Actually, I wanted to ask about several books that I once read and can remember the general idea of, right now I will stick to this question first. It was roughly in the late 1990's and I read a series of books (3 or 4) about a family living in the united kingdom in the 1930's or 1940's. It was about a woman who got married to a man who turned out to be abusive, but he died when their four kids were young. The family's name was Brown. I remember her daughter's name was kathy brown. She also had three sons, one of which turned to drugs and being some sort of gang member. One of the other ones was apprenticed to a business person, whom I believe dealt in furniture making or furniture sales. The mother, Mrs. Brown was a fan of british singer cliff richard. The mother also had a job selling fruit from a fruit stand with another woman. The series of books dealt with her raising her family. The gang member brother died and kathy brown, the daughter, was married to an abusive man herself, but was rescued by her older brother, the furniture apprentice and/ or another man who was in love with her. Please can anyone help me?

This? --

Amazon.com: The Mammy (9780452281035): Brendan O'Carroll: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Mammy-Brendan-OCarroll/dp/0452281032)

In his first novel, Irish playwright and stand-up comedian O'Carroll mines the same material (Irish humor and gritty upbringing) as the novels that spawned the movies he's acted in: Roddy Doyle's The Van and the upcoming film version of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. A tribute to O'Carroll's mother, the narrative is set in the working-class Dublin of the 1960s, where Agnes Browne (the Mammy) works a fruit and vegetable stall with her best friend, Marion Monks, but dreams of dancing with suave singer Cliff Richard. And Agnes needs all the romance she can get as a sexually naive, newly widowed beauty raising seven kids on her own. Agnes helps her eldest son, Mark, negotiate puberty and search for a job, while defending her other children from sadistic nuns, gossipy neighbors, depression and each other. She also finds time to date the Frenchman who owns the local pizza parlor. When Marion is diagnosed with cancer, she and Agnes get as daring as their stations in life allow: Marion takes driving lessons and Agnes tries to buy a ticket to a Cliff Richard concert. By novel's end, each has made peace with her dreams. Like stand-up comics, the characters here are more clever and glib than ordinary people, but these Dubliners are also irresistibly charming as they face their daily scrapes and heartbreaks.

Also, the sequel is The Granny and the final book The Chisellers.

I said "no, that's not it" at first, but by golly, I think that's it. I'm going to do a little more research, but I think you nailed it and I thank you! I have been trying to think of this for a long time. Thanks again!