A Mother's Christmas Wish

Glenda Young 

LONG bike rides along the coast near Sunderland have provided fertile ‘thinking’ territory for Glenda Young’s gripping and gritty sagas set in a tough North East mining community on the coast near Sunderland.

A Mother's Christmas Wish, Young’s first Christmas-themed saga, follows the fortunes and misfortunes of a rebellious teenage girl who leaves her home in Ireland under a cloud of shame to live in England only to find herself plunged into a fresh scandal.

Set in 1924, in the aftermath of the First World War, this sizzling story has all the favourite ingredients of a good saga… drama, romance, high emotion, flashes of northern humour and a heroine who faces many struggles on the road to find happiness.

Following a scandalous affair with the village priest, wild, wayward and beautiful Emma Devaney is sent in disgrace from her home in Ireland to Ryhope, the northern mining community where she will live with her widowed aunt, Bessie Brogan, and help run her pub.

For 17-year-old Emma, it’s a new beginning and a chance to revel in the excitement she has always craved in her life but could never find back home in Ireland. Bessie proves to be a kindly aunt but she is also firm and Emma rebels against her lack of freedom.

Struggling to fit in, she turns to the wrong person for comfort, and becomes pregnant. Accepting that she must embrace her new life for the sake of her baby, Emma pours her energy into making the pub thrive and helping heal the fractured relationship between Bessie and her own daughters.

Emma catches the attention of Robert, a gruff but sincere farmer, and he is intent on winning her heart. As December approaches, thankful for the home and acceptance she has found, Emma is determined to bring not just her family, but the whole Ryhope community, together to celebrate... and to make one very special mother’s Christmas dreams come true. Using her local knowledge and her eye for human frailty, Young (pictured above) creates a believable and richly detailed world in this emotive story full of hardship, kinship and resilience, and with a memorable cast of beautifully drawn characters. With Emma’s rollercoaster journey from inexperienced girl to loving mother at the heart of the story, alongside Young’s vivid evocation of Ryhope in the 1920s, A Mother’s Christmas Wish will be on every saga fan’s own wish list.

This book is published on November 24.
(Headline, paperback, £7.99)