Kitty Donovan
Bright and vivacious, Kitty Donovan always longed to break free from her domineering mother. Growing up in the slums south of London, she uses her wits to help her family survive the hardships of the Great War, convinced she will have a bright future. However, when peace returns, she finds limited ways to achieve some independence. After a few disastrous, and at times hilarious, attempts to find a job, she begins training as a nurse. But her striking looks and a gift inherited from her Irish grandmother -- she is a "horse charmer" -- attract the romantic attention of two very different men. One is an ambitious soldier who offers her stability and a way out of her mother's grasp. The other is a boy she's always adored -- wild, passionate and uncertain of his future. Kitty knows she must cooose her destiny. But will Fate, or her mother, make the decision for her? And what will be the consequences?
A sweeping tale of love resilience and self-discovery, Kitty Donovan brings to life the gritty streets of early 20th-century Woolwich -- a town caught between military order and the untamed green spaces of the Common, where anything can happen.
Kitty Donovan is now available in bookstores, on Amazon, and from E-book distributors from July 2025.
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KITTY DONOVAN: Excerpt from Chapter One
That night, unable to sleep, Kitty tiptoed out of the front door of her home. The sky was clear, and a setting moon cast a soft orange glow against the rooftops. She stood in the middle of the road, barefoot and in her nightdress. One of the stars seemed brighter than usual that night. She looked more closely. The star was huge, and it was moving. Fascinated, she began to run up Sandy Hill Road, until she reached the large open space called the Common. The bright star was getting bigger, and it was coming, quite quickly, in her direction. She held her breath, not daring to believe her eyes. The star was changing shape. No longer round and twinkling, like other stars, this one was stretching out somehow, becoming more like the shape of the balls she’d seen boys use when they played rugby. As she listened in the eerie stillness, she could hear a low noise, like a gentle humming. She remembered stories Liam had told her about strangers from other planets who came out of the heavens and kidnapped people from Earth. She felt her stomach tighten. The star was so beautiful, it glowed. And it was coming closer and closer. Surely something that beautiful couldn't be dangerous.
A loud “Boom” made her ears ring, and from the sparks thrown up by the explosion she could see a small cage-like object hanging below the star. Something was falling from the cage.
Then it was Guy Fawkes’ night. A bush nearby burst into flames, berries erupting from the heat and turning the fire scarlet. The rat-tat noise of the exploding fruit was just like the fireworks, 'bangers" they called them, that boys threw at each other around the bonfire. Kitty longer for a sparkler; she enjoyed seeing the patterns she could paint with its glowing tip. And Catherine wheel, she loved to see one of those as it twirled faster and faster.
Another “boom”, closer and much louder, made her dive behind a wall for safety, ripping her nightdress in the process. This was not Guy Fawkes’ night. This was something else, something dangerous. She could hear shouting and, peeking out, saw soldiers from the Artillery barracks down the road running out onto the Common. They dragged a cannon into place, set it into position, and fired. As the shells exploded, they illuminated the sides of what she now recognized as a gigantic balloon, in shades of red, blue and green.
The huge balloon-star began to turn.
Zeppelin. The word leaped into her mind. She’d seen a zeppelin.
Kitty Donovan: Now available through Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing) both in print & ebook, and through Ingram Spark purchased through most book retailers and independent bookstores.
