The trouble with writing about the Victorian era is that they had so many babies!!

Sometimes it helps to have a diagram, and even I lose track of all those names, even though I have invented all the characters and know them very well indeed. What better than a family tree for keeping track?

If you’ve read book 1, The Wideawake Hat, you will recognise most of these people, but there are a few edits and additions in book 2, Shepherd’s Delight.

(Spoiler alert for those of you yet to read Shepherd’s Delight – and, if not, why not?)

By the time we get to book 3, The Cedar Trees, who knows? Will Nancy have more babies, more twins perhaps? Will there be another baby Mackenzie? And will Samuel find a new love to match that of his beloved Carrie? Will Guy Pender find a woman (or a man) to love? Will Hither House be filled once more with the sound of children?

PS – You may wonder how an author chooses names. In my case I dip into my own family tree to pick names of ancestors from the period.