On Mother Brown's Doorstep - Mary Jane Staples

The big event of the Walworth year was to be the wedding of Sammy Adams, King of Camberwell, to Miss Susie Brown. Everyone was looking forward to it, and Susie was particularly overjoyed when her soldier brother suddenly turned up on leave from service in India in time for the approaching 'knees-up'. The reason for Will's extended leave wasn't so good, for bad health had struck him and he didn't know how long the army would keep him, or how he could find a civvy job in the slump of the 20s. When he - literally - picked Annie Ford up off the pavement in King and Queen Street, his worries were compounded, for Annie was a bright, brave, personable young woman and Will knew that if he wasn't careful he'd find himself falling in love. And over Walworth hung a greater anxiety - the mystery of three young girls missing from their homes - a mystery that was to draw closer and closer to the Adams and Brown families, and finally culminate - along with Will's personal problems - on the night of the wedding.