Welcome to Susanna Bavin's Website.

 

 

I am a saga writer living on the beautiful North Wales coast, but I am originally from Manchester, which is where my books are set.

 

I am represented by Camilla Shestopal of Shesto Literary.

 

I also write as Polly Heron and as Maisie Thomas. I am on Facebook as Maisie.

 

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Latest News:

 

This week has officially been designated proofreading week! I proofread Dunbar's book 2, Hopeful Hearts at the Wartime Hotel, earlier in the week; and I'm now 100 pages into Home Front Girls book 5, A Baby for the Home Front Girls.

 

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If you haven't read A New Home at the Wartime Hotel yet, now is a good time to try it. It's just 99p on Kindle. Here's the link.

 

 

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I'm delighted to tell you that Wartime Hotel book 2 is now available to pre-order.

 

 

 

And, of course, Home Front Girls book 5, A Baby for the Home Front Girls, which comes out on September 5th, is also available to pre-order.

 

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that over 1,400 of you have already pre-ordered - and now that figure has risen to over 1800!

 

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Here is what the reviewers are saying about Home Front Girls book 4, A Wedding for the Home Front Girls:

 

‘I loved reading this book… Read it in one sitting… Unputdownable.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Completely captured me.. so heart-warming and I love spending my morning with a coffee and a (fair few) chapters of this book!’ stuck_in_the_book_loop ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Absolutely beautiful heart-warming saga… Fantastic… I loved it.' Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I loved being back with the girls… Beautiful… I love every single instalment.’ Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I have loved every book and it’s always a joy to be reunited with Sally, Betty and Lorna… Wonderful… Delightful.’ thebookjunction ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Phenomenal… truly remarkable and amazingly unpredictable.’ Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘An amazing book and a wonderful story… Fantastic.’ Goodreads reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A tearjerker and had me gripped! Excellent.’ lisabooksreviews

 

 

 

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 And if you a KU reader, you may also like to know that The Deserter's Daughter, as well as all of my Surplus Girls books written as Polly Heron - The Surplus Girls, The Surplus Girls' Orphans, Christmas with the Surplus Girls and New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls - are also available on Kindle Unlimited. Here is the Surplus Girls page link, which includes KU.

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If you would like to sign up to my Maisie Thomas newsletter, please click here to subscribe.

 

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My Blog

 

This week's blog gives more details about the two Wartime Hotel books.

 

 

 

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The Home Front Girls series is set in and around a salvage depot, so in this blog, I take a look at salvage - what we would today call recycling - on the Home Front in the Second World War. 

 


 

Here is the link to the series page on Amazon.

 

 

 

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Susanna Bavin Sagas

 


 

 

I have written four stand-alone sagas:

 

The Deserter's Daughter and A Respectable Woman, both set in the 1920s; The Sewing Room Girl, a Victorian saga; and The Poor Relation, which is set in Edwardian times.

 

The Deserter's Daughter is available on Kindle Unlimited. 

 

Link to my author page on Amazon.

 

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Writing as Polly Heron.

 

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

 

Who were the Surplus Girls? h

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

 

The first three Surplus Girls books are also available in a single volume on Kindle.

 

 

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Writing as Maisie Thomas

 

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 from early in 1940 until D Day in June 1944.

 

Here is the link to my Maisie page on Amazon.

 

 

The Railway Girls in order are:

1. The Railway Girls

2. Secrets of the Railway Girls

3. The Railway Girls in Love

4. Christmas with the Railway Girls

5. Hope for the Railway Girls

6. A Christmas Miracle for the Railway Girls

7. Courage of the Railway Girls

8. Christmas Wishes for the Railway Girls

9. Springtime with the Railway Girls

 

 

To read the blurbs and see the bookcovers, please click on the Maisie Thomas Books tab over on the left.

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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.

 

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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A Selection of Popular Blogse take a look at my latest blog to find ways to order Springtime with the Railw

In this blog, I wrote about choosing names for book-characters and what happens when names are too similar.

 

And in this blog I'm following the same theme of names. Here, you can find out what happened when changing a character's name involved creating a whole new person.

 

Have you ever wondered about all the work done on the Home Front to keep people safe? In an earlier blog, I take a look at the work of the ARP - Air Raid Precautions. You may not realise the large number of different and very important jobs this covered. I hope you'll enjoy my blog on the subject.

   

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 some of 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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Living by the sea:

 

I love living in Llandudno. We've been here since 2013, 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.