Maureen Lee's Books

Maureen Lee

MY BOOKS

cover Stepping Stones STEPPING STONES (1994)

Lizzie O’Brien was born into a large, boisterous family, determined to stay together in Liverpool despite the nightly bombing raids of the Second World War. But for Lizzie, childhood innocence is haunted by a dark shadow. Even her mother’s devotion and the love of her brothers cannot drive out the spectre that is ruining her life – her brute of a father, who sees her as a dark cuckoo invading his family of blond sons.

At sixteen, Lizzie runs away to London – the first of her stepping stones towards freedom and a new life of her own. She believes the past and its nightmares are locked away tight, and only a glorious future remains, of friendships forged for a lifetime and a glittering new career as an actress set for Hollywood.

But the past is hurrying to catch up with her, threatening to destroy her dreams. A lonely, frightened thirteen-year-old girl is sobbing to her through the years and she can no longer ignore the truth…

My Comments:
I had Lizzie live at my old address in Bootle: 2 Chaucer Street. When she goes to London she finds a flat in 105 Queens Gate. When we were first married, my husband and I lived in a bedsit in 107 – there is no 105. The original manuscript stretched to almost a thousand pages, much too long. I had to cut out the year Lizzie spent as a novice in a convent and quite a few of her other adventures.

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cover - Lights out Liverpool LIGHTS OUT LIVERPOOL (1995)

The residents of Pearl Street, Liverpool, are having a street party, but a shadow hangs over the festivities. It is l939 and Britain is on the brink of war.

For Annie, the outbreak of war means constant worry for her twin boys, already sent to France. And for Sheila, the birth of her sixth child is eclipsed by fear for her husband’s safety as he faces the daily threat of U-boat attack. Her sister, Eileen, whose marriage is not all she had hoped for, finds that work in a munitions factory brings far more than a much-needed wage.

But the war brings other changes too: when Freda and Dicky, the grubby, least-cared-for children in the neighbourhood are evacuated, their new lives change them beyond recognition – and their mother finds it is not easy to bring them home.

Pearl Street is the fictitious name I have given to a real street in Bootle where my grandparents lived. My main memory is of a very high wall at the end behind which electric trains ran to Liverpool and Southport. The initial title for this book was THE GATE OF THE YEAR, the first line of a poem read by King George VI in his first Christmas broadcast. ‘I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way”.’ However, the title was changed to the more commercially attractive LIGHTS OUT LIVERPOOL.

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cover Put Out the Fires PUT OUT THE FIRES (1996)

September 1940 – the cruellest year of war for Britain’s civilians as the Luftwaffe mercilessly blitz their cities.

In Pearl Street, near to Liverpool’s vital docks, families struggle to cope the best they can. A nasty surprise for ever-cheerful dressmaker Brenda Mahon and flighty Sean’s love for little Alice show how life goes on even when it appears to be falling apart. Yet while Eileen Costello tries to hide her ruined hopes of happiness with Nick and do her best by the husband she hoped had gone forever, Ruth Singerman returns having escaped from Austria. Even the joy of seeing her father again cannot make up for the bitter loss of her children.

This new novel in the series of sagas follows the fortunes of one street through the bitterness of disappointment, the warmth of friendship and the pain of loss as the war tests the indomitable spirit of the people of Liverpool.

This book was initially called LIVERPOOL ON FIRE, but altered to PUT OUT THE FIRES, a title that I deeply dislike as it sounds like an instruction manual for firemen.

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cover Throgh the Storm THROUGH THE STORM (1997)

It is 1941, and the war has already irrevocably changed the lives of all who live on Pearl Street, Bootle. The German bombers have left rubble in their wake and everyone pulls together to come to terms with the loss of loved ones.

Sisters Eileen and Sheila share the anxious burden of absent husbands and Kitty Quigley joins the war effort in becoming an auxiliary nurse. Struggling to earn a living and with a baby daughter to support, Jessica Fleming teams up with Rita Mott who is enjoying the glamour and excitement of the Yanks while her soldier husband is overseas.

While I was sad to come to the end of this trilogy – I had been living with the characters for two and a half years – it nevertheless felt good to start on something completely fresh and in a different period. My next three books were to be called, ANNIE, MILLIE and JOSIE. ANNIE became LIVERPOOL ANNIE, and the other two were given quite different titles.

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cover Liverpool Annie LIVERPOOL ANNIE (1998)

Annie Harrison’s Liverpool childhood is full of contrasts. From the happy, crowded atmosphere of her uncle and aunt’s house to the lonely seclusion of life with her reclusive mother, she eventually goes to live at the Grand hotel with her rich school friend, Sylvia. Yet life is full of excitement too, as she discovers rock’n’roll at the Cavern Club and hears the Beatles play live for the first time.

Then, just as Annie seems to be settling down to a comfortable life of marriage and motherhood, fate deals her an unexpected blow, leaving her to draw on resources she didn’t know she possessed. As she struggles to cope amidst almost overwhelming odds, a chance meeting leads to events she has no control over. Could this be Annie’s chance for happiness?

This is the only one of my books in which I have deliberately based a character on a real life person – I don’t doubt I have unwittingly done so in others. Auntie Dot, the indefatigable, ever-cheerful invalid is a portrait of my very dear friend, Peggy, whose radiance throughout years of crippling illness brightened so many lives. Peggy died five years ago, but I shall always remember her with love.

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cover Dancing in the Dark DANCING IN THE DARK (1999)

When Millie Cameron is asked to sort through the belongings of her Aunt Flo who recently died, she is not at all happy. She hardly knew her aunt and, besides, Millie has a busy life and her own career to think of. She certainly wants nothing to do with the seemingly dull, spinster aunt the family refuse to talk about.

However, Millie seems to have little choice but to go to Flo’s basement flat and begin the tedious task. But as dusk falls and Millie sorts through her aunt’s collection of photographs, letters and newspaper cuttings, her interest is surprisingly awakened. Millie finds herself embarking on a journey – a journey to a past which includes a lost lover and a secret child. And, picking through the tangled web of Flo’s life, Millie makes the startling discovery that all the threads lead to a shocking conclusion…

To my astonishment, this novel was short listed for the prestigious Romantic Novel of the Year Award. To my even further astonishment it WON! In fact, I was so overwhelmingly astonished when the winner was announced at a terribly posh lunch at the Savoy Hotel in London that I lost my voice, couldn’t remember the names of people I wanted to thank, and made a complete fool of myself. Do YOU ever wish you could have the chance to re-live certain situations and do things perfectly the second time around?

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cover The Girl from Barefoot House THE GIRL FROM BAREFOOT HOUSE (2000)

For Josie Flynn, life with her beautiful, wayward mother in the heart of Liverpool was all she ever wanted – until Hitler’s bombs ripped her childhood apart. But the war was just the start of a journey – a journey that began in heartbreak when Josie was sent to live with her miserable Aunt Ivy and over-friendly Uncle Vince; took her to Barefoot House as the paid companion of an elderly, cantankerous woman who eventually became her friend, and seemed to promise life-long happiness in New York with the handsome, charismatic Jack Coltrane.

But once again, life is not turning out the way Josie imagines and she finds herself back in Liverpool, alone. As she renews old loves and former friendships, and reflects on her time at Barefoot house, she embarks upon a career which is as unlikely as it is successful.

I don’t know where the plot for this book came from. The first line just popped into my head, ‘Hello, Petal. I’m home,’ and it built up from there. Every chapter was a new adventure. I didn’t know how it would end, which man Josie would choose to spend the rest of her life with, until the end was upon me and with it came a completely different idea.

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cover - Laceys of Liverpool LACEYS OF LIVERPOOL (2001)

Alice Lacey couldn’t be more different from her sister-in-law, the bitter, ambitious Cora. And when both women give birth to sons on one chaotic night in Liverpool in 1940, Cora’s jealousy and resentment prompt her into an action with the most far-reaching consequences.

Alice’s own happiness is soured when her husband, disfigured in an accident, turns against his family. As her marriage slowly begins to disintegrate, Alice looks for a life outside her home, and decides to buy the tiny hairdressers where she works. But to do this, she must first borrow money from Cora…

Laceys of Liverpool is a compelling story of tangled family relationships – and devastating secrets.

I had always wanted to centre a story around a hairdressers. Not one of the big, flashy salons that can be quite intimidating, but the sort that were often situated in a converted house at the end of a street where everyone knew everyone else and exchanged their most intimate secrets. Cora is one of my most complex characters and I was glad I was able to turn her into a reasonably acceptable human being by the end. Originally, I had intended finishing the book at the turn of the century, but it came to a natural end well before then. Then I planned to write a sequel, THE LACEY WOMEN, but after one chapter, I realised I had done all I could with the characters and wrote no more.

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cover - The House by Princes Park THE HOUSE BY PRINCES PARK (2002)

Ruby O’Hagan never knew her parents: she was taken from her mother at birth and her father, a soldier killed in the Great War, never even knew of her existence. Brought up in a convent, at fourteen Ruby is chosen to be a lady’s companion in a grand house near Liverpool. But this new life is not to last and before long Ruby finds herself in the slums of Liverpool, alone with two children to support.

Then, with the outbreak of the Second World War, Ruby’s life takes a dramatic new turn when she is asked to look after a large house. The house becomes a refuge – not just for Ruby and her family, but for many others, as loves, triumphs, sorrows and friendships are played out in the House by Princes Park.

In a book entitled A Century of Mersey Voices (compiled by Diana Pulson from interviews by Ev Draper) I came across a character called the ‘Pawnshop Runner’. This lady pawned and redeemed items for people who were too ashamed to do it themselves. I thought this would be a great idea for a book and duly wrote it. The title, The Pawn Shop Runner, was changed at the last minute because it might be confused with porn shop and attract quite the wrong sort of reader.

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cover Lime Street Blues LIME STREET BLUES (2002)

It is the heady sixties and Liverpool is the place to be. The Flowers, the Baileys and the McDowds are three very different Liverpool families bound together by just one thing: music. The children are determined to be part of the glamour that surrounds Liverpool so, when Sean, Lachlan and Max form The Merseysiders and Jeannie and Rita become part of The Flower Girls, they put their hearts and souls into achieving success beyond their wildest dreams.

The greatest star of all is Sean McDowd, adored by women everywhere, yet unable to get his first love out of his mind. But Jeannie Flowers has married Lachlan and no one is prepared for the deceits and betrayals that lie ahead. When Sean promised to do anything in the world for her, neither had the first notion of what she would need him to do… A moment of weakness changed Jeannie’s life, but that which followed was a deliberate act of betrayal that she could not possibly expect Lachlan to forgive.

One of the highlights of my life, although I didn’t know it at the time, was attending the opening night of a rather seedy basement club in Matthew Street, Liverpool. I was fifteen and no one there realised that history was being made that night. The club was, of course, The Cavern.

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cover Queen of the Mersey QUEEN OF THE MERSEY (2003)

It is Liverpool, 1939. The Second World War is about to start when pretty Laura Oliver meets Queenie Todd. Laura is twenty-one and happily married to the dashing Roddy. Plain, inadequate Queenie is only fourteen and has been deserted by her mother who has gone to London in search of a good time. The two become good friends, along with the big-hearted Vera Monaghan across the street. When the air raids begin, the older women trust Queenie sufficiently to put their small daughters, Hester and Mary, into her care. The three young people are evacuated to Caerdovey, a small town on the coast of Wales.

At first, Caerdovey is a haven of peace and quiet. The girls have a wonderful time until something happens, so terrifying, that it will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

An entirely different Queenie has emerged from the conflict: beautiful now and confident, she works for Frederick & Hughes, known locally as Freddy’s, the most exclusive shop in Liverpool, where a dazzling career awaits her as well as a love that will last a lifetime. Laura, now with a second child, has an unpredictable future to face and things take a most unexpected turn.

A few years ago, I visited a large, very elite store in Brighton that was in the process of closing down and thought what a wonderful background it would make a for a novel: the half empty racks of clothes, tables heaped with stuff that looked as if it had been in the store room for years, some departments deserted, sounds echoing in the emptiness. Queen of the Mersey is the result. Once again I deal with the war, although this time it is almost solely from the point of view of the children who were evacuated to Wales.

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cover - Old House on the Corner THE OLD HOUSE ON THE CORNER (2004)

Victoria Macara is twenty-seven and lives alone in the old house in the corner of what had once been her great-grandfather’s removal business. When the land is sold, she finds herself surrounded by a small estate of new properties called Victoria Mews. Although she’d been about to leave Liverpool and start a new life in New York, Victoria wishes she could stay when she makes loads of friends – and meets Gareth Moran, the love of her life.

The newcomers bring with them their own dramas. The mismatched Kathleen and Steve are lovers with broken marriages behind them: Rachel is attempting to escape from a terrible tragedy: upper-class Sarah arrives with her children after running away from an abusive husband and Anna and Ernie are just looking for a quiet life. For Marie Jordan, Victoria Mews is a refuge from the men who murdered her husband: for Judy Moon, it means a fresh start after forty years of marriage to a man she’d thought she’d love forever.

Rachel, desperate for friends, decides to hold a barbeque and, during the days leading up to this, various events take place that lead to an explosive situation and the barbeque becomes a time for truth telling and revealing secrets that have been hidden for years.

I have always wanted to write a novel telling the detailed stories of half a dozen characters, and this is it.

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September Girls - cover THE SEPTEMBER GIRLS (2004)

On a rainy September night in 1920, Brenna Caffrey, her husband, and their two young sons arrive at Liverpool docks from Ireland. They have come in search of a better life, but there is no one to meet them, as had been arranged, and they have nowhere to live. Then Brenna, who is expecting her third child, goes into labour. Collapsing on the steps of a grand townhouse, she is taken in by Nancy Gates, housekeeper to the wealthy Allardyce family who live there. Upstairs, the unhappily married Eleanor Allardyce is also struggling to give birth. Both women produce daughters that night - Cara and Sybil, the September Girls. Enemies at first, Brenna and Eleanor eventually become friends, but friendship between their children is another matter.

Nineteen years later, at the start of the Second World War, Cara and Sybil find themselves thrown together in Malta, military key to the Mediterranean, a time that has life-changing repercussions for them both. And back home in Liverpool, the bombs pour down on a defiant city.

This novel was longlisted for the Romantic Novelist of the Year Award. I had originally intended the book to end in the year 2000, but it sort of came to a natural finish in 1945, a mere fifty-five years earlier than planned. This is another novel I had no plans for other than it should begin with two baby girls being born in the same house on the same night. It just seemed to write itself as I went along.

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cover - Kitty and her Sisters KITTY AND HER SISTERS (2006)

At the age of nineteen, Kitty McCarthy has decided she is going to live a life less ordinary - although she doesn't know quite how to go about it. What she does know is that she doesn't want to get married and raise children in Liverpool like her elder sisters - Claire, who is a mother-hen, easy-going Norah and elegant Aileen. But Kitty's resolve is tested by the unexpected direction her life takes. What will she gain by swimming against the tide?

The combination of an impetuous youthful decision and a chance meeting twenty years later are to have momentous repercussions that will stay with her forever. As she bounces through the years, wryly accepting that regrets and mistakes are all part of life, it is her sisters who are the constant thread when other relationships have come and gone. They know her best, they say, and in the end what is best for her - although Kitty would almost certainly disagree.

I really enjoyed writing this in the first person. It made me feel I really was Kitty and knew her as well as I know myself by the time the book was finished.

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cover - The Leaving of Liverpool THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL (2007)

It is a cold February night in 1925 when two teenage sisters - Mollie and Annemarie Kenny -escape from their home in an Irish village. Their mother has died and the girls have suffered shocking abuse at the hands of the doctor father. With sensitive, creative Annemarie so traumatised she can barely remember her name, Mollie decides they should make a new life for themselves and she takes her younger sister to Liverpool where they will board a ship to New York. There, she thinks they will be safe.

But the smallest, cruellest twist of fate conspires to separate the girls just as the boat is about to sail, leaving Mollie stranded in Liverpool and Annemarie at the mercy of strangers in America. The path their lives take could not be more different - yet both sisters are forced to live with a terrible absence. As the Depression makes way for the edgy l930s, the spectre of another war looms. The Second World War will separate many more people from their loved ones but, as Mollie sees in the camaraderie of blitzed Liverpool, it can also bring people together...

This novel was inspired by a magical visit to New York three years ago. I felt I just had to include this wonderful city in one of my books. The hardback version is available now and the paperback will be published at the End of December 2007

Click here for a clip from the audio book read by Jaqueline King

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Buy The Leaving of Liverpool audio from Amazon

A DREAM COME TRUE (2007)

Maggie's once happy marriage has turned sour, leaving her tied to a husband who no longer seems to love her. So she continues to work, keeps in touch with her friends and tries not to think about the lack of love in her life. But all that changes when Maggie meets someone who turns her entire world upside down...

This novel is part of the Quick Reads series, books written especially for people who are unused to reading or have lost interest. It is only about a fifth as long as my other novels and costs £1.99.

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cover - Mother of Pearl MOTHER OF PEARL

Pretty Amy Curran was just eighteen years old when she met Barney Patterson, the love of her life, on Southport Pier in 1939. Their romanticpassionate marriage was made in heaven, or so they both believed. But when Britain declared war on Germany, Barney volunteered to fight and the couple were eventually separated for five long years. When he returned to Liverpool after VE Day, he wasn't the same person - and neither was Amy.

But how could things have become so twisted that one day Amy would kill her adored husband? And what happened to their little girl, Pearl, just five years old at the time?

In 1971 Amy is released from prison. Her freedom changes the lives of others, not least that of her daughter Pearl, now twenty-five. Amy and Pearl tentatively begin to re-build their relationship. But Pearl doesn't know that Amy has been keeping a terrible secret, one that she will never share with her daughter and which has already wrecked more than one life. As the truth about the past unravels, Amy and Pearl must learn not only the meaning of forgiveness, but also the power of enduring love.

The plot for this novel has been churning away in my head for many years and I'm really glad I have managed to get it out of my system.

Click here for a clip from the audio book read by Jaqueline King

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Buy Mother of Pearl audio book from Amazon

THE LONG SUMMER

I decided it was time I wrote another book in the present day, or at least last year. This novel is set in 2006 and concerns four women living in the same house in a cul-de-sac in Blundellsands, Liverpool. The house belonged to Brodie's mother. She has recently left her husband after twenty-five happy years: Diana, twenty-four, has looked after her three brothers since she was eighteen and now finds herself superfluous when one of the brothers moves in his girlfriend: Vanessa, a successful career women whose life falls apart when she is jilted at the alter: and Rachel, only fourteen, who is terrified her baby will be taken away. I am halfway through the book, have no idea how it will end, and am really enjoying writing it.

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