A Better World Than This

by Marie Joseph

In a small Lancashire cotton town in the 1930s, Daisy Bell dreams her life away. At twenty-six, still a spinster and heiress to her mother's potato pie shop, she's resigned to a lonely old age. But toiling over the bake-house fire she dreams of a better world - a world of glamour and romance as seen on the silver screen. Then she meets Sam a dashing Clark Gable look-alike and chauffeur to a wealthy London businessman - and suddenly her life is changed forever... and the woman who had resigned herself to being an 'old maid', finds herself embarking on an affair with a married man.

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Marie Joseph was born in Lancashire, England and was educated at Blackburn High School for Girls. Before her marriage she was in the Civil Service.

She began to write at the age of 40, and after a very successful career as a short-story writer went on to write novels, sheuses her Northern background to enrich her bestselling novels. No less than five of her Lancashire based novels have been short-listed for the Romantic Novelist's Association Award during the past few years, and in 1983, Gemini Girls was runner-up. Her novel: A Better World Than This won the 1987 Romantic Novelist's Association Major Award. Down-to-earth characters bring a vivid authenticity to her stories, which were written with both humour and poignancy. Although she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, she writes steadily.

She now lives in Middlesex with her husband, a retired chartered Engineer, and they have two married daughters and eight grandchildren.

Reviews

[Kathy E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read but it was very slow at the beginning but have a nice ending. Now I am going to read the follow on A World Apart.

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the past. The ending a bit predictable.