Helen Forrester Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Helen Forrester
Helen Forrester (nee Huband) was June Bhatia’s pen name was born June 6, 1919 in Hoylake, Cheshire as the oldest of seven kids of middle-class, inept, socialite parents that lived on credit.

When her dad went bankrupt during the Great Depression, the family was thrust into poverty, and evicted from the comfortable home in an English market town. They had nothing more than the clothes on their backs, and this large family took the train off to Liverpool, hoping to rebuild their lives. As her dad looked for work unsuccessfully, the family had to live together in just a single room. Being the oldest child, twelve year old Helen was kept out of school in order to watch her six little siblings.

The family, for the next few years, were forced to rely on the meager handouts from the parish, as well as the kindness of strangers. When she was fourteen, she rebelled against her life of drudgery and her parents agreed to allow her to go to evening classes to make up for her missed years of education.

During her teen years, she worked for a charitable organization in Bootle and Liverpool, which would provide the background for novels such as “Three Women of Liverpool”, “A Cuppa Tea and an Aspirin”, and “Liverpool Daisy”.

After she survived the Blitzing of Liverpool and losing two consecutive fiances to World War Two she met and married a physicist, named Avadh Bhatia (who died in 1984), in 1950. Together they had a child, named Robert. Her life with Avadh in India provided the background for “The Moneylenders of Shahpur” and “Thursday’s Child”.

She and Avadh traveled extensively, moving to Edinburgh, Scotland and Ottawa, before they eventually settled in Edmonton, Alberta in the year 1955.

Helen, along with being a devoted wife and mom, she also became an accomplished author. Her first book was published in the year 1959, and would continue writing until the year 2004, producing a total of sixteen books, most of which were bestsellers especially in Britain.

“Twopence to Cross the Mersey” was turned into a successful musical by Rob Fennah, Alan Fennah, and Helen Jones. “By The Waters of Liverpool” was adapted for the stage by the same team and it was first performed in the year 2020.

A Blue Plaque was unveiled in her honor at 5 Warren Road, Hoylake, Wirral, which was her maternal grandma’s home where she spent many happy childhood holidays in the year 2020. the unveiling was done by two actors (Sian Reeves and Mark Moraghan) in “By The Waters of Liverpool”, with her son Robert, in attendance. Helen was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Liverpool in the year 1988 and by the University of Alberta in 1993.

She was an English author famous for her books on her early childhood in Liverpool during the Great Depression along with many works of fiction.

She died at the age of 92 in Edmonton, Alberta on November 24, 2011.

“Yes, Mama” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 1987. A triumph of innocence over hypocrisy. Alicia Woodman was born into a home which should really have been filled with plenty of joy and comfort. Her mom, Elizabeth, was vivacious and bright, while Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman.

However Alicia wasn’t Humphrey’s kid and he wouldn’t have anything to do with her, and before too long Elizabeth as well, turned her back on her own daughter. It was left to Polly Ford, the widow of a dock laborer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the kid the love that she so desperately needed.

In this hypocritical society filled with thin lipped disapproval, she would learn that the human spirit can soar right over adversity and that, even though blood might be thicker than water, love is the most powerful relationship there is.

“The Liverpool Basque” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 1993. During the early years of this century, many of the Basques left their homeland in the Pyrenees, between Spain and France, to find a better life in the New World. Most of them passed through the great port of Liverpool on their journey. The family of small Manuel Echaniz stayed.

The Liverpool Basque is the story of his childhood and later coming of age in the teeming streets of the Mersey docklands. It is a tale of hardship, poverty, generosity, and comradeship. Manuel, who is raised by women while the men are at sea, grows up with a fierce pride in his own heritage and a powerful will to survive during an era of unemployment and deprivation. Against all the odds, he gets himself an education and goes off on the long voyage that is his own life.

“Madame Barbara” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 1999. A story of love and loss that is set in post World War Two France and England. This is the tale of one young Liverpool woman widowed during World War Two before she is able to know the happiness of having a family of her own. With her mom’s blessing, with whom she runs a B&B, she goes off to Normandy so that she can see where her husband got killed in the landings on D-Day.

Once she’s there, she meets the impoverished French poultry farmer, who is now reduced to driving the beaten up (and still rare) taxi and looking after his old mom and a dying brother. Are these two going to find happiness together?

“A Cuppa Tea and an Aspirin” is a stand alone novel that was released in the year 2003. Life in a tenement block in Liverpool during the Depression is a bleak struggle for Martha Connelly along with the rest of her poverty-stricken family, while each day renews the threat of disease, homelessness, and hunger.

Family warmth stays a constant, though, despite the disquiet and misery of the slum surroundings, and the indomitable neighborhood sets up a relentless battle to survive.