Yes, Mama

Yes, Mama
Helen Forrester

From the author of four bestselling autobiographies and a number of equally successful novels, comes another moving tale.A triumph of innocence over hypocrisy…Alicia Woodman was born into a home that should have been filled with comfort and joy. Her mother Elizabeth was bright and vivacious, Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman. But Alicia was not Humphrey’s child and he would have nothing to do with her, and before long Elizabeth, too, turned her back on her daughter.It was left to Polly Ford, widow of a dock labourer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the child the love she so desperately needed. In a hypocritical society full of thin-lipped disapproval, Alicia would learn that the human spirit can soar over adversity and that, though blood may be thicker than water, love is the most powerful relationship of all…

HELEN FORRESTER

Yes, Mama

Copyright (#ulink_09e4e283-ce11-59c3-bcb2-f757d9827977)

Harper

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by William Collins Sons & Co Ltd 1988

First published in Fontana Paperbacks 1988

Copyright © Helen Forrester 1988

Helen Forrester asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780006174707

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780007508235

Version 2016-12-30

Dedication (#ulink_5c57684c-39c2-569c-8659-c8112978504c)

ToNora Walton (Sylvia Poole)who was my friend when I mostneeded one.

‘The prejudices remain within society,within families and, above all, within the law.’

Virginia Ironside and Jane Horwood,

How can I explain to my daughter that

she isn’t a little bastard?

WOMAN magazine, November, 1986.

Contents

Cover (#u485e2d67-aaf8-54d7-83a6-097addbc8313)

Title Page

Copyright (#ulink_24d789a7-3052-5160-aa2d-1aa462889e0d)

Dedication (#udc1d5899-c697-58eb-b143-13b7f2a55236)

Epigraph (#u628a6d5a-e845-546d-9ab8-c4306b5d9cbb)

Chapter One (#uda81105f-0554-56dd-8058-49d3fc14aac0)

Chapter Two (#uf5ae2b65-8682-5ffa-ba78-2f96409ac836)

Chapter Three (#u3d34bf3b-b8cb-5975-88e2-8a00186ed6a7)

Chapter Four (#u90679c4f-6a5b-5573-aafb-e9caa3812001)

Chapter Five (#u46a4dcff-52ae-5910-96c9-71790d57c7af)

Chapter Six (#u85374274-0fde-554c-b974-66af2384f086)

Chapter Seven (#ubf757342-40e8-5379-866f-5211036b9aad)

Chapter Eight (#uc2432b28-a21c-5adf-b601-7a6556d949cd)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)