Amber’s Secret

Amber’s Secret
Ann Pilling

It is 1953, Coronation year, and Sally finds herself having to stay with her crabby old nextdoor neighbour. Her mum’s seriously ill in hospital, her dad’s abroad, and her brother is doing his National Service, and when the grandfather clock breaks into a million pieces, her life goes terribly wrong…A young girl’s struggle to mend her mother’s favourite grandfather clock set against Coronation year in 1953.Sally’s determination against seemingly impossible odds, will capture every child’s imagination. The people she meets – including the gypsy girl, Amber – and her conviction that her mother will die if she can’t get the clock mended, keep one turning the pages of this delightful story to the very end.

Dedication (#ulink_f820e446-596c-5795-be98-127744d9dbf5)

for my grandson

Francesco Joseph

and for his great grandmother

Elizabeth Irene

Epigraph (#ulink_73947fb3-4c20-5445-a023-0e4428c8b27a)

Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into

are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing

for long years.

And for this reason, some old things are lovely

warm still with the life of forgotten men who made

them.

D H Lawrence

Contents

Cover (#u42349420-785e-5af8-b204-fa547570968b)

Title Page (#u76717ffe-c2a0-53d9-8408-61aefc7af931)

Dedication (#ulink_ade1d001-b585-585b-a0e3-5803492ef069)

Epigraph (#ulink_ff68d2e9-9a67-5a6c-b7ca-ae4b69380dca)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_58d30909-0f09-5850-8127-77e4003c7036)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_753b1a3a-0f49-54f5-a3a9-5ad1f410eafc)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_58669d7e-8842-5239-af9b-65e558339e92)

Chapter 4 (#ulink_d8010c7c-f488-52a3-886e-2d3dcc339380)

Chapter 5 (#ulink_140fda5f-c4d7-5739-80e0-51a8b8f8575f)

Chapter 6 (#ulink_9b07d4f5-dfd8-5fc3-bd97-647ab36669bd)

Chapter 7 (#ulink_1325c7c5-f8fc-5738-9030-4ec79ecb998a)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

1 (#ulink_a4e964fa-c00e-5ac3-b1f0-efc6a64269ab)

‘Did you know,’ said Amber one day to her friend Sally, ‘that if you pick up the phone and ring Appleford 616 you can talk to God?’

Sally stared. Amber was a gypsy child, she knew secrets. She knew the place on Furze Hill where rabbits came to graze in the afternoon. She knew where the kingfisher lived at Tolly Reach. She could ride her pony bareback across the fields. If anyone knew about talking to God it would be Amber.