The Fountain

Norfolk, 1920. Barbara Bosgrove has lived in the market town of Melsham all her life, and is looking forward to the annual Harvest Supper dinner and ball - the first since the dark days of the First World War. George Kennett, a fiercely ambitious man, has had his eye on Barbara since spotting her with her great friend Penny, and Penny's brother Simon. He begins a slow and steady courtship and Barbara is eventually won over, agreeing to marry a man she believes she can rely on. Little does she realise how wrong she can be. Worn down by George's unfaithfulness during their marriage, Barbara feels she has lost all the vitality of her youth. But Simon is not prepared to let Barbara lose sight of the woman she really is - the woman he has always loved. He reawakens Barbara's passion and fighting spirit, but at what cost?

Born in Singapore of a Dutch-South African father and an English mother, MARY NICHOLS came to England when she was three and spent most of her life in different parts of East Anglia. She had been a radiographer, school secretary, editor for one of the John Lewis Partnership house magazines and an information services manager for an open learning company, as well as a writer. From short stories and articles for a variety of newspapers and magazines, she turned to writing novels. Mary wrote historical romance for Mills & Boon as well as family sagas. She was also the author of The Mother of Necton, a biography of her grandmother, who was a midwife and nurse in a Norfolk village between the wars. Mary died in 2016.