Oldfield, Pamela

(British 1931– )

Oldfield was a school-teacher before becoming a full-time writer. Her family stories often evoke the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras. Begin with Green Harvest (1983), which is set in the hopgardens of Kent. The orphaned heroine from the London slums is adopted by a country family. In The Turn of the Tide (1988) conflict breaks out between a tyrannical Victorian nanny and a nursery maid. The latter is aboard the Titanic when the mother of the children in her care elopes with an American. String of Blue Beads (1994) centres on a love-affair between a young music hall artiste and a wealthy but aimless man. A doctor's wife endures an unsatisfactory marriage in A Dutiful Wife (1989), until an irresistible lover appears. Her husband's unorthodox lusts lead him to the East End backstreets where Jack the Ripper lurks.

Sarah Woodhouse, Tessa Barclay, Jean Plaidy  DH