Clover's Child (44 page)

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Authors: Amanda Prowse

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About this Book

When eighteen-year-old Dot meets Sol, she feels that at last, love has arrived.

Solomon Arbuthnott is a man who can bring colour and warmth to Dot’s drab life in sixties London – and what’s more, he is a young, handsome soldier with excellent prospects. Someone who wants to take care of her, who wants to give her everything she has dreamed of. Someone who can promise her blue skies, laughter, sun and always, always love.

And, for a while, life is truly like a song. They stroll hand-in-hand by the Serpentine, dance cheek-to-cheek in Soho’s smoky bars, and begin to plan their idyllic future, growing old together in Sol’s ancestral home on the island of St Lucia.

But this is 1961. East End girls don’t date West Indian boys, let alone fall in love with them and leave the country. They stay at home and live the life their families planned. Even if it leaves them lonelier than they ever thought possible. Even if it rips their heart in two…

Reviews

Praise for
What Have I Done?

‘A cracking page-turner’ —
The Bookseller

‘This story of a woman’s fight to rebuild her shattered life is captivating, heartbreaking and superbly written’ —
Closer

‘An absolutely gripping read… the characterisation is done superbly’ —
Iain Dale, LBC Radio

Praise for
Poppy Day

‘Great novel – let’s get it to number 1!’ —
Gok Wan

‘Poppy Day is a brilliant book, I couldn’t put it down’ —
Carol Vorderman

‘A rattling good book to curl up on the sofa with, I thoroughly recommend Poppy Day by army wife Amanda Prowse. She has turned her own fear and anxiety into a page-turning novel of loss and courage’ —Lorraine Kelly,
The Sun

‘A modern day love story’ —
Daily Mail

‘A deeply emotional story of a woman who will stop at nothing to save the man she loves… A fast, unputdownable read, Amanda Prowse adeptly fuses a tale of love and courage with the stark realities of war, both on the field and at home’ —
Red

‘This romantic story of courage and determination is simply captivating’ —
Closer

‘Army wife turns fear into fiction’ —
Sunday Mirror

‘Set to become a bestseller’ —
RAF News

About the Author

AMANDA PROWSE was a management consultant for ten years before deciding to pursue her ambition to write. Her husband, Simeon, is a soldier, and they live in the West Country with their two teenage sons.

You can contact Amanda via twitter,
@mrsamandaprowse
or via her website,
www.amandaprowse.org

Stories to remember, long after the final page is turned...

Find out more at
www.headofzeus.com

About No Greater Love

Amanda Prowse’s
No Greater Love
sequence is a series of contemporary stories with love at their core. They feature characters whose histories interweave through the generations: ordinary men and women who do extraordinary things for love. They are stories to keep you from switching off the bedside lamp at night, stories to remember long after the final page is turned...

1.
Poppy Day

Ever since hairdresser Poppy Day married her childhood sweetheart, Mart, she’s been deliriously happy. Now Mart is fighting in Afghanistan, and Poppy is counting the days until he returns.

It takes one knock at the door to rip Poppy’s world apart. Mart has been taken hostage, and it’s too dangerous for the army to rescue him.

Poppy is determined to bring him home herself. But her journey will lead her to a heartbreaking dilemma. What price will she pay to save the man she loves?

This is a gripping story of loss and courage from an author who knows what it is like to be the one left behind.

Poppy Day
is available
here
.

Jump to free preview
here
.

2.
What Have I Done?

Kathryn Brooker is the headmaster’s wife. While her husband spends his days disciplining unruly teenagers in the grand halls of Mountbriers Academy, Kathryn spends hers baking scones for her son’s cricket match in a beautiful cottage in the manicured school grounds.

In the evenings, when her husband strides home to compliment her cooking and kiss her hello – ignoring jokes from their children about grown-up lovebirds – Kathryn Brooker is the very picture of a fulfilled wife and mother. Anyone who peered through the downstairs sash window at the four figures sat easily around their scrubbed-pine kitchen table would see a happy family without a care in the world. They would envy Kathryn her perfect life.

But they would be wrong. Kathryn is trapped in a nightmare. And she is about to do something to change it. Something only a truly desperate woman would do...

What Have I Done?
is available
here
.

Jump to free preview
here
.

3.
Clover’s Child

When eighteen-year-old Dot meets Sol, she feels that love has arrived at last. Soloman Arbuthnott is a man who can bring colour and warmth to her drab life in sixties London – and what’s more, he is a young, handsome soldier with excellent prospects. Someone who wants to give her everything she has dreamed of. Someone who can promise her blue skies, laughter, sun and always, always love.

And for a while, life is truly like a song. They stroll hand-in-hand by the Serpentine, dance cheek-to-cheek in Soho’s smoky bars, and begin to plan their idyllic future, growing old together in Sol’s ancestral home on the island of St Lucia.

But this is 1961. East End girls don’t date West Indian boys, let alone fall in love with them and leave the country. They stay at home and live the life their parents planned for them. Even if it leaves them lonelier than they ever thought possible. Even if it rips their heart in two...

Clover’s Child
is available
here
.

A Letter from the Publisher

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