Sheelagh Kelly Books

Family ties have united the Feeneys through famine and poverty, but can they withstand success? It is 1875 and the Feeneys have left the squalor of York’s slums behind them. Yet all is not well. Patrick remains a man of simple tastes, increasingly out of touch with Thomasin’s ambition to expand her business empire still further across Yorkshire. After losing their son, the Feeneys’ hopes for the family’s future now lie with their grandchildren. There is Rosanne, set to follow a rebel lover down a star-crossed road, and Erin’s daughter Belle, gifted and headstrong but born with a disability. But what happens next will test them all. Erin’s Child is the third book in the Feeney Family Sagas. Packed with humour, life and drama, it is an unputdownable account of one family’s struggle to survive. ‘A fine romance in Sheelagh Kelly’s popular series’ Yorkshire Evening Post

Probyn Kilmaster, wanting more from life, runs away to join the army. On his first posting he becomes involved with a woman, and makes her his wife. But when she starts to boss him around, Probyn searches for escape. He is sent back to England, only to fall in love and marry.

A stunning saga set in the city of York, as a poor boy falls for a rich girl -- a tale of passion, poverty, and ultimately great bravery as they fight to keep together against everyone's expectations. Marty Lanegan is working as a boot boy in York's splendid Station Hotel when he catches sight of the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. Henrietta Ibbetson is the daughter of a prominent landowner, who's far from pleased with his rebellious daughter. When she announces her love for a mere servant, he throws her out. Marty's family is none too delighted with his choice -- Etta can't cook, sew, clean or make herself useful in any way. However, Marty is ambitious, Etta is content and they are wildly in love. But is that enough to sustain them as they raise a family of their own? Sheelagh Kelly is back with a tremendously compelling saga of life below the poverty line in her home town of York, as the rigid conventions of Edwardian England crumble in the onslaught of the Great War -- and her characters face the changes with warmth, humour and determination.

One fateful morning in August 1846, Patrick Feeney surveyed his ruined potato crop - and for the first time knew despair. With a delicate wife and their unborn child, he had no choice but to leave that wild and beautiful corner of Ireland and set out for England in search of work. But from the moment Patrick and Mary set foot in Liverpool, they are beset by new trials. After tramping the long, weary miles to York, they are forced to settle in the nightmarish slums of Walmgate, where disease and death are rife. Yet the very poverty and hopelessness of their surroundings bind the small community together in a stubborn determination to survive through tragedy and win for themselves a better life.