Joy M Lilley - guest on May 2024
Time’s Pendulum Swings Again is a powerful reminder that, despite our outward differences, we are all fundamentally the same. Jenny and Seb weren’t caught up in societal labels, and went over these surface-level distinctions. In their hearts’ eyes, there was only commonality in each other, regardless of their skin color or other superficial traits. Camilla Hillberg
Publishing History
First book published as an eread. ‘Figs, Vines and Roses’ January 2013. The story is fictional, however, contains many elements of fact. It is an historical, romance.
One short story published in the Lit Art magazine. March 2013
‘The Liberty Bodice’, my second novel is set in 1922 leading up to the Second World War. It encompasses the formidable predicaments and heroics of an S.O.E. {Special Operations Executive} agent involving her life before, during and after the war years. A WW2 drama published in July 2015.
Books
Time’s Pendulum Swings Again. Award winner.
Time's Pendulum Swings Again: A Novella
Jenny is working as a nurse, when she meets Seb. She is a young woman, living with her mother and has had a strict religious upbringing.
Seb is a handsome, successful surgical registrar and Jenny is incapable of resisting his charms. They fall in love, buy a flat and move in together, against Jenny’s mother’s wishes.
Then one day, Seb confesses to Jenny that he is already married with two young boys.
Can a heartbroken Jenny pick up the pieces of her life?
“I could see she was pleased that I had found myself a boyfriend who was a doctor, but knowing my mother, I think she would have been far happier if his skin had been white.”
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Figs, Vines & Roses
The year is 1888, and eight-year-old Isabella (Issy) Merryweather lives a comfortable life in Cobnut Hall, Derby.
Even at this tender age, her thoughts are focused on those less fortunate than herself, and she dreams of one day growing up to serve that population of people.
Sharing carefree summers with her brother, Clarence, her beloved dog, Molly, and cherished Grandma Ella, she enjoys the freedom of childhood innocence. But, as she comes of age, a move to Kent changes her life forever.
When Isabella meets Terence, a captivating boy from a poor background, an inseparable bond is formed in secret. But, after a heartbreaking turn of events, Isabella wonders how long secrets can stay secret before they reveal themselves?
This moving tale of love, loss, resilience, and redemption at the turn of the nineteenth century, is one that will linger in the minds of those who choose to ignore the hands of time and remain young at heart... always.
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My Aunt Peggy
This story written by the protagonists niece is an insight to a lady with little education or hope of achievements and success in her life. However, she bucked the trend and achieved much in life.
Her family loved her dearly and cared about her right up to the last. She achieved more in becoming a constant winner of bowls tournaments a game she dearly loved. She also won the hearts and minds of many celebrities in the forties, when she worked at the famous Pinewood film studios in Britain.
Many gave her their signed black and white photographs.
Auntie Peggy was an engaging character to most and an adversary to a few.
As you turn the pages you will be laughing and crying at some events of this intrepid lady’s life.
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Strawberry Moon
The Patterson family leaves the U.K. to begin a new life in France. St Severin, in the Dordogne, provides the backdrop for the family's new home and all of the life-changing obstacles they are about to encounter.
Maisie, who is almost seventeen, narrates this unpredictable story. Maisie struggles as she experiences the changes of coming of age, the pain of loss, and the rollercoaster ride of competing love interests.
Maisie's older brother, Dan, rebels over the move and frequently threatens to return to England when his studies are over. Dan starts an affair with a married French woman.
After a few months in France, he goes missing which begins to unravel the family. What starts as an exciting move becomes more difficult with each passing chapter.
Maisie is left navigating this complicated new world, all while trying to plan the rest of her adult life.
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The Liberty Bodice
Gloria Harris is born in Market Harborough in the United Kingdom, in 1922. She spends the first few years of life living with her parents and grandfather. Her siblings, an older sister and twin brothers, also share the household. The relationship between Gloria and her mother is strained much of the time.
The early days of her life are spent in considerable poverty, so much so that Gloria and her sister are sent away to Northern Ireland to be with their aunt and uncle, who are more affluent than their parents, due to the improving circumstances for the farming community in Ireland. Her aunt and uncle have a smallholding, and keep a few animals and poultry that provide them with eggs and milk: the land produces enough fresh vegetables for themselves and for sale at the local market. Gloria and her sister Ann are made to work hard during this time, helping out on the farm and with the household chores. Their aunt and uncle have no children and are not particularly kind to the girls. The sisters have to stay in Ireland much longer than they had been led to believe they would, and it is several years before they come home.
On their return to Market Harborough they discover that their brothers have both been in considerable trouble, one having made a girl pregnant and the other having stolen from his employer. Gloria realises that these circumstances were part of the reason why the girls had to stay away for so long.
At the age of sixteen Gloria is sent to France on a student exchange, where she stays in Nancy with the well-to-do family of Chantelle Valvoire, whom she befriends. Gloria has a penchant for languages and these talents are vastly enhanced during this period, when she speaks almost exclusively in French. She also loses her virginity to a dashing Frenchman and is terrified of pregnancy, but after she returns home,to her great relief, the putative pregnancy comes to an end. As a result of this experience she vows to have nothing more to do with men until she is older. This resolve soon weakens when she meets Geoffrey, a school teacher from London whom she encounters on the journey back from France. Once home, Gloria practices her love of languages in some form or another on most days, regularly enjoying conversing with her sister’s Dutch boyfriend, who helps and encourage her linguistic achievements. He teaches French and German at the school she attended.
The Second World War begins and Gloria does her bit for the war effort by working on the land after leaving school. But she is restless, anxious to play a much more active role in fighting for her country. After hearing an appeal from the Home Office for foreign language experts to work abroad, she finds out all she can about joining the Special Operations Executive (SOE). After some considerable time she secures an interview to join what became known as ‘Churchill’s secret army: the S.O.E. Her family are horrified at what their youngest daughter is letting herself in for and try their best to dissuade her, unsuccessfully.
After going through the rigid and arduous training to become an S.O.E. officer, she is sent into occupied France, where she is involved in a number of successful missions. Eventually she is captured by the Gestapo and sent to Fresnes prison in Paris, then on to the notorious Dachau Concentration Camp. In both places she is treated appallingly, being starved and tortured, and to avoid the likelihood of her inevitable death, she hatches a plan of escape. After doing so she has many trials and tribulations, after which she finally meets the brave Résistance leader and accomplished navigator, Sabien. He acts as guide for Gloria and some other stragglers through war-torn France and helps them back to England. Her feelings for him gradually turn from hate to love and they marry on the journey home. Sabien is subsequently summoned to the Normandy beaches to do vital Resistance tasks, and they part company until sometime later, when all hell is let loose.
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