When my ship comes in - Sue Wilsher

An emotional, compelling family drama from a fantastic new author

Keep the family together, that's what her old mum always said. Put up and shut up. And that's what everyone else did around there.

Essex, 1959. Flo earns her money as a scrubber, cleaning the cruise ships and dreaming of a day when she might sail away from her life in the Dwellings, the squalid tenements of Tilbury docks. Then the Blundell family are evicted from their home.

Fred, Flo's husband, finds work at Monday's, a utopian factory town. Suddenly, it seems like everything is on the up for Flo Blundell and her children. Even Jeanie, Flo's sulking teenage daughter, seems to be thawing a little in her shiny new surroundings.

But when Flo's abusive husband Fred starts drinking again, he jeopardises the family's chance to escape poverty for good.

Flo is faced with a terrible decision. Must she fight to keep her family together? Or could she strive for the life of her dreams - the kind of life she could have when her ship comes in?

Sue Wilsher grew up in South Essex near a shoe factory and the Thames estuary. The shoe company housed its workers, including Sue's grandparents and mother. Sue based her debut novel, When My Ship Comes In, on the history of the area. She now lives in Kent with her husband and two children.