Maggie's Market

by Dee Williams

It's 1935 and Maggie Ross loves her life amongst the stallholders in Kelvin Market where her husband Tony has a bric-a-brac stall and where she lives, with her young family, above Mr Goldman's bespoke tailors. But when one fine Spring day her husband disappears into thin air her world collapses.Maggie has no way of knowing where he husband went nor why he left her so suddenly - especially when she's got a new baby on the way. What she can tell is who her real friends are as she struggles to bring her children up alone. There's outspoken, golden-hearted Winnie, her fellow stallholder whose cheerful chatter hides a sad past, and cheeky Eve whom she's known since they were girls. And there's also Inspector Matthews, the policeman sent to investigate her husband's disappearance;a man who, to the Kelvin Market staffholders, is on the wrong side of the law, a man to whom Maggie is increasingly drawn.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

416 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Dee Williams grew up in Rotherhithe, East London, and left school at fourteen. After living abroad, she settled in Hampshire with her husband, where she remains active as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness while staying close to her family.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in 1935. Maggie in London helps her husband Tony run a barrow stall on the market. They sell odds and ends, china and junk. But Tony has been gambling unknown to his wife and he finds it prudent to disappear. Only as Maggie copes alone while she puzzles out what has become of him, and gradually takes over his business, does the truth emerge that he had amassed debts. How long will he be gone for, and what will become of Maggie, her two nippers and the one on the way?

Meanwhile the nice Jewish man in the shop below her flat has his window broken by Blackshirts, the other stall holders rally around and support Maggie, while her family look for the return of a loan. The police at first think Tony must have another woman, then his shadier connections start to come looking for money and the police, in the person of one inspector who thinks Maggie is a bit of all right, take a closer interest.

Full of character and life, showing the daily struggle and general lack of support for abandoned women and kids at that time.

[Sharon Gillam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book …. No experience of a stall market but it described the atmosphere the loyalty and community and it was a lovely story with always the background of what had happened to Tony ..

[jessica nicoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book just flows its one I go back to again and again Maggie it lovely and just thinks she can do it like Tony but it just goes to show sometimes you can and sometimes you need someone

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good storyline. Predictable

[Mookie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really invested in the mystery of what happened to her husband, but even though it was so predictable, I got so peeved.

[Brenda Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book

[Sue Ashdown · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK. Not the best book I have ever read, but as an easy read I enjoyed it.

[HANY HADIDY · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting novel worth reading