The River Folk
The River Folk
Author: Margaret Dickinson
Desc: The River Folk is a spellbinding story of Lincolnshire life in the inter-war years by the author of The Fisher Lass Margaret Dickinson. For twelve-year-old Mary Ann Clark life has always been tough. The pretty daughter of a wife-beating drunk it is no surprise that she has grown up afraid of her own shadow. That is until 'Battling Bessie Ruddick' takes the young girl under her wing and into the heart of her bustling family. Growing into an attractive young woman Mary Ann yearns to be loved and when her affection for Bessie's son Dan is finally returned she becomes a skipper's wife. But the arduous life aboard ship is clearly not for her and only the arrival of a daughter Lizzie seems to hold the marriage together. Yet tragically the family is torn apart when Mary Ann is seduced by the promise of a happier life. Although bewildered by her mother's disappearance it is now up to Lizzie to help her father. For she unlike Mary Ann has inherited Dan's love of the river. But then disturbingly her life starts to follow the same pattern as her mother's . . .