Our Lizzie [Hardcover]

Anna Jacobs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

Lizzie Kershaw is an independent spirit. At twelve, she loses her father and her happy family life ends as her mother grows to resent her. Then circumstances push Lizzie into an early marriage, where she finds her mother's petty cruelties replaced by her husband's frequent beatings.

But she is a survivor. When World War I breaks out, Lizzie's husband is forced to join up and she seizes the opportunity to run away. She finds independence and friendship in a munitions factory - plus the promise of a new love. But as war ends, the shadow of her husband looms again. Can she break free of him and find happiness?

This is a vivid and engrossing tale of endurance, set in Lancashire from 1909-1914. Anna Jacobs has once again created characters so real you laugh and weep with them and you will never forget Our Lizzie.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Young Lizzie Kershaw knew that her mother hated her. It didn't matter what Lizzie did or how good she tried to be; her mother would always find something wrong with her. A part-time job with Dearden's shop helped get Lizzie out of the house. Then a few years later, when Sam Thoxby proposes, Lizzie grasps the chance to get away permanently. But once they're wed, Lizzie discovers she has escaped from one unhappy household into another as Sam turns into a stranger, forbidding her to talk to family and friends, not allowing her to work, and eventually becoming abusive whenever she angers or defies him. As England becomes involved in World War I and Sam goes off to fight, Lizzie finally escapes, but when Sam returns, Lizzie finds her new happy life, and second chance at love, threatened. A stubbornly courageous young woman endures an abusive marriage and then manages to create a more hopeful future in Jacobs' captivating, wonderfully old-fashioned historical novel. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Brilliantly researched both socially and historically. Her characterization and settings are real and believable. Reading her books is like going back in time."
-Bookworm Newsletter [Australia] on Our Lizzie

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition/First Printing edition (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312311435
• ISBN-13: 978-0312311438
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A strong historical character study, September 2, 2003

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Lizzie (Hardcover)

In 1908 when she was twelve, Lizzie Kershaw sees her pleasant world end with the accidental death of her father at the brewery he worked at. The family finds different ways to bring in income including two borders, the Harper sisters, who have shared a similar loss of income due to a death. Though young, Lizzie accepts a job as her part to make money. Sam Thoxby takes advantage of the grieving Kershaw and Harper families though he pretends to be a Good Samaritan providing help, but he has hidden agendas. In the case of the Kershaws, he plans to one day marry Lizzie when she is of an age because he likes her spirit.

Over the next few years, Lizzie's mother is mean and viscous towards Lizzie culminating with her forcing her to marry Sam. He is physically abusive so she learns when it is worth the beatings to challenge him. When he goes off to war, she takes employment at a munitions factory where she begins to fall in love with someone else. However, Sam still looms on the horizon and divorce is unacceptable.

This is a strong historical character study that includes a finely developed ensemble. The story line enables the audience to observe life in the first quarter of the twentieth century as Anna Jacobs provides a powerful spotlight. Sam is too sly and devious so that some of the tension between he and a rival upon his return from the war is abated. Still OUR LIZZIE is a tremendous historical fiction that escorts the audience into an up front and close view of life in England almost a century ago.

Harriet Klausner