Books published by publisher Signature Lives

Just when he thought that his bandito cell mates, Ratsy and Burke could help him find the money he needs, there's a huge explosion in the jailhouse, and there, with a toothless grin, stands Ma Manky, the tiny and very scary bandit queen. Ma Manky kindly takes Nev under her wing. In return, he will write the ransom notes. How's he going to get his money now? And he doesn't agree with armed robbery either - it's just not right! But his first hold-up turns out to be the answer to his problem - young Marietta Courgettejust so happens to have a very rich uncle, and she's taken a shine to young Nev. Is this his chance to find the money and run?

1944 Belfast. Fraulein Berg arrives to teach German at Kate, Harriet and Sally's school. Saturated with war-time propaganda, reading spy stories and imagining themselves dropping over enemy lines to perform daring and heroic deeds, the girls decide that, as she's German, she must be the enemy - and she must be a spy. They set to work to prove it, following her everywhere, recording everything in notebooks, hounding her, seeing themselves as valiant secret service agents helping their country. Finally on a train travelling between Dublin and Belfast, they alert a border guard ... The story is told by Kate years later, always haunted by their silly antics at the time, and often wondering what happened, in the end, to the unhappy Fraulein Berg. In fact, she was a Jewish escapee from Nazi Germany, having lost parents, two sisters and a brother in the gaschambers. Kate reflects that, so used to dividing people up into Protestants and Catholics, enemies and friends, they had never stopped to think of the tragedy they might be creating..First published in 1980 by Julia MacRae Books