Product Description

By the author of "Birmingham Rose". Anna grew up with stories of her mother's childhood in Birmingham and of Kate's friend, Olivia. But when Kate died, she left her daughter a final story, which told the whole truth of her life with Olivia. Then Anna discovers how little she really knows.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11505 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

From the Author
Perhaps the first thing to say about 'Birmingham Friends' is that is IS the same book as 'Kate and Olivia!' Many apologies to anyone who has bought the same book twice. It was originally published as 'Kate and Olivia,' but my publisher decided it would fit in better with the other books if we re-titled it. This all happened a long while ago but there are still copies of both books about.

The story is one of two friends growing up before and during the Second World War in Birmingham. Olivia is quite a privileged girl, especially by the standards of the time. But the story shows that higher social standing did not necessarily insulate anyone from some of the sad things that could happen to women at that time. I have never forgotten the haunting descriptions I heard from a nurse who had worked in one of the city's mental hospitals just after the war.

As well as being the story of Kate and Olivia and what happened to them, it is also that of Anna, Kate's daughter, after her mother's death in the 1980s.

Customer Reviews

Birmingham Friends
This book is fantastic. I haven't read for ages but this one took my eye due to the name of it. I discovered that I actually knew some of the road names in the book, but then got wrapped up in the story and the characters too. The author is really good, very descriptive and gets you thinking.

True friendship
Kate & Olivia's friendship was due mainly to Kate's uncompromising and genuine love for Olivia although she knew Olivia did not return wholly the same feelings, but she continued to care for her whatever Olivia did. Olivia needed Kate - Kate loved Olivia - and Annie Murray wrote so movingly of the depths of hurt and betrayal Kate endured when Olivia finally took too much advantage of her kind and loving nature. Annie Murray made these characters leap from the page and when she wrote of the pain and loss Kate felt (I won't reveal this part of the story), I was reduced to tears - a lovely, honest book that talks revealingly of the different relationships women can have with other women - non-sexual - and about their true feelings.