Review
Praise for Anna Jacobs:
'Catherine Cookson fans will cheer!' (Peterborough Evening Telegraph )
'Anna Jacobs' books are deservedly popular. She is one of the best writers of Lancashire sagas around.' (Historical Novels Review )
'An exciting book of immensely brilliant character portrayal and a great storyline' (Bangor Chronicle on OUR EVA )
'Another cracking read with a vivid insight into family relationships' (Coventry Evening Telegraph on OUR EVA )
'Once again you have given us a story that has me hooked from the first page to the last. The characters are so alive that I am loath to call them characters, they are people - so real that you almost feel for them' (Reader from Scotland on OUR MARY ANN )
'Catherine Cookson fans will cheer!' (Peterborough Evening Telegraph )
'Anna Jacobs' books are deservedly popular. She is one of the best writers of Lancashire sagas around.' (Historical Novels Review )
'An exciting book of immensely brilliant character portrayal and a great storyline' (Bangor Chronicle on OUR EVA )
'Another cracking read with a vivid insight into family relationships' (Coventry Evening Telegraph on OUR EVA )
'Once again you have given us a story that has me hooked from the first page to the last. The characters are so alive that I am loath to call them characters, they are people - so real that you almost feel for them' (Reader from Scotland on OUR MARY ANN )
Product Description
Lizzie Kershaw is an independent spirit; ever since her father's death she has had to be a survivor.
She makes an ill-advised marriage in order to escape her harsh home life. However, she quickly discovers that she has married a selfish and violent man. His beatings are ceaseless and she finds herself compelled to run away. With the help of some suffragettes she escapes to Manchester, where she finds work in a munitions factory for a while. Sam manages to find her and drags her home. It is only when his violence causes her to lose their unborn baby that Lizzie really finds the strength to make things change, and to find happiness with a man who loves her.
She makes an ill-advised marriage in order to escape her harsh home life. However, she quickly discovers that she has married a selfish and violent man. His beatings are ceaseless and she finds herself compelled to run away. With the help of some suffragettes she escapes to Manchester, where she finds work in a munitions factory for a while. Sam manages to find her and drags her home. It is only when his violence causes her to lose their unborn baby that Lizzie really finds the strength to make things change, and to find happiness with a man who loves her.
From the Author
Author's comments on OUR LIZZIE
I got the idea for OUR LIZZIE sitting on a plane going to England in 1996. I normally vegetate on planes, but this idea really gripped me and I could 'see' the heroine. Lizzie is one of my very favourites among the characters I've created. I wrote the first chapter in rough there and then. I loved doing the research for this story, my first set in the 20th century. I have my great aunt's school exercise books written in that period, so when Lizzie quotes what she is learning at school, it's taken word for word from the exercise book. A friend also lent me her grandfather's letters and WWI memorabilia, which were fascinating. I love to get in touch with what real people of the period were thinking and doing. I didn't want to write yet another World War I tale focusing on the miseries of trench warfare, however. This story begins in 1909, when Lizzie is 12, and continues till just after the war, but is set mainly on the home front in Lancashire. At one stage Lizzie works in a munitions factory. When my editor read the manuscript, she said it was my 'best yet', and I agree with her. Even the cover is my 'best' and I bought the painting it was based on, carrying it home to Australia wrapped in bubble plastic and brown paper, and terrified it would get damanged. It didn't! It's now framed and hanging in our living room. Both my husband and I love it. I was so caught up with Lizzie and her family I wanted to do a linked story about her sister Polly. This is not a sequel because it doesn't focus on Lizzie, but a separate story in which Lizzie plays a minor role. As I write these comments (October 1999) I've just begun Polly's story. I think it's going to be another good one! She's such a great character! I do hope you enjoy OUR LIZZIE and that you go on to try my other books....
I got the idea for OUR LIZZIE sitting on a plane going to England in 1996. I normally vegetate on planes, but this idea really gripped me and I could 'see' the heroine. Lizzie is one of my very favourites among the characters I've created. I wrote the first chapter in rough there and then. I loved doing the research for this story, my first set in the 20th century. I have my great aunt's school exercise books written in that period, so when Lizzie quotes what she is learning at school, it's taken word for word from the exercise book. A friend also lent me her grandfather's letters and WWI memorabilia, which were fascinating. I love to get in touch with what real people of the period were thinking and doing. I didn't want to write yet another World War I tale focusing on the miseries of trench warfare, however. This story begins in 1909, when Lizzie is 12, and continues till just after the war, but is set mainly on the home front in Lancashire. At one stage Lizzie works in a munitions factory. When my editor read the manuscript, she said it was my 'best yet', and I agree with her. Even the cover is my 'best' and I bought the painting it was based on, carrying it home to Australia wrapped in bubble plastic and brown paper, and terrified it would get damanged. It didn't! It's now framed and hanging in our living room. Both my husband and I love it. I was so caught up with Lizzie and her family I wanted to do a linked story about her sister Polly. This is not a sequel because it doesn't focus on Lizzie, but a separate story in which Lizzie plays a minor role. As I write these comments (October 1999) I've just begun Polly's story. I think it's going to be another good one! She's such a great character! I do hope you enjoy OUR LIZZIE and that you go on to try my other books....
About the Author
Anna Jacobs grew up in Lancashire and emigrated to Australia in 1973, but loves to return to England regularly to visit her family and soak up the history. She has two grown-up daughters and now lives with her husband in a spacious waterfront home. Often as she writes, dolphins frolic outside the window of her study. Inside, the house is crammed with thousands of books. Anna Jacobs has also written a series of novels set in Lancashire about the Gibson family, which are available as Coronet paperbacks..
