Single to Brighton : True Edwardian Tales - Volume 1 : First book of a trilogy

The 1870s were carefree childhood days for Clara and Frank, playing along the waterways on Pevensey Levels.

She, one of the Inn Keepers' grandchildren and his father, the local landowner.

Love grew between the pair in nature's way. Years on when, Frank returned from University finding Clara working in his parent's kitchen their young adult emotions rekindled in a natural way.

Becoming aware of the situation Frank's parents moved swiftly to send their son far away to South Africa.

Just in time Clara presses a token of love to his heart; a small piece of Willow pattern China she named Mizpah.

In her bereavement she resolves to leave home to avoid bringing shame on her grandparents.

Brighton was full of surprises; like the sight of a roof piled high with onions and upturned cones and even a second hand food shop that came to her rescue.

With the support of her sisters Clara's life progressed through the cobbled lanes that glittered with fish scales.

Her first job, with her baby strapped to her back, papoose style, was baking cakes in a ladies speakeasy tea room by the Clock Tower.

Becoming cook in Hove's Adelaide Crescent to a musical family she met young Mister V.Williams and his friend Mister G. Holst who enjoyed her biscuits. Through the years Frank's letters found Clara wherever she was.

At first forlorn that she would never join him, but soon his letters were full of the wide open spaces and the animals that roamed the veld.

Marriage brought her to a little muse cottage in the town centre alongside a piano tuner and huge draught horses.

Clara was clear on what she felt about the Suffragettes and how the 1914-18 war affected Brighton's poor community, until fate again meant a break away for Clara and her family.