Letters from Alice: Part 1 of 3: A tale of hardship and hope. A search for the truth.

Letters from Alice: Part 1 of 3: A tale of hardship and hope. A search for the truth.
Petrina Banfield

Letters from Alice can either be read as a full-length eBook or in 3 serialised eBook-only parts.This is PART 1 of 3.It was a stormy evening in 1920s London. When newly qualified almoner, Alice, stepped into the home of Charlotte, a terrified teenager who had just given birth out of wedlock, she did not expect to make a pact that would change her life forever. Thrown into secrecy after an unexpected turn, Alice was determined to keep bewildered Charlotte and her newborn baby safe. But when a threatening note appeared, she realised that Charlotte may need more protection than she first thought. But from who?Based on extensive research into the archive material held at the London Metropolitan Archives, and enriched with lively social history and excerpts from newspaper articles, LETTERS FROM ALICE is a gripping and deeply moving tale, which brings the colourful world of 1920s London to life. Full of grit, mystery and hope, it will have readers enthralled from the very first page.

(#u7d13b893-2f51-5ef9-9156-485b5f1eb81e)

Copyright (#u7d13b893-2f51-5ef9-9156-485b5f1eb81e)

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

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

This edition published by HarperElement 2018

FIRST EDITION

© Petrina Banfield 2018

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover image © Jeff Cottenden (posed by model); Hawkins/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images (street scene); Shutterstock.com (all other images)

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

Petrina Banfield asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

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

Source ISBN: 9780008264703

Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008264734

Version: 2018-06-21

Dedication (#u7d13b893-2f51-5ef9-9156-485b5f1eb81e)

Happy memories

SYLVIA ELLEN LOCKYER

Acknowledgements (#u7d13b893-2f51-5ef9-9156-485b5f1eb81e)

Firstly I would like to thank my wonderful agent, Laetitia Rutherford, for championing me and getting me to dig deeper every time I send a draft her way. I am so grateful for all the help, support and encouragement she’s given me over the years, as well as her gentle humour in steering me away from some of my wackier ideas and onto sensible projects instead.

Huge thanks also to the lovely Vicky Eribo for the opportunities she’s given me as well as her warmth and support, and to the rest of the team at HarperCollins.

I am obliged to David Chave for being an enthusiastic and helpful sounding board, to Liz Foster, Derek Sims and Hannah Brown for giving feedback on the manuscript, and to my late aunt, Sylvie, for her insight into nursing and hospital procedures in years gone by.

Lastly, thanks to my amazing family for their unwavering love: Irene, Philip, Paul, Pete, Jean, Toria and Alex, and to my three children, Hannah, Daniel and Lexi.

Contents

Cover (#uacd1bb1b-9a10-5939-9d53-b87ba5e0ade7)

Title Page (#u6a9cd9e2-c84e-5a63-a3e4-a7153640aae1)

Copyright (#u31f33abb-4b5b-59db-a70a-652293c2fdc3)

Dedication (#u3f2641c1-546d-5f09-b91b-dcc1998fa00c)

Acknowledgements (#ufa890512-ad2c-5a28-8861-2ae0b747926e)

Note to Reader (#u51a3cf3b-d6cd-5b26-89dd-b726d4236b72)

Prologue (#u321aa9f3-4cdd-5a07-a132-159a4675bff6)

Chapter One (#u85e79381-d2fc-53ef-8aa1-04d53e45013b)

Chapter Two (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Three (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Note to Reader (#u7d13b893-2f51-5ef9-9156-485b5f1eb81e)

I was thirteen years old when I first discovered that my father spent his childhood in care. Until then he had never spoken to me about his past and, as children are so adept at doing, I somehow picked up that it was a subject to be tiptoed around, without ever having been told. The truth came out one Sunday afternoon after I plucked up the courage to ask for the names of my paternal grandparents, so that I could complete a genealogy project for school.

Perhaps he felt I’d reached an age of understanding because after a moment’s hesitation he told me that he knew very little about his parents, who had died long before I was born. Even this snippet of information was fascinating to me and I listened eagerly as he told me about the grandmother I’d never met – a petite Irish woman who had experienced too much pain and not enough love. By the age of twenty-five she had given birth to five children.