Cradle of Thorns: A spell-binding saga of escape, love and family

Nell Reece has never known her mother, and her father's burden of guilt has kept him cowed for years, working as a labourer on his sister's farm. But for all her aunt's spiteful attempts to break Nell's independent spirit, she has never succeeded. And now Nell, pregnant and alone, is forced to leave home.She travels across the Bedfordshire countryside of 1890 and encounters a scruffy urchin called Kit, a ten-year-old orphan who's lived his whole life on the streets. The pair become devoted friends, never knowing where their journey will take them, but each aware that the time will come when there must be a reckoning.

Born in Blackburn and now living in Milton Keynes, Josephine Cox is widely recognised for her authorship of immensely popular North Country sagas