Behind Closed Doors: On Moorbank Estate

By N.L. Birkby

This novel follows a variety of people from different backgrounds and walks of life, all living the daily grind in their own way.

Behind familiar faces and everyday routines lie dark secrets that begin to unravel as their lives intertwine.
Some events are rooted in reality; others are left to the reader's imagination.

What unfolds is a story of nail-biting twists, quiet desperation, and the things people do to survive.
Set on a northern council estate in Yorkshire, times are hard. Work is scarce, and when it comes, it's rarely permanent. People are struggling - and not just financially.

Even those lucky enough to hold down a full-time job are battling demons they keep hidden deep inside.

We never truly know what goes on behind closed doors, until we become the ears of the walls and the eyes of the windows.

It all begins in the heart of the local Working Men's Club on Moorbank Estate.

Monday night is bingo and games night - mainly for the older folk of the community. It's a chance to meet up, have a drink or two, and share some good gossip.

The women gather in the concert room, the largest space in the club.
With its pale green dance floor leading up to a stage where weekend entertainment - known as "turns" to the locals - takes place.

The d cor is dated, stuck somewhere in the eighties, but nobody seems to mind.

The men, meanwhile, are in the games room or the tap room.

Enjoying dominoes, snooker, or darts, if your maths is up to it.

But change is coming, and the locals aren't keen on change.

The club is going under new management.

Lonnie Cliff - or Cliffy, as everyone knows him.
Has been the landlord of the Moorbank working men's club since his parents passed away in the early Eighties.

He is the heart and sole of the place and many are saddened to see him go. A Surprise leaving party is being planned little does he know.

Or maybe he does,

You can't get much past good old Lonnie Cliff even if he does turn a blind eye from time to time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GVBC2BMC
• ISBN13: 9798253674024
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"