MY FIRST NOVEL ....
Official publication date 28th February 2022
Available online at Waterstones, WH Smith, Foyles, World of Books, Blackwells, Amazon
​£8.99

It‘s 1930 and Poland’s economy is beginning to suffer as a result of the Great Depression. Kindhearted but naïve Marianna lives with her parents in the rural village of Zalipie in southeast Poland.  This small farming community is all she has ever known and she dreams of a different life in the city. A whirlwind romance with Leon, a dashing but egotistical musician, leads to a hasty marriage providing her with an opportunity for change.
 
Leon’s father, Stanislaw, runs the local grocery store in Kazimierz, a busy district of Krakow. His fellow shopkeepers and their families are a close-knit, diverse community and they welcome the couple with open arms, but the lives of the inhabitants of this small row of shops will be changed forever by the arrival of the newly wed couple.  By nightfall, the seeds of new relationships will have been sown and the shattering of others begun as family rifts, unfulfilled dreams and personal resentments are tested by their presence.
 
Filled with rich and contrasting characters the story centres around Marianna and Stefan, a talented carpenter whose marriage is less than perfect; Tomas, an endearing street urchin who is given a new chance in life away from his alcoholic brother Eryk; Feliks, a philandering and exuberant artist yet to fulfill his potential and Lydia, a young woman downtrodden by her overbearing mother.
 
Using rich descriptive prose the author sets a series of scenes that provide a range of insights into the characters personal lives, recollections and sometimes wild imaginings.    
 
 
 
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 INK PAINTINGS COMPLETED WINTER 2020
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