A Daughter’s Secret

A moving and gritty saga of loss, separation and finally hope, set in wartime Birmingham

Agnes Sullivan is fifteen when her young brother Tom finds her drunk and crying in the lane near their farm. Her dancing teacher has raped her and abandoned her. Aggie is forced to leave home when she discovers she’s pregnant and Tom, barely a teenager himself, decides the teacher must pay for his actions.

Aggie flees to Birmingham, but the safe haven she’s been promised turns out to be too dangerous to stay in. She’s left with few options until someone she would never have spoken to in her former life gives her the help she so desperately needs. But will World War One ruin her precarious hopes of a future?

Anne Bennett’s sagas of Birmingham during the wars have won her many fans, as they are packed full of emotion, determination and authenticity. Regional sagas don’t come any better than this.

Reviews

Praise for Anne Bennett:

‘A powerful, heart-wrenching saga from the much-loved author of “Daughter of Mine” and “Danny Boy”…This [“Mother’s Only Child”] is a page-turning saga of love, loss and family ties’ Woman’s Weekly

‘[Anne Bennett] is blessed with a vivid imagination and a natural aptitude for writing’ Daily Post

‘The beauty of Anne’s books is that they are about normal people and are sewn through with human emotions which affect us all’ Birmingham Post

‘Powerfully written’ The Woman Book Club

About the author

Anne Bennett was born in the Horsefair district of Birmingham. The daughter of Roman Catholic Irish immigrants, she grew up in a tight-knit community. For many years she taught in schools to the north of Birmingham, before an accident put paid to that career. This gave her the chance to write full time. She has four children and five grandchildren. In 2006, after sixteen years in a wheelchair, Anne was able to walk again.