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Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Coronation Street is an ITV Studios Production
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Images (boy); © Stephen Searle/Alamy Stock Photo (Coronation Street).
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Maggie Sullivan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008256531
Ebook Edition © February 2018 ISBN: [eISBN] 9780008255169
Version: 2018-01-10
Table of Contents
Coronation Street – Still the Nation’s Favourite
To absent friends: Barbara Reid and Renée Byrne
Annie Walker lay in the middle of the generous-sized bed, ready to close her eyes. It was a rare treat for the landlady of Coronation Street’s Rovers Return to enjoy the luxury of an afternoon doze, for the pub was the busiest and best in Weatherfield as far as she was concerned. The sunlight that was slanting through the sash window illuminated the dust on the dressing-table drawers and it was almost enough to make her get up and go in search of a duster – but she resisted. Her cold wasn’t completely cured yet.
Annie yawned and stretched, lazily grateful that she had been able to persuade her mother to come and look after the children for a few days while she took to her bed.
‘You won’t have to worry about serving in the pub,’ Annie had said when she’d asked for Florence’s help. She’d sensed her mother’s hesitation at the thought of having to pull pints behind the bar.
‘It’s not that, dear,’ Florence said, almost too quickly. ‘I was just wondering whether you might be better off going to the hospital. This flu that so many people are going down with can be very dangerous, you know, and you don’t want to take any chances, not with two little ones running around.’
Annie didn’t want to admit that it