Walking Back to Happiness (Paperback, New Ed)

This is a heart-warming tale of a woman overcoming heartache and bereavement. The story starts in drab post-war Birmingham with the difficulties of ration books, clothing coupons and the bitter winter of 1947. Hannah has loved and lost her soldier on the Normandy beaches and has had to make a great sacrifice to survive, but it looks as though she may have another chance of happiness when she receives a proposal of marriage. But her new husband turns out to be mean-spirited, cruel and abusive. Even when her much-wanted daughter is born, circumstances prevent a close relationship between the two and, as Angela grows up, a secret from Hannah's past threatens even that precarious relationship. Often isolated and unsupported by her family back in Ireland, failing too to find compassion from some representatives of the faith which keeps her in her loveless marriage, Hannah has to find her own strength to survive. She does have Jessie, the niece whom she has raised because Jessie's own family cannot, and she has the love of a decent man, Vic; there are many hurdles and scandals to overcome, though, before she has a real prospect of having a close and unified family. Events in the years after the Second World War, such as the Festival of Britain, the Coronation, the arrival of the Pill and demonstrations against the Vietnam War form a backdrop to the story and help to flesh out the characters as they adapt to changing circumstances; the change in attitude towards those girls unfortunate enough to be in Hannah's position gives relevance and resonance to her story, which is written without excessive sentiment and with sympathetic and believable central characters. (Kirkus UK)

Hannah Delaney is a young woman with a secret. It is not one that she can share with her large family back home in Ireland, and especially not with her dying sister. Hannah moved to England to build a better life, where she met and fell in love with a soldier. They intended to marry on his next leave, but then D-day arrived and he didn't come back. Devastated, Hannah is left alone and penniless.

Grimly picking up the pieces of her life, Hannah goes to work in a Birmingham guest house. Common sense tells her to agree to marry sensible Arthur Bradley, but he too has a secret. And their secrets are destined to have unimaginable consequences.

"The beauty of Anne's books is that they are sewn through with human emotions which affect us all"
'Birmingham Post'

General

Imprint:	HarperCollinsPublishers
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	March 2003
Authors:	Anne Bennett
Dimensions:	178 x 111 x 30mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Mass Market
Pages:	544
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-713981-1
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Sagas
LSN:	0-00-713981-0
Barcode:	9780007139811

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