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:
I am delighted to announce that I have been asked to write more books for the Home Front Girls series. This is all due to you, my lovely readers, who have made books 1 and 2 such a success and who have pre-ordered book 3, which comes out at the end of September.
Book 4 will be published in May 2025 and book 5 will come out in September 2025.
Link to the Home Front Girls series page on Amazon.
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I'm delighted to share with you this extract of a review for Springtime with the Railway Girls, from Yvonne G, who is a prolific reader and reviewer who shares her reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, Goodreads, Waterstones and other sites.
"As ever, the facts surrounding this multi-layered and totally immersive fictional story, are meticulously researched and detailed by an author who clearly knows and loves her subject with a passion and complete confidence in the imagery and emotions her words can evoke. This series is a social record of the war effort conducted from home soil, specifically focusing on the important part the railway network played in holding the country together and keeping everyone connected during those difficult years."
* * * * * * h I am delighted and proud - and, let's be honest, also somewhat amazed - to tell you that a blog I published recently has so far been visited by 620 people! Wow! That's a record.
It's about the art of writing a blurb for the back of a book, using A Respectable Woman as an example. If you want to take a look, click here.
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My Blog The Home Front Girls series is set in and around a salvage depot, so in this week's blog, I'm taking a look salvage - what we would today call recycling - on the Home Front in the Second World War.
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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.
h I am currently writing a Second World War saga series called the Home Front Girls, of which the first two books - The Home Front Girls and Courage for the Home Front Girls - have so far been published. Both titles are 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:
Christmas with the Surplus Girls
New Beginnings for the Surplus Girls
| Books 1 and 2, The Surplus Girls and The Surplus Girls' Orphans, are both available on Kindle Unlimited. |  |
 | The first three Surplus Girls books are also available in a single volume on Kindle. |
For further information about the background to the series, and also to find out about the wonderful bookcovers, visit my Polly Heron website.
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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:
2. Secrets of the Railway Girls
4. Christmas with 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.
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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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 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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July in the Past:
| July 1st 2019 was publication day for the audiobook of The Poor Relation. |  |
 | Early in July 2019, I was busy proofreading The Surplus Girls.
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| In July 2020 I finished my lockdown novel The Railway Girls in Love, book 3 in the series. |  |
In July 2021 I finished writing book 5 in the Railway Girls series, Hope for the Railway Girls.
Much of it was written sitting by the sea. Happy memories! |  |
In July 2022, I finished writing book 7,
I also agreed to write the Home Front Girls series for Bookouture! |  |
 | And in July last year I finished writing book 9, Springtime with the Railway Girls. |
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.
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