Maggie Bennett

(b. Hampshire, 1931) trained as a nurse and midwife. Her career in midwifery was interrupted only by marriage, a move to Manchester and the birth of her two daughters. She retired in 1991 and now lives in Suffolk.

An avid reader and scribbler since childhood, she first began to approach her writing seriously when, following the death of her husband in 1983, she took a correspondence course, as a result of which she enjoyed modest successes with articles and short stories. In 1992, using her midwifery background, she successfully submitted a medical romance to Harlequin Mills & Boon. This novel won that year's RNA New Writer's Award and she went on to publish six more medical romances, all under her married name of Margaret Holt.

A long-held desire to develop into a mainstream writer has now been fulfilled.

Titles: A Child's Voice Calling, A Child At The Door, A Carriage For The Midwife, A Child of Her Time, For Love of Lily, Nights On, Nights Off, The Tailor's Daughter; The Unchanging Heart (Century)

The Unchanging Heart

Herbert Pond, the parson, has one daughter, the beautiful eighteen year old Elizabeth, who is courted by the Squire's son, Adam Horrocks. Trouble occurs when Elizabeth falls deeply in love with young Richard de Boville, the son of a wealthy landowner, Sir John de Boville, whose common land enclosures have caused great poverty to local families. Meg Venn, a close childhood friend of Elizabeth, watches her family suffer great hardships. After the death of his wife, Zack Venn turns bitter and violent and takes his daughter to London Distressed by the working conditions in a rough inn where Meg finds employment, she is desperate to leave and is tempted by an offer by a woman who visits the inn. Mrs Duvalle promises Meg a better standard of living but in time Meg finds that the woman has planned a dubious future for her.