by Anne Bennett
A Note from Anne
One thing I am always asked is how I get the ideas for the books. Sometimes there is something that sparks off an idea which then materialises into a novel, as there was in this case, for it is a true story that was told to me by my mother many years ago. My mother was the eleventh child of a family of twelve who lived in a place called Tawnagh in Donegal. In the early 1920s her older sister, Delia, became enamoured with a hireling man who was working in a neighbouring farm. It was secretive because daughters of farmers of a certain status were meant to marry farmers themselves, or at least the eldest son of a farmer or a man with a trade. In real life the couple had the banns read for their marriage in another parish and a cottage organised for them to move into. But the marriage couldn’t have taken place fully because Delia was under 21 and so needed her parents’ permission, and would never have got that. Her father was horrified when he found out about their relationship. I found it difficult at first to understand why he was so angry about it until I saw the house in which Delia and all her siblings were born and bred. I last saw the house quite a few years ago and it was then a ruin, and I had no idea anyone had taken a picture of it until my cousin, Martin Logue, came upon one.
In a time when the majority of people were housed in a one or two-roomed, single storeyed white-washed cottage with a thatched roof, to own a large double-fronted, two storey house built of brick with a slate roof showed the Logues’ status in the community. I understood a little more why, in that day and age, Thomas Logue might have acted so harshly towards his daughter. All his efforts to get Andy McCadden to leave the area failed and so eventually, to keep Delia out of the hireling’s clutches, she was sent to Aunt Maria in America.
That’s where the book differs from the reality of what happened, because my fictional Celia Mulligan does not go to America, but finds another way of escaping her father’s dominance.
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About the Author
Anne Bennett was born in a back-to-back house in the Horsefair district of Birmingham. The daughter of Roman Catholic, Irish immigrants, she grew up in a tight-knit community where she was taught to be proud of her heritage. She considers herself to be an Irish Brummie and feels therefore that she has a foot in both cultures. She has four children and five grandchildren. For many years she taught in schools to the north of Birmingham. An accident put paid to her teaching career and, after moving to North Wales, Anne turned to the other great love of her life and began to write seriously. In 2006, after 16 years in a wheelchair, she miraculously regained her ability to walk.
To find out more about Anne and her books, visit her on Facebook, Twitter and her website:
www.annebennett.co.uk
www.facebook.com/AnneBennettAuthor
@annebennett20
Also by Anne Bennett
A Little Learning
Pack Up Your Troubles
Walking Back to Happiness
Till the Sun Shines Through
Danny Boy
Daughter of Mine
Mother’s Only Child
To Have and to Hold
A Sister’s Promise
A Daughter’s Secret
A Mother’s Spirit
The Child Left Behind
Keep the Home Fires Burning
Far From Home
If You Were the Only Girl
A Girl Can Dream
A Strong Hand to Hold
Love Me Tender
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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Canada
HarperCollins Canada
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New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
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Auckland, New Zealand
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United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London,SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com