Beside The River

Seventeen year old Maggie Hanson and her quirky English “mum” live on the edge of poverty in a small riverside mill town during the 1930’s. Maggie is admired by men around town, especially the sly and charming Victor Robertson, her best friends brother, who shows her attention as she waits for her beau Ben Harding. Ben is away at medical school, and although he at times neglects her, she remains loyal to him, clings to romantic promises and dreams of a future as his wife.

Maggie forces her mum to let her leave school so that she can help out with other peoples laundry sewing, or cleaning ...whatever will bring in some money. She starts work for a wealthy man who lives up the hill and soon finds herself caught up in new and ever-changing emotions as she struggles to reconcile her devotion to Ben and growing attraction to her kind and handsome employer.

I have lived in the small riverside town where this novel takes place and attended both school and university in the area. I was inspired by the small town’s setting and history to write the story “Beside The River” with its entertaining fictional characters. I love writing and other then short stories, this novel is my debut, and more than anything, I hope you find it entertaining.