On windswept Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland, three generations of women struggle for their emotional survival. Joanna, rebellious young Londoner, has been dragged there against her will by her mother Catherine. She defiantly rejects the island, while Catherine broods over her wasted life, her failed marriage and the lost, wild years when she was obsessed with Scott Walker, star of the sixties. Joanna’s grandmother resents this intrusion into her settled life; she has never understood her daughter, and her precocious young grand-daughter seems almost alien. Yet soon she recognises that Joanna shares something of her own tough spirit. Then Joanna meets the mysterious American Jack Dalton, long an inhabitant of the island. Her battle to make sense of his past will change everything in the present – for everyone.

Poolbeg paperback original ISBN 1-84223-089-1 published 2002

“This book tackles gritty issues such as betrayal and sexual abuse…Good stuff.” Woman’s Way

The sixties: sexual freedom, women’s liberation, youth culture….. and the Beatles. But has the rose-coloured tint washed over those years made us forget what it was really like to grow up then? It was, above all, a time when girls were ripe for change. This is the story of four of those girls who embark upon a restless adolescent odyssey where fantasy and reality, idealism and despair, the bleak countryside of East Anglia and the dope-hazed London scene are inextricably entwined. And at the centre of everything are the Beatles. As the years pass and the real world beckons more urgently, each of the girls must struggle to keep alive the emotions that have been so much a part of their lives and which will shape the women they are to become….

Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-40788 published 1996

“It’s one of those books where you snarl at anyone who interrupts you reading it – recommendations don’t come much higher.” The Big Issue

1947…and Soho is the place to be. London’s heartbeat, an exciting bohemian world where café owners and street-sweepers rub shoulders with eccentrics, artists and jazz musicians; where call-girls and waiters whisper secrets to city suits, pimps and market spivs. And Marionetta Peretti loves it all. One day, she promises herself, it will be her turn to join the exotic shadows she glimpses slipping home bleary-eyed as she makes her way to work in the morning. But all too soon Marionetta discovers that Soho’s carefree laughter hides a cruel, corrupt reality, financed by blood. Her family’s honour – and her life – is at stake, and to survive, she must risk everything.

Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-00786 published 1994

Also published by Signet,1995

Throughout London’s triangle of huddled tenements, factories and shops known as Little Italy, everyone knows Fortunata Vialli – a beauty, but with a sharp tongue, and much too fond of meddling in politics instead of making a man happy, as a good Italian girl should. Despite her passionate independence, Fortunata is strongly bound by the customs of her family. When a widower and his daughter arrive in London, refugees from the fascisti, Fortunata bows to society’s pressure and marries. But she does not give up her dreams – even those that involve a certain fiery Irish politician. But the malevolent force of her stepdaughter, the power of external events and her own sense of loyalty prove daunting obstacles as she struggles between her duty, her upbringing and her instincts..

Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-37094 published 1993

Also published by Signet, 1994

“These two books provide an important historical perspective… Highly recommended reading.” Backhill, Rivista Della Communita Italiana

“London’s Little Italy is vividly brought to life…she conjures up passionate characters and tempestuous situations. Ferrari’s strengths as a scriptwriter show through in the taut, thrilling storylines… There is a depth of humanity and understanding in her heroines’ impossible situations.” Eastern Daily Press