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Secrets: In the shadows lurks the truth. Kindle Edition

4.1 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

Ashford, home of the Howarth family,is a gritty northern mill town, a community of no-nonsense Lancashire folk, who speak their minds and are quick to judge. But how many of them are hiding secrets that wouldn't stand up to the scrutiny of others? Judith Barrow's Howarth Family trilogy, Pattern of Shadows, Changing Patterns and Living in the Shadows, along with the prequel, A Hundred Tiny Threads, published by Honno Press, is peopled with just such characters. Here are some of their secret stories - the girl who had to relinquish her baby, the boy who went to war too young, the wife who couldn't take any more... "Judith Barrow has surpassed herself in writing this great family saga... There is such a wealth of fantastic characters to fall in love with and ones to hate!" (Brook Cottage Books)

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B072M7Q78V
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 1 Jun. 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.2 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 55 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

About the author

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Judith Barrow
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Judith Barrow is a writer of domestic thrillers, domestic noir, and historical family sagas. Her books include SISTERS, published in 2023, and THE MEMORY, which was shortlisted in 2021 for the Wales Book of the Year (the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award).

Originally from Saddleworth, a group of viallges on the Pennines, she has lived in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for over forty years.She has an MA in creative writing, a BA ( Hons) in Literature, and Diploma in Drama. She is a creative writing tutor and holds workshops on all genres. She attend many festivals and book events, and frequently gives talks on creative writing.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
14 global ratings

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 June 2017
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    A collection of little gems that add depth and shade to the characters who people Judith Barrow’s trilogy. Some are very short, some longer, but they are all surprising and touching snapshots of characters we thought we already thoroughly knewj. Each one is hugely moving in its different way, arousing understanding, occasionally appalled horror, but mostly painful pity. As with her longer novels, Judith Barrow brilliantly captures settings, in beautiful and sometimes disturbing detail, and the stories ooze with humanity.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 July 2017
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    4.5*
    This is a wonderful collection of short stories, focussing on characters from Judith Barrow’s Howarth family trilogy and giving a brief but heartfelt glimpse into some of their lives, pre saga. Including situations and misfortunes, some of which were brought about by the restrictions and expectations of the time, unmarried women who have no choice but to give up their baby and the cruelty meted out to a conscientious objector to name just a couple. Others which are sadly still relevant today, namely the victims of incest and rape.

    All are well written and filled with emotional reality, but these are the stand outs for me.

    Edith Jagger’s Secret tells of an abused wife and the desperate measures she took to escape.

    In Stan Green’s Secret, Stan, desperate to leave home, signed up for the army with his friend, Ernie. Both boys were underage and despite slight misgivings, they were unaware of what horrors awaited them or the enormity and terrible consequences of their decision.

    Gwyneth Griffiths’ Secret means a life on the run from an abusive husband.

    Judith Barrow has done a great job, giving a good sense of each character and their situation in just a few pages. The grim reality for working class people of the era is shown to great effect. I’m looking forward to the saga prequel which is due to be published next month.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2017
    Format: Kindle Edition
    Secrets is an intimate intro into the characters of Judith Barrow's wonderful family trilogy. The stories are strong and add depth and further interest to the Howarth saga. It's also a great stand alone. Thoroughly recommend this book.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2017
    Format: Kindle Edition
    A great read, thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the characters from the trilogy. Highly recommended!
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2017
    Format: Kindle Edition
    This short but engrossing read introduces us to some of the characters in Barrow's Pattern's trilogy. These juicy tidbits reveal some of the secrets in backstory of some of the characters we'll come to know in Barrow's books. These secrets revolve around the family saga of the Howarth family in wartime England and continue into following decades. We get a sneak peak into what some of these characters endured, encompassing issues such as: An abused wife in Edith Jagger's Secrets, Nelly Shuttleworth's Secret about how she tried to save her baby from being taken at birth by fleeing a nun's adoption home, Gwyneth's Secret and about how she met the patriarch in Changing Patterns, a man we'll love to hate.

    All these stories leave us hanging and have us wanting to discover what happens next with a wonderfully written cast of characters who suffer tough times. If you love Family Saga stories you'll love this series.
  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2017
    Format: Kindle Edition
    4.5 stars

    I read this whole collection this afternoon, and really enjoyed them. Each story deals with a character who has a secret; the first few are quite short, the longer, more involved ones nearer the end. I recognised some of the names from Judith Barrow's Howard family saga series, but it wouldn't matter if I had or not; they're all terrific stories in their own right. The best ones are, I think, Alun Thomas and Stan Green's secrets, both of which are heartrending and take place during the First World War; I imagine I will meet these two when I read the prequel to the trilogy, which is out this summer.

    What the characters have in common is their social class, and the book is a great illustration of how some situations caused great trauma for the subject, yet wouldn't matter at all today, or even occur; a boy of fourteen lies about his age and signs up to fight in the war, a girl survives a mother and baby home where the children are taken away for adoption, a battered wife has no choice but to stay with her husband. The characterisation is spot on, all the way through.

    Judith Barrow has done a great job of ending some stories with dangling threads, leaving you dying to know what happens next ~ thus, the outtake short story collection for a series. It certainly worked for me! But they stand up perfectly well on their own. I definitely recommend them for a great couple of hour's reading.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Susie Qusie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Goes with the Pattern series.
    Reviewed in Canada on 7 April 2018
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    This is a must read before, during or after reading the Pattern series.
    Great little stories about people in the series of books especially ‘Pattern of Shadows’. I enjoyed this extra little tales about folk we already read about.
    All but two are in the Patter of Shadow book the rest are in other books of the series but I will look them up again when I get to them in the other books.
    Otherwise I am enjoying this new to me author.
  • Vmp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and well crafted
    Reviewed in the United States on 26 April 2018
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Gritty, gripping and powerfully evocative. Each of the stories in this collection had me holding my breath. With only one theme in common – that of secrets that haunt each of the characters, they are filled with tension, atmosphere and emotion combined with stark realism. Each story is about about situations that were all too common in the not so very distant past and they make for compelling and sometimes disturbing reading. An excellent anthology by Judith Barrow, incredibly well crafted, but not for the faint hearted. There are no rose tinted glasses here!

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