Josephine Cox (http://www.josephinecox.com/) has a lot to smile about. Having sold over 15 million copies of her heartwarming fiction, this saga author has made a fortune and brought joy to countless readers.(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/5131523/Josephine-Cox-fameand-fortune.html)
Many believe the acme of her artistic achievement to have been Jessica’s Girl (1993), a novel of such staggeringly formulaic conformity as to compel wonderment. The summary is as follows. Despite a deathbed warning from her beloved mother, Phoebe Mulligan has no choice but to throw herself on the mercy of her uncle, Edward. Wrenched from all she holds dear, the tragic young girl is delivered to Blackburn town, where she must live in a household terrorised by the cold, forbidding presence of her mother’s brother. Phoebe cannot understand why she is treated so harshly by Edward Dickens. She is not to know the guilty secret that lies in his past, a secret that casts a sinister shadow over his feelings for his lovely niece. But Phoebe’s spirit will not be broken. Her natural warmth and cheerfulness win her many friends and although she must endure horror and heartbreak, all the riches a woman can have come within her reach.
Will Phoebe’s purity of heart and heroic determination win out over the cruel odds that have been stacked against her? Will the reader enjoy a warm glow that goodness will always triumph by page 576 of this masterpiece? The tension is unbearable. There is only one way to find out.
Check if this escapist drivel is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here at https://www.sllclibrary.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH
576 Pages in Headline
First published 1993
ISBN 978-0747241126
