Authors: Marita Conlon-Mckenna
Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Historical, #Europe
Wildflower Girl (15 page)
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA is one of Ireland’s most popular children’s authors. She has written many bestselling children’s books.
Under the Hawthorn Tree
, her first novel, became an immediate bestseller and has been described as ‘the biggest success story in children’s historical fiction.’ It has been reprinted numerous times since its first publication in 1990, and has reached a worldwide audience through translations and foreign editions. Its sequels,
Wildflower Girl
and
Fields of Home
, which complete the CHILDREN OF THE FAMINE trilogy, have also been hugely successful. Marita’s other children’s novels (see inside back cover) have also received wide critical acclaim.
DONALD TESKEY drew the chapter-head illustrations. His paintings have been exhibited to great acclaim in Europe and North America.
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA
Under the Hawthorn Tree
Fields of Home
The Blue Horse
No Goodbye
Safe Harbour
In Deep Dark Wood
A Girl Called Blue
This eBook edition first published 2013 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.obrien.ie
First published 1991 by The O’Brien Press Ltd.
Reprinted 1991. First paperback edition 1992.
Reprinted 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998,
1999, 2000 (twice), 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 (twice),
2008, 2009, 2010 (twice), 2012.
eBook ISBN: 978–1–84717–601–1
Text © copyright Marita Conlon-McKenna 1991
Copyright for editing, layout, illustrations and design
© The O’Brien Press Ltd
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, visual or audio, or mounted on any network servers, without permission in writing from the publisher. Carrying out any unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution. For permission to copy any part of this publication contact The O’Brien Press Ltd at [email protected].
Typesetting, editing, design, layout: The O’Brien Press Ltd
Internal illustrations: Donald Teskey
Cover illustration: PJ Lynch
The O’Brien Press receives assistance from
Children of the Famine
Trilogy
Ireland in the 1840s is devastated by famine. When tragedy strikes their family, Eily, Michael and Peggy are left to fend for themselves. Starving and in danger of being sent to the workhouse, they escape. Their only hope is to find the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother’s stories. With tremendous courage, they set out on a journey that will test every reserve of strength, love and loyalty they possess.
Only a few years ago, Eily, Michael and Peggy survived the Great Famine. Now Peggy is in America, hoping for a new life, and finally she heads for the Wild West. Eily and Michael face new challenges at home. Everywhere there is unrest, with evictions, burnings, secret meetings. What will become of them and of Eily’s little girl, Mary-Brigid?
