These three family sagas are set in the Birmingham area in the 1920s and 30s:-

If you cannot obtain them in bookstores, e-mail me. I have copies available.

The Cobweb Cage

Cover of The Cobweb Cage

Life is grim in the Staffordshire colliery town for Marigold Smith and her sisters, and when she has the chance to go into service in Oxford, she welcomes it.

There she meets and falls in love with the wealthy Richard Endersby, but their happiness is destroyed when the Great War separates them. Her family's problems force Marigold into making heartrending choices, but she fights to help them survive, and to keep her hope alive.

Reviews of The Cobweb Cage

'A riveting, pacy read' - Emma Blair

'The Cobweb Cage is very atmospheric and the intriguing story never falters. This is a story that won't let you go, filled with people and places you recognise with your inner eye, and situations that are at once familiar and surprising' - Susan Sallis

'I enjoyed this well-researched book immensely - ideal escapism on a cold wet day' - Anita Burgh

'An absorbing family saga with a splendid cast of characters' - Annabel magazine

'I hope a sequel is planned' - SWWJ

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The Glowing HoursCover of The Glowing Hours

Three girls, longing to escape, become friends as they dance their way onto the 1920s music-hall stages. There is Nell fleeing from her brutal father in the slums of Ladywood, Gwyneth who has escaped from the narrow-minded Welsh preacher, and Kitty who is bored with the propriety of her upper-class home in Edgbaston. From Birmingham and the surrounding towns they dream of Paris and the Folies-Bergère.

Struggling against threats from their families, distracted by Paul Mandeville, a charismatic doctor, the languid Hon. Timothy Travers, and Kitty's saxophonist cousin Andrew, the girls fight to achieve their dreams.

Reviews of The Glowing Hours

'A lovely regional saga set in the 1920s Midlands which tells the story of three very different women.' - Sarah Broadhurst, Bracknell and Wokingham News Extra.

'We get the early music hall days interlaced with intriguing relationships, humnan drama, bags of ambition and a colourful plot.' - The News, Portsmouth.

'Both The Cobweb Cage and The Glowing Hours make compulsive reading.' - Select Magazine.

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The Golden RoadCover of The Golden Road

Josie Shaw rejects marriage as a way of rescuing her and her mother from the debts left by her stepfather. It's the 1930s and she wants a career. She persuades her step-brother Leo to employ her in his Birmingham jewellery factory, and is also introduced to the world of motor rallies and the Monte Carlo dream.

Her world collapses when she is falsely accused of theft, and she struggles to overcome poverty to provide for her sick mother and herself.

Reviews of The Golden Road

'Thanks to an absorbing background peopled by believable and sympathetic characters this is a book increasingly difficult to put down. Reaching the end is like saying goodbye to old friends.' - Jean Ellis, Bradford Telegraph and Argus.

'Marina Oliver has written two superb period sagas set in Birmingham in the 20s and 30s The Golden Road and The Glowing Hours and the characters are so real that you really care about them.' - Peterborough Evening Telegraph.

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