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For a brief introduction to any of Margaret
Dickinson's novels please click on the relevant cover picture Margaret Dickinson's new novel
When Florrie Maltby defies her father by refusing to marry Gervase Richards, she sets off a chain of events that will alter her life. Instead she goes to London and becomes involved with the suffragette movement. She’s imprisoned for her militant actions, and goes on hunger strike. With her health deteriorating, there is one person who can save her – Gervase.
After a brief stay in the countryside to recuperate, Florrie returns to London to continue her fight for women’s rights. Only the outbreak of the Great War puts a halt to her activities. It is when James, her younger brother, is shamed by their father into volunteering, that Florrie enlists as a nurse and is sent to the Front. Amidst the fear and horror of the hospital close to the trenches, she finds love. But when her beloved brother is accused of desertion, help comes from a very unexpected source.
Upcoming Events 2009
Friday, 6th March WHSmith, Skegness 9.30am to 11.30am WHSmith, Boston 2pm to 3.30pm
Saturday, 7th March Waterstones, Lincoln 11am to 1pm WHSmith, Lincoln 2pm to 3.30pm
Sunday, 8th March WHSmith, Meadowhall 11am to 3pm Sheffield
Tuesday, 10th March WHSmith, Gainsborough 10.30am to 12.30pm WHSmith, Retford 2pm to 3pm
Wednesday, 11th March Waterstones, Boston 10.30am to 11.30am Oldrids, Boston 12.30pm to 2pm Waterstones, Boston 7pm “Meet the Author”
Friday, 13th March WHSmith, Grantham 10.30am to 12pm Downtown, Grantham 1pm to 3pm
Saturday, 14th March WHSmith, Grimsby 10.30am to 12pm Waterstones, Grimsby 2pm to 3pm
Tuesday, 17th March Bookmark, Spalding 10.30am to 1pm
Wednesday, 18th March WHSmith, Louth 10am to 11.30am MSR News 12pm to 1 (formerly Spencers)
Thursday, 19th March Perkins, Horncastle 10am to 11.30am Coningsby Bookshop 1pm to 2.30pm
Saturday, 21st March WHSmith, Newark 10.30am to 12.30pm
Thursday, 16th April Werrington Library, “Meet the Author” Nr Peterborough 2pm
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Born
in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Margaret Dickinson has spent most of her life
in the county, moving to the East Coast from Nottinghamshire at the age of
seven. She began writing at the
age of fourteen with the ambition to be in print
and her first novel was published in 1968 when she was twenty-six. Seven others followed this between
1969 and 1984 but then, because of family commitments, Margaret was unable to
write for seven years. In 1991,
encouraged by her husband to begin writing again, Margaret had that little
piece of luck that everyone needs - she found a wonderful agent, Darley
Anderson, who advised her to write a regional saga with a strong woman as the
central character. In
1993 Pan Macmillan offered a two-book contract for Plough the Furrow, the first in the Fleethaven Trilogy, and its
sequel, Sow the Seed, which were
published in 1994 and 1995 respectively. It seemed as if Margaret had found her niche; writing
romantic fiction and bringing to life her love of the sea, the Lincolnshire
landscape and its people. Reap the Harvest, published in 1996,
completed the trilogy. Church
Farm Museum at Skegness - a “living” museum - was the model for Brumbys’ Farm
and the setting was Gibraltar Point. In
1997 The Miller’s Daughter,
inspired by the windmill at Burgh-le-Marsh, near Skegness, was published and
in the following year Chaff Upon the
Wind took the Manor House at Alford as the setting for the characters in
the story. Grimsby was the
inspiration for The Fisher Lass,
evoking the dramas of those who are born to the fishing way of life and
described by the publishers as ‘...a love story as powerful and restless as
the mighty North Sea.’ This was
published in 1999. Spalding and
district was the setting for The Tulip
Girl published in August 2000 and The
River Folk, inspired by Margaret’s birthplace, Gainsborough, was
published on 22nd June 2001. Tangled Threads, a story with the
Nottinghamshire framework knitting and lace industries in the early 1900s as
the setting was published in May 2002 and its sequel in 2003, Twisted Strands, followed the lives of
the same characters affected by the Great War. Margaret’s novel for 2004, Red Sky in the Morning, returned to the Lincolnshire Wolds and
evoked the era of the Second World War and its aftermath. The
Workhouse Museum at Southwell in Nottinghamshire was the inspiration for Without Sin, published in April
2005. As always, Margaret’s
characters and storylines are completely fictitious, though the background
research at the museum was fascinating. Pauper’s Gold, published in April
2006, is an emotional story of love and survival, set in a Derbyshire cotton
mill and the silk town of Macclesfield. In the 1850s life was harsh for the
pauper apprentices, children taken from workhouses and bound to their masters
for years. And, with the onset
of the American civil war, a cotton famine caused greater hardship in the
mills of England. Wish Me Luck, published by Macmillan and Pan Books in April 2007, is set in Lincolnshire during World War II. The shout line on the book cover says it all: "Love and Laughter, Tears and Courage in a Time of War".
Sing As We Go, published in March 2008, again has the Second World War as its setting and is the story of a girl who, after tragedy and heartbreak, joins a concert party to entertain troops, hospitals and war workers.
Wherever Margaret travels, she is never “off duty” when it comes to finding ideas for her novels. On her first-ever trip abroad in 2004 to Davos, in Switzerland, which in the early part of the twentieth century was a centre for the treatment of tuberculosis, Margaret found fascinating information that led to writing Suffragette Girl. The story begins and ends with the heroine, Florrie, in Davos, but in between she becomes a suffragette, a VAD nurse in the front line in the Great War and even takes part in the General Strike of 1926.
To
celebrate the Millennium, Margaret was invited by the Skegness Playgoers to
write a community play. Embracing Tides, featuring the life of
a fictional family throughout the twentieth century in Skegness, was staged
at the Embassy Theatre, Skegness, on 23rd, 24th and 25th November, 2000, and
also on 1st December as the Playgoers’ entry for that year’s Play
Festival. The production won
five of the Festival’s thirteen awards. Margaret still lives in Lincolnshire. She has been married to Dennis for over forty four years and has two grown-up daughters and is now a proud Grannie.
Thank you for visiting my website Best wishes
Margaret Dickinson Margaret Dickinson's novels are published in paperback by
Pan Books
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