Kitty And Her Boys Hardback: Piatkus 1996 Paperback: Bantam 1997 Large Print: Magna 1997 C) June Francis 1996 Washing the linen, shopping, cooking, swapping stories with the guests... the rigours and dramas of life at the Arcadia Hotel in Liverpool's Mount Pleasant leave widow and proprietress Kitty Ryan no time for romance. Except in the shape of the occasional Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire musical. Then along comes John 'big fella' Mcleod, bringing with him the joyful sound of wedding bells. As Kitty nears forty, she even dares to hope for one last chance of a baby daughter to join her family of three boys, and to lighten the depression years. But in taking a second stab at happiness, Kitty Ryan seems to tempt Providence and finds she has invited unseen complications to the doorstep of the Arcadia. As Hitler grows too big for his boots and 'Peace in our time' becomes an empty refrain, she watches her brood splintering under the strain of living as 'step relations'. And unless she can reunite her menfolk, the future looks set to be that of a family at war in a world at war. Back to Books2 Back to Main Page