The Tin House
By
Elizabeth Owen

From the beginning, life shows that it could be unbelievably cruel to Tilly, a young girl born in Bilston in the Black Country of the English Midlands. Orphaned at the age of ten, Tilly is sent to live in a convent before being placed into service on a dairy farm. When she turns eighteen, she meets a kind, hard-working man named Jim, falls in love, and marries him. Together, Tilly and Jim raise a large family in a rustic Tin House-five of their nine children born before they even install indoor plumbing.

Daily living at the Tin House presents constant challenges to the struggling family. During one rough winter, Jim is forced to cut down seven of their precious apple trees as well as sacrificing his daughter's precious piano in order to keep everyone warm. Several of the children endure injuries and accidents; a stern, well-to-do aunt even attempts to buy one of Tilly's children to raise as her own. The eldest daughter suffers through a physically abusive marriage, before finally finding her way home to safety.

But at the Tin House, where a cast of quirky friends and beloved relatives congregate on weekends and the neighborhood kids gather for sledging parties, bonfires and games of rounder and tracking in the fields, the kettle is always on for a cuppa, and no one ever goes hungry.

The Tin House is a celebration of Tilly's life, through the humorous times as well as the heartbreaking. Above all, it's a reminder of the sanctity of family and a parent's unconditional love for her children, no matter how difficult life may sometimes seem.

A collection of 11 short, diabolical and ironic stories from Gerald J. Tate, the author of Cappawhite I, and Beyond The Forest's Edge, Cappawhite II. Journey to odd places and experience new perspectives that could only come from the mind of Gerald J. Tate. A sample of what awaits you inside: THE SANDCASTLE-An early morning stroll on the beach, turns into a nightmare for Tom Harper, when he tangles with the jogger with a difference. I AM WITH YOU-Arnold feels life has no more to offer, after a series of events in his life grow rapidly worse. But things for him may not be all they seem. WINNIE'S TALE-A dying woman hunts for the son she gave up 25 years previously. But will he want to know her? ANGEL IN HELL-A German officer in the Nazi death camps shows compassion toward a sick Jewish family. SECRET LIES-Don Richards cannot disguise his loathing for his wife's mother and brother, but he would soon find how badly he has misjudged them. Note: All the author's royalties for this book will be donated to the Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children located in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Call of the Huntsman
By
Nina Whitehouse

Frances Wiseman’s first six years were filled with fear and sleepless nights. Halten, the mining village where she lived, housed not just a working coalmine, but also an armaments factory within its boundaries. The Wiseman family’s greatest worries, however, were about their father who was a rear gunner in a Wellington bomber. Most evenings, sirens would sound at around seven o’clock when the Luftwaffe came looking for their prey. The family gathered together and fled into the hastily built air raid shelter located in the garden next door. Frances’ mam tried to keep everyone calm by telling stories about her childhood—when her father was the local squire and hunt leader and she had her own lady’s maid. Her mam never mentioned gypsies in her stories. If the neighbours had any idea that this former mine manager’s family had gypsy blood in their veins, their lives would have become a living hell.

None of the miner’s wives believed any of Sarah Wiseman’s stories, but Frances quietly promised her mam that she would find the girlhood home when she grew up and they could all live there together in peace and happiness as a family. The story opens in 1999 with a grown-up and successful Frances Wiseman looking for Lambecote Grange and its land. The story then flashes back to 1889 and the landowning gentry and life seen through the eyes of Rosina, the grandmother of Frances.

We share a century of heartbreaking events with Rosina and her daughter, Sarah. Sarah’s only solace as a child is in speaking secretly to her dead father, George Bingham (The Huntsman), through his silver hunting horn which she had rescued from the family home, Lambecote Grange, after his untimely death. In much the same way that an impressionist artist portrays reality, this book paints an impression of the 20th century. Each decade is chronicled, and leaves a haunting impression on the reader before it moves on to the next. The author takes the reader on a trip through time, carefully brushing in the intricate details of the Wiseman family’s heritage. As we travel though the triumphs and tragedies of this family we experience wealth, poverty, Romany gypsies, and life in a Yorkshire Coal Mining Village—at a time when the production of coal was reckoned more precious than gold.

website: www.callofthehuntsman.com