Just One Year

Just One Year is the story of three young women who decide to leave home and share a house. They are women already firmly on the career path who, for one reason or another, have never before felt the urge to branch out on their own. However, they soon find that their normal and somewhat mundane lives are about to change beyond all recognition: Anna is a nurse longing to fulfil her dream of singing professionally. But to be able to do that she has to get away from her bullying father who has always wanted her to follow in the family profession of medicine. She leaves her nursing job and joins an up and coming band called No Barriers but although the band goes from strength to strength, Anna finds herself in the clutches of her boyfriend Greg and once again finds herself bullied. Greg is unable to sustain his role in the band without using drugs, and his habit puts Anna in danger, as he increasingly resorts to violence whilst using. Mike, another band member, realises Anna is in danger from Greg's drug fuelled mood swings and vows to protect her. But he can't always be there to protect her and Anna finally realises that she cannot continue in the type of life she is living. Anna is a quiet, secretive girl who finally realises that what she thought she wanted was not at all the life she imagined. Clara is a schoolteacher, always safe and cosy until her birth mother turns up asking to meet her. As the story unfolds Clara's life is changed completely by the story of her birth. She finds it difficult to deal with the people in her life, her boyfriend Paul and her adoptive parents whom she thinks will be hurt if she develops a good relationship with her mother. Her birth mother, the wife of a successful politician has to deal with her own ghosts and fight for her right to introduce Clara to her family. The fight is made all the more difficult when her daughter, Marianne, sends a number of poison pen letters to Clara, whom she has no intention of accepting. Clara becomes engaged to Paul but soon realises that he is trying to control her life. She breaks off the engagement and hands Paul back his ring when she realises that she will never be free to live her own life if she marries him. Ronnie is a secretary working in a mundane job constantly judging herself by her housemates' successes and mostly finding herself wanting. Like Anna she has always harboured a hope to break into musical theatre and it seems as if her wish is granted when she lands the part of Roxie Hart in the not so amateurish production of Chicago. But life throws a curve when she is suddenly offered a manager's role in her company, and her on/off boyfriend Lawrence is asked to support her in a major project. How is she going to cope with the demands of her new job and her part in the production?. And worse, how is she going to react when Lawrence accuses her of sexual discrimination? Ronnie is constantly cast in the role of Agony Aunt position in the house and when she goes home one day to see her mother, she finds that her younger sister Rosie is causing havoc at home. Ronnie embarks on a mission to avoid her sister being slotted into the 'perfect job in an office' as she did, and helps her break the mould to take up a career in photography. The book starts with Clara discovering Anna on the settee. Anna has been badly beaten and is rushed to hospital where her injuries are at first thought to be life threatening. From there the story unfolds describing how the girls' lives are changed forever by a series of events, good and bad. It ends on the sunny beaches of Mojacar in the south east of Spain where the friends celebrate the very different paths their lives have taken.