Valerie Wood

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Award winning author of romantic historical novels

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Rosa has grown up an orphan in a wild, watery island fastness on the remote east coast of Yorkshire. Taken in as a small child she realizes as she grows up that this large and seemingly close farming family contains many troubled souls and Rosa's background is one of mystery too, will her father a handsome Spanish sailor ever return laden with jewels and silks in treasure chests as her mother had always promised…
For Amelia, her brothers and sisters, the grim past endured by their mother, Emily, seems very far away. A striking and independent women Ameila is intrigued by Australian Ralph Hawkins and his half-aboriginal friend Jack, recently arrived in Yorkshire to look for Ralph’s family roots. Little do they realise how inextricably their family histories are bound.
Seeking a new life of freedom & emancipation Georgiana and her maid Kitty set off from their native Yorkshire to America, once in New York Georgiana encounters an imposter posing as her cousins husband who seems to have vanished into the depths of this vast new country of swamps, mountains and the promise of Californian gold.
'Poppy Mazzini, born in Hull over her father's grocery shop, lives up to the promise of her fiery red hair and Italian ancestry. Her lovely singing voice and good looks lead her to her great ambition -- to go on the stage and see her name at the top of the bill. She becomes a music hall star, both in her native town and in the south, London and Brighton. She is invited to sing in concert in Paris to tremendous acclaim. But from a very young age she has been in love with a young, ambitious shoemaker and is devastated when his affection turns elsewhere. Poppy disappears, but her best friend, a composer and pianist, sends messages and words of love through his music which gradually shows her where true love is waiting.'
Young Mikey Quinn, scavenging on the streets of Hull, is thrown into prison for stealing a rabbit from the butcher. His chief accuser, a well-to-do lawyer, has a daughter, Eleanor, whom he badly mistreats. When Mikey is released he finds that his mother has died and his sister and brothers taken into the workhouse - determined to find a better life for his family, he walks all the way to London to seek his fortune.
After her dastardly husband Billy tries to sell her at a wife sale, Lily Fowler finds herself alone, frightened and heavily pregnant on the streets of Hull. Her brave attempts to find work are futile and when she is turned away from the workhouse and other establishments for women in her 'condition', Lily is forced to swallow her last ipota of respectability and work in a brothel in Leadenhall Square. However Lily sees potential where others can only see destitituion and ruin ans she soon forges strong relationships with the other women there. All good hearted women who have fallen on hard times and together Lily and her 'fallen angels' outwit the low-life brothel keeper.
Jenny Graham at thirteen, leaves her home in Hull and applies for work as a kitchen maid at the home of the Ingram family in the East Yorkshire town of Beverley. Here, she meets and falls in love with Christy, the only son of the family,Christy, a romantic, but irrational young man wants them to run away together, and hatches a secret, dangerous plan which goes tragically wrong and leaves Jenny on a charge of murder.
It was a long walk from Hull to Anlaby and the woman holding the newborn baby was tired when she arrived at Humber Villa, the grand home of the powerful Rayner family. She was shabby, but refused to be intimidated and when young John Rayner appeared at the door she thrust the child into his arms, saying it was his. The mother had died, the father was 'young Mr. Rayner', and then the woman vanished, leaving the respectable shipping family of Hull shattered.
'When Laura Page goes to the remote Holderness village of Welwick, it is to try and discover the mystery of her mother, Susannah's early life. Now a successful business woman in Hull, Susannah never speaks of her childhood, when she was brought up with the terrible stigma of bastardy -- of being nobody's child. Born into poverty, living in a tiny labourers cottage with her father, Susannah's mother had caught the eye of the local landowners son. She was his one and only great love, but when their daughter Susannah was born he could not acknowledge his child but had to watch her growing up in hardship...
Ruby and Grace have grown up in the slums of Middle Court, the poorest place in Hull. Ruby's ma, Bess, addicted to the opium which dulls the pain of her miserable existence, tries hard to be a good mother, but without success, while Grace's parents, Bob and Lizzie, look after the girl - as well as their own family - as best they can. But the two families are bound together by more than friendship, with secrets from the past threatening to make their hard lives even more difficult.
Emily was only five years old when she was sent away from her Ma and Da and her brother Joe to go and live with old Granny Edwards. Growing up to be a loving and hard working child, she goes into service at the age of thirteen only to find that the son of her employer becomes obsessed with her bringing betrayal, imprisonment and ruin in the form of transportation to Australia where against all the odds she is reunited with the one man who can save her from misery and bring her wealth and happiness.
Sent to the workhouse after the death of her mother, young Polly Anna is befriended by Jonty, and together they run away to join the fair. Meanwhile, in a great house in the Yorkshire Wolds, old Mrs.Winthrop has never given up hope of finding her daughter who eloped with a handsome Romany never to be seen again. Her young neighbour, Richard Crossley sets out to find the missing daughter and in the process discovers the colourful world of fairs and gypsies, in the midst of which lives Polly Anna - once the waif from the workhouse, and now a fully-fledged Romani Chi - the Romany girl.
Annie Swinburn had killed a man. The killing was timely and well-deserved, for Francis Morton had been evil in every possible way. But Annie knew that however justified her crime, only the rope and gibbet awaited her if she remained in the slums of Hull. And so she ran - up river, along the wild and secretive paths of the great Humber - a new and unfamiliar territory which was to lead her into a new and unfamiliar life.
In the slums of Hull, at the turn of the eighteenth century, lived Will and Maria Foster, constantly fighting a war against poverty, disease, and crime. Will was a whaler, wedded to the sea, and when tragedy struck, crippling him for life, it was John Rayner, nephew of the owner of the whaling fleet, who was to rescue the family. Will had saved the boy's life on an Arctic voyage and they were offered work and a home on the headlands of Holderness, on the estate owned by John Rayner's wealthy family. And there, Will's child was born - Sarah, a bright and beautiful girl who was to prove the strength of the family.
Christmas 1860. Polly, already living in grinding poverty, finds herself alone on the streets of Hull when her mother dies in childbirth. Rosalie, brought up in affluence and comfort on the other side of town, loses her own mother in similar circumstances and on the same day. Polly takes a job as scullery maid in Rosalie's lonely house, and the two girls form an unlikely friendship. Travelling together to the North Yorkshire Moors they discover a new kind of life and find unexpected joy and fulfilment.