MARY WOOD - AN INTRODUCTION TO ME AND MY WORK

Hello,

I am new to this blog, and it is lovely to be here. I am Mary Wood, author of gritty, emotional, Historical Sagas, published by Pan Macmillan.

I write Northern Sagas, and Wartime Sagas.

All of my books will tug at your heartstrings and take you right to the heart of what my heroine/s endure. You will be on a journey through life as our great grandmothers lived it. But, the journey will be yours too, as I aim to drag you into the story, to go through the emotions, heartache, and hardship that my heroines go through as if you are them. 

In my Northern Sagas, this will be to a time, when for women of all classes, life was very different from ours. They had no voice. The attitude of men was that there was no such thing as rape, only a woman who teased, and wanted it, and then changed her mind, so deserved what she got. And, domestic violence was a man's right to keep his missus in check.

Yes, upper-class women commanded more respect on the face of it, but had to put up with being married off for money, or title, and then, often endure their husbands keeping a mistress, who was given more affection, while they were instructed to 'lay back and think of England!

Against this background, many characters emerge. And of these, the strong woman, who grasps the mettle of life and makes things better for others, is my favourite, and the forerunner to the liberation we have today. She is a woman who will triumph, no matter what life throws at her. She will endure great hardship, and yet be there for others. She will form deep friendships that will sustain her, and yet ask a lot of her too. And, though she may be a battered wife, a victim of rape with a child to care for, or a woman of means married to a thug of a man, she will come through, and find happiness.

My Wartime Sagas are based in England, but take you to many of the wartime theatres of Europe with the heroine, who may be a British spy working behind enemy lines in France, or a Polish Jew, with British connections. Or, a doctor/nurse on the Somme, or a Land Girl in the countryside of England.

All experienced, fear, emotional upset, and all endured more than should be asked of any person in a lifetime. But they did it willingly and with great courage, and did so, so that their families, and future generations could be free.

In these novels life is often at its rawest. and yet, its most heartwarming, as war is a great leveller of people. Upper class girls find themselves fighting and working alongside lower class girls, and deep friendships are forged, that would never have prevailed in peacetime. And all find that when your back is against the wall, it is the friendship of others and their courage that will bring you through.

Some win through, some don't, as is the nature of war, but all are strong and make you proud as you experience with them, the dangers they faced, the hardships, the heartache of death of comrades, friends, and even family - and yes, mixed with all this, the fun they managed to have and falling in love, and the conflicts this can set up. 

Are you ready for such a journey as my books will take you on? If so, these are my titles:

Available from WH Smiths, and all good bookshops. Also on line at Amazon and Kobo.

And, coming on the 30 November, and available in WH Smiths, all good bookshops and all supermarkets 

Molly lives with her repugnant father, who has betrayed her many times. From a young age, living on the
streets of London’s East End, she has seen the harsh realities of life . . . When she’s kidnapped by a gang and forced into their underworld, her future seems bleak.

Flo spent her early years in an orphanage, and is about to turn her hand to teacher training. When a kindly teacher at her school approaches her about a job at Bletchley Park, it could be everything she never knew she wanted.

Will the girls' friendship be enough to weather the hard times ahead?

Thank you, for reading my blog of introduction. I will come back soon to blog on my research, my journeys into the past as I visited the Somme, Austwich, Krakow, in Poland, and Normandy, to being realism to my work. And, many other topics. Much love to all, Mary x