Ring of Clay

By Margaret Kaine

Book Overview

Despite an early life marked by tragedy and hardship, Beth Sherwin dreams of staying on at school and even going to university - a heady ambition for a Potteries girl in 1956. Then a brutal encounter leaves her pregnant at seventeen. Unwilling to break her widowed mother's heart, Beth bears her secret alone and gives up her baby daughter for adoption. It seems her desperate gamble has succeeded. She finishes school, takes on a challenging job and meets Michael, charming eldest son of the wealthy Rushton family. She has to fight both class prejudice and the jealousy of her old enemy Ursula to win him - but when he asks her to marry him, Beth faces a dilemma. Does she dare tell Michael her guilty secret and risk losing him? And even if he stands by her, can she bear the certainty that the brutal stranger who fathered her child will be at her wedding?

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0340828234
• ISBN13: 9780340828236
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Coronet Books (GB)
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A fantastic read

This is the first book I've read published by Poolbeg Press, Ltd. Ring of Clay is Margaret Kaine's first published novel and received a First Book Award. It is the story of Beth Sherwin who was born into a working-class family. Her initial experience with prejudice of the classes in Great Britain was at school. Each child had to stand and state their father's profession. In spite of this class distinction, Beth does well in school and later immerses herself in her career, but Beth has a secret, the baby she gave up for adoption.Michael, heir to the Rushton family empire, asks Beth to marry him. She struggles with the decision to tell him at the risk of losing him, and searching for the identity of her child's father becomes an obsession.I loved this story. The characters seemed so real that I could visualize them. Sometimes they made me feel like crying, and at other times caused chuckles. I wanted to finish the book in one sitting and it kept me up all night. I not only enjoyed a good story, but gained an insight to the class system. I would definitely read other books by this author.