It's the Lake District, 1908. To all appearances, Livia, Ella and Maggie Angel lead a privileged life in a large country estate, with seemingly little to disturb their happiness, but since the death of their mother, their family home has been a far from a quiet haven for them. Their bully of a father, Josiah Angel, who runs a high-class department store and has aspirations of becoming the town mayor, sees his daughters as mere bargaining tools in his property empire. Empty-headed, spoiled Ella is married off to a farmer in a remote part of the Lake District, but Livia, the eldest and most spirited of the three, refuses to be dictated to and suffers bitterly as a consequence. Having found true love with a man from the poorest district in town, she is not going to give in to her father's wishes quietly. The youngest sister, Maggie, is not so lucky, and her young life is blighted by her father's actions. When the sisters discover their father had an affair many years ago, which resulted in the birth of a baby girl, they determine to find their half-sister, and their search begins in the local workhouse. Mercy, however, is not so sure she wants to be found - throughout the hardships of life in the Angel family, the four sisters must learn to pull together to survive, and to choose their own destiny.
Born in Lancashire, Freda Lightfoot lived for a number of years in the Lake District where she ran a bookshop. She then tried her hand at the 'good life', kept sheep and hens, various orphaned cats and dogs, built drystone walls, planted a small wood and even learned how to make jam. She has now given up her thermals to build a house in an olive grove in Spain, where she produces her own olive oil. She has published over 30 novels including many bestselling family sagas and historical novels.
