Pedlar's Row: A moving post-war saga of community, sisters and betrayal - Softcover

In 1946, Pedlar's Row in Bermondsey is home to a close-knit community counting its blessings to have survived the war intact - and full of curiosity about the new family moving into number three. And the Priors' move into the Row is not without incident. Laura Prior, who's unmarried, having had to care for her invalid father, enjoys the excitement of her new home, not least because of her growing attraction to docker Billy Cassidy. But her sister Lucy finds life harder; with rationing, a shortage of homes, having to contend with a husband who's emotionally scarred from his internment in a Japanese POW camp, and her guilt about a war-time affair, it isn't easy to settle down to normal married life. Then Lucy finds herself and her family embroiled in local villain Archie Westlake's shady dealings. And when a body is discovered on a bombsite behind the Row, no one is beyond suspicion of murder.

Harry Bowling was born in Bermondsey, London, and left school at fourteen to supplement the family income as an office boy in a riverside provisions' merchant. He was called up for National Service in the 1950s. Before becoming a writer, he was variously employed as a lorry driver, milkman, meat cutter, carpenter and decorator, and community worker. He lived with his wife and family, dividing his time between Lancashire and Deptford. We at Headline are sorry to say that THE WHISPERING YEARS was Harry Bowling's last novel, as he very sadly died in February 1999. We worked with him for over ten years, ever since the publication of his first novel, CONNER STREET'S WAR, and we miss him enormously, as do his many, many fans around the world. The Harry Bowling Prize was set up in memory of Harry to encourage new, unpublished fiction. Go to www.harrybowlingprize.net for more information.