiard Park and the
Tower of London, her novels include The Lydiard Chronicles, The Godmother’s
Secret, and The King's Intelligencer, exploring the English Civil
War and the mystery of the Princes in the Tower.
The Bluffer’s Guide to Becoming a Famous
Alchemist
ABOUT R. MARSDEN
R.
Marsden is an author and musician, passionate about the Middle Ages. He plays
the gittern, a beautiful medieval stringed instrument, ancestor of the guitar;
and a thirteenth century recorder, a replica of one which was excavated from
medieval ruins in modern-day Poland. He also plays the piano, and there’s
nothing medieval about that!
Tales
of Castle Rory are
Medieval Fantasy Adventures, in which the demesne of Lord Rory of Hambrig is
brought to life.
Set
in the latter part of the thirteenth century, these stories have adventure,
mystery and magic at their heart. You’ll also find relationships, romance,
friendship and the forging and breaking of ties between people and nations.
Running
through the Tales are themes of family, loyalty, trust and resilience, together
with the other sides of those coins: abandonment, betrayal, loss and disempowerment.
Beware the consequences of hatred. Revenge can take many forms…
ABOUT ANNA
Had Anna been allowed to
choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became
a financial professional with three absorbing interests: history, romance and
writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time travelling series The Graham
Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the
equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set
in 14th century England, and The Castilian Saga, which is set
against the medieval conquest of Wales. She has also published a time travel
romance, The Whirlpools of Time, and its sequel Times of Turmoil, and is now considering just how to wiggle out
of setting the next book in that series in Peter the Great’s Russia, as her
characters are demanding. . .
All of Anna’s books have been
awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society
Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is
also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favourite medals as well as having
won various Gold, Silver and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.
Fate can be in the hands of others – or
held within your own...
ABOUT J.P. REEDMAN
J.P. Reedman lives in Wiltshire near to Stonehenge.
Born in Canada, she has had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval
history, and is often found lurking around prehistoric sites, ruined castles
and abbeys, and interesting churches with camera in hand. She became a
full-time writer in 2018. Series include I, Richard Plantagenet,five books chronicling
Richard’s life from childhood to Bosworth, and Medieval Babes, a set of
standalone novels about lesser-known medieval queens and noblewomen.
When children are not quite the saints we’d like them to be!
ABOUT DEBBIE YOUNG
Debbie Young is the author of three series
of cosy mystery novels set in the Cotswolds. The Sophie Sayers series starts
with Best Murder in Show; the Gemma Lamb series begins with Dastardly Deeds at
St Bride’s; and the Cotswold Curiosity Shop series kicks off with Death at the
Old Curiosity Shop. She sometimes sends characters from one series to visit
those in another. She also writes short fiction, not all of it crime-related,
set in the same world, eg Christmas with Sophie Sayers. Her novels are published
by Boldwood Books in English, by DP Verlag in German, and by Antonio Vallardi
in Italian. She has recently written her first murder mystery play for
performance by her village amateur dramatic group. She is a frequent speaker at
events for writers and readers, a course tutor for Jericho Writers, and the
founder and director of the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival. She lives in
a Victorian cottage with her Scottish husband, her student daughter, and three
cats, and she writes in a little hut at the bottom of her garden.
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