She Knew

It was the last straw. Sally couldn’t take this anymore, live with the consequences of her husband’s addiction, so she turned on her heels and walked away. Jenny smelt the betrayal on him as she greeted him at the door. This time she drew back, looked him straight in the eye and left. She was no longer prepared to put up with his unfaithfulness. Kate curled up on the settee and thought about David, her husband, her one true love who she had walked out on hoping to shock him into saving their marriage by stopping gambling. It had worked, he had stopped but David had found other arms to comfort him. These three girls form a lasting friendship, brought together by their charity shop work, a lasting intuitive friendship giving each other the support they needed. The shop and its customers and the community it inspired helped each of them in turn. “Alice? Who is Alice?” warbled Smokie on the piped music in the shop. Who indeed, you might ask. She is their favourite volunteer. She’s the lovable perfect grandma everyone wishes they had. But things are not quite as they seem…

Lin Butler was born in Chiswick and moved to Harlow when she was three. One of five children, she is now back in London. She is a doting mum and grandmother who owned and successfully ran a dress agency for twenty-three years before retiring.

She gets her love of reading from her mum, who always had a book open. This book was written in 2003 and after running out of books to read during the first lockdown of 2020 was re-read and shared with friends who urged her to do something with it.