Zephany Walker

Brummagem Days Zephany Walker

Publisher Marketing: Goss Mill Yard, a cobbled square of eight mean, back-to-back houses, in hard-working, industrial Birmingham, is the small world to a close-knit community of poor families, all striving to exist day-by-day, in the tempestuous 1930's following the ravages of the Great War and Depression. Number '5-back-of-6' in Goss Mill Yard, is the 'two-and-up-two-down' cramped home to Blanche, Vivienne, Rosanna and Sorrel Cross, four sisters who dream of future loves, adventures and fortune, each seeking a way to escape the life of poverty and drudgery their parents and neighbours struggle through each day. Little do they realise, however, that Fate has a far different design for each of them than the paths they would choose for themselves. The safe, comfortable childhood world they have known, will soon be torn apart - their simple lives shattered and for some, destroyed - but of those who survive, who will find the strength and will to carry on? And what of the dark secret their father has kept from them for so many years? Overshadowing all, in this small, overcrowded world-within-a-world, is always the drama of yet another Birth - and the inevitable acceptance of Death. Brummagem Days is a beautifully written novel of over 700 pages, detailing the day-to-day lives of ordinary Birmingham people in the 1930's. As well as being highly entertaining, this book gives an insight into how life has changed since this often forgotten era - and in some ways, how much it is still the same as we live today.