Tides Must Turn

Her hands lay limply in her lap and if Joyce looked closely she could see the small broken pieces of skin and minuscule areas of scar tissue, which were the remnants of Melissa's habit of biting at her fingers around the nails when she was anxious, nervous or excited. Her legs swayed very slightly in the space between the high hospital bed and the floor below. Then very slowly, her voice almost inaudible like a whisper from the past, she began to speak and as she did so Joyce took her hand and stroked it affirming an unspoken trust that now seemed to exist between them. Autumn, 1971 - what will Melissa reveal to the midwife, Joyce, about the three years preceding the birth of this baby girl she seems determined to reject? Will she reveal who the father is? More importantly will she be able to share with Joyce the most awful secret of all? Spring, 1969 - Melissa is 15 and her world changes forever when she meets the artist and teacher - Jonathan. He tells her she looks uncannily like Lizzy Siddal the artist's model who married Rossetti and died so tragically. When Melissa models for Jonathan secretly can they develop a friendship that is purely platonic when both of them want more? This is a story of the pain and pleasure of first love, of friendship and unconditional loyalty, of sexual awakening and discovery, of unbearable choices and ultimately of hope - without which there is no future. From Lancashire and London in England to Toledo and Barcelona in Spain we touch on the lives of many characters most of whom harbour their own secrets. Often hilarious and at times heartbreaking this powerful and evocative novel contains a devastating twist that is totally unpredictable.