Gemma Jackson Bücher

Georgina Corrigan is worried. The first women sent to her Percy Place home by the BOBs - an organisation which supports women escaping difficult home lives - are ready to step out into the world again. Some have found opportunities in Dublin, others will travel across the sea to New York. Will those travelling to America find employment with the Harvey Company? Thousands try every year to become Harvey Girls - young women who serve in restaurants and hotels set up to serve travellers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway line. Will they be successful when so many fail? Meanwhile, at home complications multiply. Georgina is surprised when a strange young man appears, claiming the BOBs have sent him - but shocked when he reveals why. Then Flora Kilroy escapes a life of virtual slavery and appears on Georgina's doorstep, claiming to be a relative. What can Georgina do? She is helping strangers - she can't turn family away. As the people who serve in the house struggle to meet the demands of each new arrival, Georgina wonders if she will ever know peace again. The women of Percy Place greet each new day with fortitude. Failure is not an option. They are determined that they can, and will, not only survive but thrive.

1938 - Krista is living and working in the tiny village of Metz on the French-German border. The world she has lived in all her life is changing. There is a feeling of oppression in the air. People no long stop to chat with their neighbours. Young men she grew up with are joining Hitler's Youth - becoming disruptive bullies. Then Krista overhears a conversation that will change her life. She must escape. Without a plan and with no time to think, she hides in the back of a car driven by an Englishman - and finds herself being driven through France into Belgium and finally sailing to Great Britain. Will this new life be any better than the one she left behind?

Experimental poetry takes center stage in this pamphlet, which embraces a fluid, stream of consciousness style while forgoing traditional titles and capital letters. The work, titled after the Italian verb for "open," showcases a variety of forms and unexpected content, inviting readers to explore the boundaries of language. Gemma Jackson's unique approach challenges conventions and provides a fresh perspective on poetic expression, encapsulating the essence of what unfolds when language is freely given.

In 1898 three young girls leave a Dublin orphanage to enter a life of domestic service. They are placed in the home of Captain Charles Whitmore but soon discover that the household is in turmoil. Charles, hoping to amass a fortune, is preparing to set off on a long sea voyage, deliberately leaving his wife Georgina almost penniless to fend for herself and the servants. Georgina, who has been desperate to break free from a life of violent marital abuse, is relieved that he will be gone for some years, but nevertheless the future is frightening. Then help comes from an unexpected quarter. An organisation that helps women escape lives of abuse or genteel poverty makes Georgina an offer. They propose that her house should become a school designed to train such women to seek employment in the American West. The very idea is at once shocking and appealing. Can Georgina step into the unknown and lead the women under her care into the future? The orphan maids listen and wonder. Can they too dare to dream of a better life for themselves?