The Flawed Inheritance

Though the tale begins in the times of Rock Around the Clock, the three central characters in The Flawed Inheritance never find much time for dancing. Growing up in a tough town, in tough times from the mid-fifties to the present day, their preoccupations centre round the everyday challenges of making a living and meeting the demands of close families and a tight-knit community where a sense of decency is the guiding principle. The question is, who's really decent and who's deceitful? As one of a brood of six, cheeky and cheerful Ronnie Edwards is more than a handful as a child and a teenager and from the outset makes himself unpopular with demure Valerie Potts by taunting her so savagely that she yearns for the day when they'll move up to separate senior schools. Having lost her father at the age of eight, Valerie is dominated by a mother so possessive that she begrudges her a boyfriend, even when she reaches seventeen years of age. Mother and daughter are unaware that Valerie's generally considered a spoilt child - but spoilt she is, as becomes apparent in her ruthless conniving to get her own way. Tainting the upstanding Ronnie's reputation with a cheap deceit designed to tarnish him in her friend Josie's eyes, Valerie maintains a long-standing grudge. Nevertheless, she fails to prevent love blossoming between the man she hates so unreasonably and her best friend. As the daughter of the owners of the local fish and chip shop, Josie has enjoyed something of a privileged childhood by the prevailing standards, while Ronnie has had no such luck - until his good nature and hard work inspire an inheritance that will set him up for life. Valerie by contrast also comes into money and, by deceit, ensures that she gets more than her allotted share. Ultimately she too is in a position to buy her own business and escape the humdrum life in the shoe factory office. These three lives circle each other and entwine over the years until; finally, an unforeseen tragedy severs them for good. The Flawed Inheritance is a family saga of the circle of life; a tableau of love and hate, marriage, birth and death that's rich in Black Country language and lore.

About the Author :
Married with one daughter, Norma was born in Walsall in the West Midlands. She trained as a nurse at Walsall Sister Dora Hospital. She worked as an industrial nursing sister and as a sister in a sanatorium before training at Aston University to qualify as a Health Visitor, working in the Black Country. The Flawed Inheritance is her first novel, written after her retirement.