Sunday’s Child (2022) – Left on the steps of an orphanage when she was just days old, Nancy Sunday was brought up in hardship – until the kindly Rosalind Carey took her in. Now eighteen years old, Nancy is an adopted member of the Carey family. But she can’t help wondering who her parents really were… When Nancy is sent away to finishing school, she finds herself in the midst of London society. There she meets Freddie Ashton – kind and warm-hearted, he might just be the man of Nancy’s dreams. But she knows his wealthy parents would never let him marry a penniless foundling. A Village Scandal (2020) – April 1869. It’s spring in Little Creek and wedding bells are ringing. After their hasty marriage the Christmas before, Daisy is overjoyed to be finally marrying dashing Jay properly, in front of the whole village. But then, on the evening of their wedding, amid the festivities, Jay disappears. Daisy doesn’t know if Jay is dead or alive, if she’s his wife or his widow. And what’s more, without her husband, she has no means of supporting herself or her household.

Runaway Widow (2022) – When Lady Patricia Greystone’s husband dies suddenly, she is left with nothing. At twenty-four, she finds herself a penniless widow. Determined not to return to her family cap in hand, she strikes out on her own. In the rougher parts of London, Patricia’s voice is her only hope. She makes her living singing at inns and on the streets. But a dangerous figure from her family’s past is lurking in the shadows, and before long she finds herself fleeing London. Dilly’s debut novel, called “Mermaids Singing”, was released in the year 2005. She writes family saga and historical fiction novels and also writes as Lily Baxter. Ragged Rose (2016) – With the fate of her family in her hands, Rose has to make a terrible choice. Be thrown onto the streets without a penny to her name, or watch her loved ones fall into ruin . . . Rose is keeping a dreadful secret, and too scared to ask her strict father for help, it’s down to her to keep her brother from the hangman’s noose – whatever it takes. Her innocent sister Cora is on a different road to ruin, bewitched by a handsome cad whose intentions are anything but gallant. The Best of Sisters (2007) – Twelve-year-old Eliza Bragg has known little in life but the cold, comfortless banks of the Thames. Living above her uncle’s chandlery she has grown accustomed to a life of penury and servitude, her only comfort is the love and protection of her older brother, Bart. But one day Bart accidentally kills a man and is forced to flee to New Zealand. Alone, barefoot, beaten down and at the mercy of her cruel uncle, Eliza realizes that her very survival is at stake… A Mother’s Courage(2007) – When Eloise Cribb receives the news that her husband’s ship has been lost at sea she wonders how she is ever going to manage. With two young children, the rent overdue, and almost nothing to live on, she has no alternative but to turn to his estranged family for help. She sets off on the long and arduous journey to Yorkshire but is met with hostility and soon realizes she has little choice but to return to London. Virtually destitute and desperate, Eloise is faced with her worst nightmare.A Mother’s Promise (2008) – When Hetty Huggins made a promise to her dying mother that she would look after her younger sister and brothers, little did she know how difficult this would be. But despite the threat of being turned out onto the streets by the unscrupulous tallyman and the never-ending struggle just to exist, Hetty is determined her family will never starve or want for a roof over their heads. Longing for something better out of life than the daily grind of making matchboxes for a pittance, she dreams of setting up her own business.

Dilly’s ability to bring the era alive the characters into believable entity’s and the colourful expression and great pace leaves me, the reader, never wanting it to end!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Each day, Dilly begins at 8:30 and writes until lunch time. Some days she’ll get so immersed in her story that she forgets everything and time will pass so fast that, by the time she finally does stop, she can’t believe two to three hours have gone by. She’s been in some other world her characters who make their own story up actually inhabit.The Lady’s Maid (2012) – In the quiet of a warm summer’s evening, two young mothers are forced to give up their babies. Whilst Kate grows up knowing only poverty and servitude, Josie’s world is one of privilege and luxury. Despite the differences in their circumstances, Kate and Josie have been friends since childhood. But their past binds them together in ways they must never know. Until a chance meeting forces Kate and Josie to confront the truth of that night nearly twenty years before – a truth that turns both worlds upside down and threatens to destroy their friendship forever… A Mother’s Secret (2010) – When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer, she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry. When he is reported missing, believed killed in action, Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin, she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, knowing she must keep the secret of her child’s birth forever. Dilly Court grew up in northeast London and resides in Dorset on the beautiful Jurassic Coast with her husband with whom she has two grown kids and four grandkids. She started her writing career writing scripts for television commercials. This book, like all the other books in the series, was excellent. I just couldn't put it down. It was filled with mystery and romance from beginning to end’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Snow Bride (2022) – A chance encounter brings Nancy Sunday to the streets of London, where she finds herself amongst a band of street urchins. Her heart may have been broken by love but it’s big enough to help those less fortunate than herself, and Nancy takes these unloved orphans in – but when one of them is accused of a serious crime, the neighborhood turns against her. By the early afternoon, she’ll have done all her correspondence, paid a few bills, and written out a shopping list. Nothing all that romantic, but entirely necessary. After she’s done that, she’s earned a cup of tea and some custard creams in a biscuit tin. Now, with more than 30 books published, Dilly Court is well known for her bestselling novels like The Button Box, The Orphan’s Dream, and more. Dolly Blanchard dreams of a bigger life. She wants to make a mark on the world, not simply wait for a husband to come along. So when an impoverished actress offers her a lifeline, Dolly flees to London, determined to make it on the stage and prove to her family – and herself – that she can strike out alone. The village in Little Creek, during the long winter of 1867. The first flakes of snow are falling to the ground when Daisy Marshall, who is secretly engaged to her master’s son, finds she’s being jilted at the altar.The Workhouse Girl (2013) – Circumstances force eight-year-old Sarah and her widowed mother to enter the notorious St Giles and St George’s Workhouse. When her mother dies in childbirth, the independent-minded Sarah falls foul of the workhouse master, Trigg, and his cruel wife. Sarah’s ordeal seems to be over when a sugar mill owner takes her into his home. But her wealthy benefactor reports Trigg and his wife. And blaming Sarah for their misfortune, in a fit of revenge, the couple decides to take the law into their own hands.