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
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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)