The Orphanage Girls

Mary Wood

AN orphan girl’s desperate battle to escape the cruel confines of notorious London orphanage takes centre stage in the first book of a new emotion-packed trilogy from favourite saga writer Mary Wood.

Inspired by her own early years living in the East End of London, Wood  (pictured below) sweeps us back to 1910 and the harrowing trials and tribulations of youngsters incarcerated at a Bethnal Green orphanage in a tale full of the grit and hardship that have become hallmarks of a storyteller who writes straight from the heart.

Wood, who lives between Blackpool and Spain, worked in the probation service in both Lancaster and Blackpool, and her hard-hitting and moving historical sagas reflect her own experiences with people from all walks of life, helping her to bring a rich authenticity to her writing. 

Here we meet Ruth who dares to dream of another life, far away from the horrors within the walls of Bethnal Green’s infamous orphanage. Luckily she has the comfort of her friends, Amy and Ellen… but she can’t keep them safe, and the suffering is only getting worse. Surely there must be a way out?

But when Ruth breaks free from the shackles of confinement and sets out into East London, hoping to make a new life for herself, she finds that, for a girl with nowhere to turn, life can be just as tough on the outside.

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Bett, who keeps order in this unruly part of the East End, takes Ruth under her wing alongside orphanage escapee Robbie. But it is Rebekah, a kindly woman, who offers Ruth and Robbie a home… something neither has ever known. Yet even these two stalwart women cannot protect them when the police learn of an orphan on the run. It is then that Ruth must do everything in her power to hide because her life – and the lives of the friends she left behind at the orphanage – depend on it.

Wood ratchets up the emotional temperature in this gripping tale which comes packed with heartbreak, drama, rich period detail, and the harsh realities of life in the early 20^th century as Ruth and her friends battle to survive amidst the privations of poverty and hardship. Written with insight, warmth and the empathy gained from the author’s years working with a cross-section of society, this new visit to the East End is a moving and enthralling rollercoaster from first page to last, and will leave readers longing for the next chapter of the girls’ turbulent lives.
(Pan, paperback, £7.99)