Böcker utgivna av Alfie Dog Ltd

1916: Six months after being informed of Billy's death, Violet Dobson comes face to face with her injured husband. His body might be broken, but her love for him is not. Finding a way to make their life work won't be easy and, as they struggle to deal with the challenges, Vi needs the escape that playing football provides. Billy feels useless, not being able to do the things he could before. Coaching from the sidelines is helping to restore his confidence, but it's a long way from finding employment again.Vi works hard to provide for her family, kept going by her dream that the Billingbrook women's football team can win the cup. At every turn they seem destined to fail. As Vi battles her way through Billy's disabilities, the dangers of working in a munitions factory, the flu pandemic and redundancy, surely nothing else can go wrong?

1915: Violet Dobson is horrified when husband Billy signs up to fight for King and Country. Billy is already her hero - she doesn't need him to prove it. As Billy heads to France, Violet has her own battles to fight, living with Billy's mam and dad. To Violet's surprise, teaching her young son Tommy to play football proves a pleasure rather than a chore, but when she's invited to coach the women's team at work Violet's not so sure. In Billy's mam's opinion, nice women don't play football and married women certainly don't. Caught between her mother-in-law's old-fashioned views and her own love of the game, Violet is coming under growing pressure to play. The team is raising money for the military hospital. What if Billy was one of the wounded? As Violet takes to the pitch, Private Billy Dobson faces the enemy on the Western Front. Their problems are only just beginning. Will Billy ever come home from the war and see Violet play?

Our lives flicker on the edge of darkness for our brief moment in the world before the mystery where we were birthed takes us back again. The elusive hope we nurture while we cast a shadow, is more certain than we imagine. In our anxiety about whether our lives will end well, we can overlook the fact that our simple presence on the earth is unfathomable miracle, and that a life well lived is not about its end. Indeed, the most uncertain aspect of life on earth is whether it has an end at all. Even our beginning remains an enigma to us. We aren't here long at all before we've totally forgotten our birth. In our hearts, we might have been here forever.Here are eighteen stories exploring the ongoing miracle of life (and death), offered to remind the reader that ordinary is merely the illusion we foster to shield ourselves from the constant unbearable onslaught of glory.

1866 - Daniel Flynn and Molly Reilly's lives have been dogged by hardship since their orphan days on the streets of New York. Finally, the future is looking bright and Indiana is the place they call home. Now they can focus on making Cochrane's Farm a success. The Civil War might have ended but the battle for Cochrane's Farm has only just begun. The Reese brothers are incensed that land, once part of their family farm, has been transferred to the ownership of young Molly. No matter that their Daddy had sold it years previously, jealousy and revenge have no regard for right. Women should know their place and this one clearly doesn't.Times are changing and a woman's place is changing with it. How far will Daniel and Molly go to fight injustice and is it a price worth paying?

Ireland has suffered from potato blight since 1845. Friends and neighbours have died, been evicted or given up what little land they have in search of alms. Michael Flynn is one of the lucky ones. His landlord has offered support. Michael and his family have done all they can to help their immediate household, but as the famine and its aftermath continue, have their efforts been enough?With the weakening brought about by hunger, there are some things he is powerless to protect his family from. Is it time for the great Michael Flynn to take his family in search of a better life?

How did Sam end up in the rescue centre, not once, but three times? Was he responsible for a man's death? In Sixth Sense, find out how a woman somehow knows which dog people will choose. In Helping Bella, a badly treated animal helps to mend a man's broken heart but it's not all rescue centres.In Cuddles Muddles and Puddles a single mother struggles to cope with a puppy, a gift from her ex-husband. Discover how a dog trainer copes when a dog refuses to obey her commands, and how a lady who helps people with badly behaved dogs treats her own pets. Other stories feature everything from dog shows to dognapping.A collection of short stories by acclaimed women's fiction writer, Linda Lewis. As a veteran of the women's fiction short story market, Linda has sold over 600 magazine stories to a wide range of publications. This sees some of those stories brought together for the first time.A must for anyone who has ever rescued, owned, or loved, a dog.