Seventeen-year-old Liza is happy working as a lady's maid - until her employers decide to emigrate and her father makes up his mind that she is to wed an older widower whom she detests. Determined to avoid a loveless marriage, Liza plans to run away, and when the widower rapes her in order to force her to marry him, she flees back to the family for whom she worked, and they all set out on the long voyage to Australia. On board ship Liza realises she has fallen pregnant, and that even if she can survive the journey, the demanding life of a settler in 1850s Western Australia will be made even harder by an illegitimate child. But Liza is to find that in addition to deprivation of the worst sort, Australia will offer her opportunities she could never have dreamt of back home in Lancashire.
Anna Jacobs was born in England but emigrated to Australia thirty years ago. Now she and her husband spend part of the year in each country. She's totally addicted to writing, and produces three novels a year. If she slows down, new characters nag her till she tells their stories. And after all, dusting isn't important - story-telling is. She was first published in fiction in 1992 and as of April 2011, she has had 53 novels published, a few under other names. At the moment Anna is writing historical sagas for one UK publisher and modern novels for another, but she doesn't guarantee not to try other genres. Writing is too much fun to be limited in any way. She's been married to her own hero for many happy years, and they have two daughters and one grandson.
Anna also wrote fantasy novels as Shannah Jay, and these books have now been reiussed as Kindle books.
