Welcome to Susanna Bavin's website.

 

I am a saga writer living in North Wales, but my books are all set in and around Manchester, which is where my family has lived for generations and where I grew up.

 

I have written four stand-alone sagas - The Deserter's Daughter, A Respectable Woman, The Sewing Room Girl and The Poor Relation.

 

Link to my author page on Amazon.

 

 

I am currently working on a Second World War trilogy, The Home Front Girls. All three books will be published during 2024.

 

Book 1, The Home Front Girls, is currently available to pre-order on Kindle. It will also come out in paperback and I'll let you know when that can be pre-ordered.

 

I also write as Polly Heron and Maisie Thomas.

 

As Polly Heron, I write The Surplus Girls 1920s saga series about young women striving for independence after the Great War.

 

As Maisie Thomas I write The Railway Girls saga series about the brave women and girls working on Britain's railways during the Second World War.

 

 

I am represented by Camilla Shestopal at Shesto Literary.

 

To find out about my books, please click on the tabs at the side.

 

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Finding me online:

 

Here are my Amazon author pages for me writing as Susanna and as Polly and Maisie.   

 

And here is my Twitter link for Susanna - and here are Polly's and Maisie's.

 

Here is my Polly Heron website, with lots more information about the Surplus Girls series.

 

And you can find me on Facebook on my Maisie Thomas author page for the latest information about all my books - Susanna's and Polly's as well as Maisie's. I also share snippets I've found in my research as well as other things I hope my readers will enjoy. As a community, every weekend we share what we're currently reading. We're a friendly lot, so do join us!

 

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Latest News:

 

Springtime with the Railway Girls, book 9 in the series, was published on March 14th.

 

How to get your copy:
 
Here are the links to the Amazon paperback and Kindle.
 
Here's the link to Kobo. This page has the e-book and the audiobook.
 
You can also order your paperback in person from any branch of WH Smith’s, Waterstone’s or any bookshop. You won’t be charged for placing an order.

 

 

And of course you can request the book from your local public library. Coming from a family of lifelong library users, and as a former librarian, I love it when readers borrow my books!

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I am delighted to share with you the cover for the second Home Front Girls book, Courage for the Home Front Girls, which will be published in May.

 

 

If you would like to pre-order it, click here and it will take you to the Kindle page. The book will also be available in paperback, but the pre-order is not open yet.

 

Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/MaisieThomasAuthor

 

If you are a NewGalley reader and reviewer, you may liketo know that The Home Front Girls is now available to be requested. Here is the link.

 

And here is another photo for you - a really gorgeous one, if I do say so myself!

 

I have received my box of author copies of Springtime with the Railway Girls. It is always such a thrill to hold the book for the first time.

 

The Home Front Girls is available to pre-order now by clicking on this link: https://geni.us/B0CSG3WLMVcover Publication day is April 16th.

 

Currently only the Kindle version is up for pre-order but the book will also be available in paperback - I'll give you details of that in due course.

 

lease take a look at my latest blog to find ways to order Springtime with the Railway Gir

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My Blog:  

 

This week's blog celebrates publication day - of course. And I'm celebrating something else too...

 

In an earlier blog, I explain something of the planning process that lay behind The Surplus Girls series; and also take a close look at Belinda, the heroine of book 1.

 

Click here to see the blog.

 

In a very popular blog, I looked at a Railway Girls character who captured readers' hearts from the moment she first appeared on the page.

 

To read about lovely Dot Green, click here.

 

And here is another very popular Railway Girls blog - this time concentrating on Joan. Click here.

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A Look at My Bookshelves:

 

These are the books that help me write my books.

 

The history of costume has been a great interest of mine for many years and here are some of the books that I refer to not just when I'm writing but also for pleasure.

 

This dictionary of words that entered the language in the 20th Century has been invaluable to me.

 

These are the railway books that have helped me write the Railway Girls series.

 

Here are some of my Second World War books:

 

 

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This cookery book - which a present to me on my 21st birthday - has proved invaluable as a reference tool.

 

Here are some of the books that helped provide meals in my Railway Girls books and Home Front Girls books.

 

Sometimes a couple of sentences is all it takes. A couple of lines from this book of oral history ended up inspiring a whole chapter of The Railway Girls in Love. (If you're wondering, it's the chapter involving the incendiary and the dustbin lid.)

 

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This Month in the Past:

 

In March 2019, I was busy writing The Railway Girls.

 

By the end of the month, I had got to 45,333 words.

....and in March 2020, I was writing The Railway Girls in Love....

 

... while in the middle of March 2021, I finished writing book 4, Christmas with the Railway Girls.

 

In March 2022, I was busy on various things, including the edits for New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls....

 

... and in March 2023, I wrote the whole of the first draft of Courage for the Home Front Girls.

 

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Polly Heron:

 

As Polly, I have written a 1920s quartet called The Surplus Girls. Surplus girls were that generation of young woman who, because of the loss of life on the battlefields of the First World War, missed out on the opportunity to marry - which was, of course, seen as the purpose of a woman's life at that time. Instead, they suddenly found themselves in the position of having to support themselves for a lifetime, and without the necessary education and training behind them.

 

The four Surplus Girls novels in order are:

The Surplus Girls

The Surplus Girls' Orphans

Christmas with the Surplus Girls

New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls

 

Here is the link to the series page on Amazon Kindle. The first two titles are on Kindle Unlimited.

 

 

The first three titles are also available as a 3-in-1 Kindle edition.

 

 

 

 

Living by the sea:

 

I love living in Llandudno. We've been here for eleven years now, but that "Wow! We really live here," feeling never goes away.

 

Take a look at some of my favourite photos by clicking on the Llandudno tab.