"Archway of Tears" is a first novel by David Conroy, and is based on real-life events from his mother's life.
Always headstrong, Winifred Pow leaves her unhappy home life in Devon in Autumn 1920 to find a new life in Birmingham. There her rash behaviour brings her into conflict with the social taboos of the time. She meets shadowy South African John van de Leure, and her involvement with him leads finally to her entry through the Archway of Tears, the title given locally to the entrance of the Birmingham Workhouse in Western Road.
Alienated from her family and a fugitive from authority, her story reveals the best and worst in human nature as it builds to a gripping climax.
"A first novel by David Conroy, and a gripping one at that. This book reveals the best and worst in human nature...The author's meticulous research into the minutiae of Birmingham's history is used vividly, drawing the reader into the Midland scene of the 1920s."