Daughter of Mine - Tapa dura

‘[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

A tremendously heartrending and heartwarming saga of the Birmingham blitz, from the author of Danny Boy. This will make you gasp in horror at what some young women endured and cheer when our heroine wins through; it’s quite simply one of the best sagas to come out in years.

Lizzie is finding that life in the Birmingham blitz is hard. Her husband is away fighting in the Second World War and she has had to send her two young children away to her parents in Donegal. She's grateful for her job in munitions but not so happy when that means getting home in the blackout.

Then Lizzie is attacked on one such journey. She comes around battered and bruised, unable to remember the full extent of the attack – but she fears the worst, and is right to. Pregnant, she turns to her family in desperation, but she is told she has brought them nothing but disgrace, and is taken to a Magdalene Laundry to await the birth.

For as long as she can remember, Lizzy has let other people make decisions for her. But faced with the cruelty of life behind the laundry walls, a new resolve is born. Her father declares she’s no daughter of his – but Lizzy is forced to make the biggest decision of her life, to save her own daughter.