Loss - Phyllis Kimber's entire future is called into question after her father is killed in Earl Redfern's employ. But the earl knows something about Phyllis that means she will always be looked after. Lies - As lady's maid to Martha, Phyllis is the American heiress's only confidant in England: she knows Martha doesn't love the recently widowed Lord Melton, the man Martha's socially ambitious father is determined she marries, but there's another secret - a secret that makes Phyllis give up everything to protect her friend. Loyalty - Martha begins making preparations to return to America with Phyllis, her father and new husband on the Titanic but the burden of deception eclipses Phyllis's hope for a new future. As she struggles to protect Martha, Phyllis must decide where her loyalties lie, unaware of the undiscovered secrets in her own past and of the tragedy that is about to unfold on that fateful crossing.
Winter 1919. Two months after the Armistice that ended the Great War, and life in London's East End is slowly returning to normal. But for 25-year-old Birdie Connor the battle is only just beginning. Frank, Birdie's older brother, has been sent to prison for deserting his army post whilst fighting in Belgium, and the shame heaped on the Connor family by their neighbours is unrelenting. Wilfred, Birdie's widowed father, has disowned Frank and vows that he will never set eyes on his son again, but Birdie cannot believe that her brother is guilty So when Frank escapes from prison and comes to find Birdie in secret, she promises to help him and is determined to prove his innocence. But little does she realise that she is exposing herself to danger as Frank gets himself deeper and deeper into trouble with the so-called friends he met in prison. Helped by the Connors' lodger, the handsome Harry Chambers, will Birdie be able to find the proof that Frank needs in time to reconcile him to their frail father before it is too late? And can she build a future to keep herself and her younger brother, Patrick, safe?
Susan is a London slum child, brought up in an East End orphanage. Rebelling against its rigid rules, she runs away to Soho and is adopted by a group of prostitutes. Soon, she too is earning her living 'on the game'. When Billy 'Apples' Rafferty, a Cockney villain with a heart of gold, becomes her protector, Sue swears to give up her racy life. But when Billy is sent to prison, she soon breaks her promise and her earthy beauty makes her one of Soho's most popular hostesses. A lucky encounter secures Susan a respectable job as a manageress of a small hotel in Devon. but then her past catches up with her...
In Muriel Spark's fantastic first novel, the only things that aren't ambiguous are her matchless originality and glittering wit. Caroline Rose is plagued by the tapping of typewriter keys and the strange, detached narration of her every thought and action. She has an unusual problem - she realises she is in a novel. Her fellow characters are also possibly deluded: Laurence, her former lover, finds diamonds in a loaf of bread - could his elderly grandmother really be a smuggler? And Baron Stock, her bookseller friend, believes he is on the trail of England's leading Satanist.
Diana's life was in a rut - she hated her job, she was perpetually single, and she needed a place to live. But then the perfect apartment came along. It seemed too good to be true - because it was. As it turns out, the apartment was already inhabited - by monsters. Vom the Hungering was the first to greet Diana and to warn her that his sole purpose in life was to eat everything in his path. This poses a problem for Diana since she's in his path...and is forbidden from ever leaving the apartment. It turns out though that there are older and more ancient monstrous entities afoot - ones who want to devour the moon and destroy the world as we know it. Can Diana, Vom, and the other horrors stop this from happening? Maybe if they can get Vom to stop eating everything...and everyone.
The path of true love never did run smooth. A heart-warming tale of love in the face of family and friendship, perfect for fans of Cathy Kelly and Maeve Binchy. Divorcee Jennifer Irwin has it all a successful interior design business and two loving children. But as her 45th birthday approaches and her children prepare to start their own lives, Jennifer is left feeling lonely in her empty nest. Thats when she meets Ben Crawford ? a man 16 years her junior ? as their attraction heightens, Jennifer realises what shes been missing. But mindful that the small-town Ballyfergus residents would never approve, they conduct their affair in secret. But a secret is never a secret for long. As the affair surfaces, Jennifer encounters opposition from friends and family, especially her daughter Lucy. Enraged by her mothers relationship, Lucy seeks comfort in the arms of charismatic but troubled, Oren. Jennifer knows that Oren is not the man he seems, but can she convince her daughter of that? And with everything going against them, can Jennifer and Bens love survive? Or will she risk losing her daughter to be with the man she loves?
Absorbing storytelling at its very best the compelling novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author. You can?t escape the ties that bind. The past catches up with you no matter how far you try to run. This is a story of a girl who doesn?t believe in happy endings. Or happy families. Its the story of Eleanor Bee, a shy, book-loving girl who vows to turn herself into someone bright, shiny and confident, someone sophisticated. Someone who knows how life works. But life has a funny way of catching us unawares. Turns out that Elle doesn?t know everything about love. Or life. Or how to keep the ones we love safe. Absorbing, poignant and unforgettable, Happily Ever After is a compelling story of a fractured family and a girl who doesn?t believe in love.
Home Place, Sussex, 1939. The English family at war?The sunlit days of childish games and family meals are over, as the shadows of war roll in, and a new generation of Cazalets take up the story. Louise, who dreams only of playing Hamlet, is brutally brought to realisation that her parents have their own secrets, passions and yearnings. Clary, who religiously documents all aspects of her life in diaries and letters, learns that her father, who was in the Navy, is now missing somewhere on the shores of France. And sensitive, imaginative Polly feels stuck without a vocation or information about her mother's illness - without anything except for her nightmares about the war.
A bold and brilliant debut from a darkly funny new voice. Oskar is a minimalist composer best known for his piece 'Variations on Tram Timetables'. He lives with his wife and two cats in an unnamed Eastern European city. But this book isn't really about Oskar. Oskar is in Los Angeles, having his marriage dismantled by lawyers. Meanwhile, he has entrusted an old friend to take care of his perfect, beautiful apartment. Despite Oskar leaving extensive notes on how to keep his flat in pristine condition, a tiny oversight initiates a chain of farcical, and even fatal, disasters. 'Care of Wooden Floors' is about loneliness, friendship and the quest for, and struggle against, perfection. And it is, a little, about how to take care of wooden floors.
Mr Wickham turned out to be a disappointing husband in many ways, the most notable being his early demise on the battlefields of Waterloo. And so Lydia Wickham, nee Bennet, still not twenty and ever-full of an enterprising spirit, must make her fortune independently. A lesser woman, without Lydia's natural ability to flirt uproariously on the dancefloor and cheat seamlessly at the card table, would swoon in the wake of a dashing highwayman, a corrupt banker and even an amorous Royal or two. But on the hunt for a marriage that will make her rich, there's nothing that Lydia won't turn her hand to... Taking in London, Paris and Brighton, Who Needs Mr Darcy? details the charming, lively and somewhat dastardly further exploits of the youngest Bennet sister. Pride and Prejudice this isn't and Mr Darcy certainly won't be rescuing her this time.
When Rob's girlfriend asks him to leave London and live with her in Manchester not only will it mean moving cities, it?ll also mean leaving behind his best mate in the entire world. Believing that love conquers all and convinced of his ability to make new friends, Rob takes the plunge. Six months in, and yet to find so much as a regular drinking buddy, Rob realises that sometimes making friends in your thirties can be the hardest thing to do. With drastic action needed, his girlfriend puts an ad in the classifieds for him. Three excruciatingly embarrassing ?bloke dates? later, Rob begins to truly despair. Until his luck changes... Theres just one problem. Apart from knowing less than nothing about music trivia, football, and the vital statistics of supermodels, Rob's new friend has one huge flaw... She's a girl.
Laura McNaughton's life is almost perfect. She's young, pretty and she has a fabulous job on a glossy magazine, which involves interviewing celebrities (and air-brushing their personalities). But when she is offered a job presenting a trendy Friday night television show she can't resist the opportunity to experience fame firsthand. Putting her puritanical Scottish upbringing, her intellectual boyfriend and her hippy best friend behind her, she soon hooks up with world-famous actress Lucy Lloyd and gorgeous, infamous rock god Ricky Jones, who introduce her to a hedonistic world of partying where appearance is everything and nothing really matters but sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But as the stories about her private life become front page news, Laura begins to doubt those closest to her, and her life starts to spiral dangerously out of control. Packed with passion, glamour and danger, DROP DEAD GORGEOUS is a unmissable glimpse into the fame game and the price you have to pay to play it.
In the Man Booker prize-longlisted 'Five Star Billionaire' Tash Aw charts the overlapping lives of migrant Malaysian workers, forging lives for themselves in sprawling Shanghai. Justin is from a family of successful property developers. Phoebe has come to China buoyed with hope, but her dreams are shattered within hours as the job she has come for seems never to have existed. Gary is a successful pop artist, but his fans and marketing machine disappear after a bar-room brawl. Yinghui has businesses that are going well but must make decisions about her life. And then there is Walter, the shadowy billionaire, ruthless and manipulative, ultimately alone in the world. In 'Five Star Billionaire', Tash Aw charts the weave of their journeys in the new China, counterpointing their adventures with the old life they have left behind in Malaysia. The result is a brilliant examination of the migrations that are shaping this dazzling new city, and their effect on these individual lives.
Like many people in this world, Phil and Terry are just looking for their personal slice of divine assistance. It's not their fault that they decide to settle on Lucky, a raccoon god of good fortune. At first, everything seems to be working fine. But they will soon learn that the world of divine powers is not to be entered into casually. Lucky, it seems, had a falling out with another ancient god long ago. And while Lucky has moved on with his life, the ancient twisted deity is still nursing a grudge. Add to this a scorned goddess looking for revenge and it starts to become clear that Phil and Terry may have taken on more than they ever bargained for.
Home Place, Sussex, 1945. The English family face a new era?The slow dawning of a new time of freedom shapes the destinies of the Cazalets in the final part of this magnificent family saga, finding the older cousins, now in their twenties, trying to piece their lives back together in the aftermath of the war. Louise's father Edward is desperate for her to like his mistress and her mother is beside herself with pain at Edwards betrayal. Clary needs to understand why her beloved, now withdrawn, father chose to stay in France so long after it was safe for him to return home. Meanwhile the girls' own affairs are far from straightforward; both Polly and Clary have fallen madly in love with much older, wildly unsuitable men. And Louise, stuck in a loveless marriage, is candidly considering her options, as well as tending to her own, very private grief.
Details: The rangers closed in, firing steadily. Within minutes all the adult animals were down. Only the calves still raced in bewildered circles, stumbling over the bodies of the dead and dying. Six minutes after the first shot, a silence fell over the killing ground on Long Vlei... In the blinding light of Zimbabwe's Chiwewe National Park, Dr Daniel Armstrong, world-famous TV naturalist, films the slaughter of a herd of elephant. In London, anthropologist Kelly Kinnear is forced into violent confrontation with the shareholders of the most powerful conglomerate in the City of London, warning them of the destruction of an African country. Now the time has come to act. Together, Armstrong and Kinnear forge a passionate alliance - and begin the fight against the forces of greed, evil and corruption attacking a land they would both give their lives to save... Combining breathtaking realism and thrilling suspense, the world's master storyteller takes us on a journey deep into the heart of a wild, magnificent continent, threatened for ever by the destructive hand of man. Ideal for: Fans of Adventure Stories & Action fiction books. Also for those who enjoy novels by Wilbur Smith. This paperback book has 518 pages and measures: 17.7 x 11.1 x 3.3cm
Every little girl grows up dreaming of marrying a prince - but what if the fairy tale turns into a right royal nightmare? Scheming kings, killer queens, evil princes, far-from innocent princesses, secret weddings, runaway brides, illicit affairs, death plots and lashings of steamy sex - it's just another day in the lives of the world's most powerful families. Find out what REALLY goes on behind closed palace doors?
In the summer of 1968, Rose sets off for the United States from Kentish Town; in her suitcase a polka-dot dress and a one-way ticket. Together with the sinister man known only as Washington Harold, she goes in search of the charismatic and elusive Dr Wheeler - the man Rose credits with rescuing her from a terrible childhood, and against whom Harold nurses a silent grudge. As the odd couple journey across an America on the brink of paranoid disintegration, their journey mirrors that of Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign. As they draw ever closer to the elusive Dr Wheeler, one hot day in June at the Ambassador Hotel in LA, their search finally reaches its terrible climax.
Passion, Treachery, Betrayal. The virgin queen has arrived?Uncovering the love triangle between Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, and his wife Amy, and her mysterious death, A Court Affair is an unforgettable story of ambition, lust and jealousy. The future of the realm is in her hands?Accused of conspiring with rebels to steal the throne, Princess Elizabeth is confined to the Tower of London by her half-sister, Queen Mary. There she finds solace in the arms of fellow prisoner ? her childhood friend, Robert Dudley. But with Elizabeths ascension to the crown, Robert returns to his wife and the unhappy union he believes cheated him of his destiny to be king. As Anne Boleyns daughter, Elizabeth knows the cruelty of marriage and roundly rejects her many suitors ? with the exception of the power-hungry Robert. But their relationship carries a risk that could shake the very foundations of the House of Tudor... A Court Affair is a fascinating portrait of both the rise of Elizabeth I and one of the most compelling periods in history.
Details: 'Big King was at the shaft station when they heard the water coming. It sounded like an express train in a tunnel, a dull bellow of irresistible power. The water was pushing the air from the drive ahead of it, so that a hurricane of wind came roaring from the mouth of the drive, blowing out a cloud of dust and loose rubbish.' Rod Ironsides, ambitious and hard-living mining expert, knows that the general managership of the Sonder Ditch gold mine is the chance of a lifetime. But the price of unquestioning obedience to the coldly obsessive genius of Dr Manfred Steyner proves impossible to pay. Both men are but unwitting tools of powerful people ? for whom the control of a gold mine is only part of the realization of dreams and ambitions which include the destruction of the very mine itself... Ideal for: Fans of action and drama fiction books and fans of novels by Wilbur Smith. This paperback book has 263 pages and measures: 17.7 x 11 x 1.9cm
A gritty tale of family and a love that holds no bounds, from the best-selling author of Nobody's Girl and A Father's Revenge. Celia Frost has always thought herself a cut above the other residents of Lark Rise in Battersea. When her beloved son, Thomas, starts seeing Amy Miller, a girl from the bottom of the Rise, Celia disapproves, thinking her common. When Celia's husband leaves her and Thomas announces he is to marry Amy, she is more determined than ever to split them up.Celia needs an ally, so she writes to her elder son, Jeremy, asking him to come home. Jeremy's arrival unleashes a tide of jealously and hate. He wants everything that belongs to Thomas - especially Amy. As Jeremy's dangerous obsession for his brother's wife grows, Amy must fight for her marriage, and her baby. The heartbreaking new novel from the bestselling author of A Father's Revenge and Nobody's Girl.
Who says supervillians can't retire? EMPEROR MOLLUSK has done it all. Sometimes twice. He's destroyed Saturn (well fine, not all of it---but 2/3rds!), created giant monsters, and until recently he was the Emperor of Earth. Yes, he still has the titles and the people are always looking to him for salvation when the aliens attack, but really, he keeps telling everyone he's retired. He's got better things to do...Like feed his pet ultrapede, Woola. Or buy groceries. But now, he's been marked by a legendary death cult for reasons unknown. And, honestly, feeding an ultrapede wasn't really utilizing his enormous intellect to its fullest potential. Emperor Mollusk is a supervillain, but when danger threatens, he will have to use all of his wiles, his feared intellect and superior technology to save Earth from the invasion of...THE SINISTER BRAIN!
From the boardroom to the bedroom, the catwalk to the kerbside...Starry-eyed ing?nue Coco Raeburn is passionately ambitious. She will do anything - and anyone - to get her own editorship at a top fashion magazine. And her ruthless boss Victoria Glossop, editor at top UK fashion magazine Style, will do everything in her power to stop her...But Victoria has her own ambitions - she wants the top job at Style's US headquarters, and nothing will come between her and her dream. Uber-svengali Jacob Dupleix, media magnate, owner of Style, and one of the most powerful men in New York and London, is used to controlling all he sees. But when Victoria demands that he give her the US Style editorship, he gives in, little realizing that his empire could be about to fall apart. In New York, mentor and voice of calm in a storm, Mereille watches the shifts of power with detached amusement. If only they knew quite how much power she could wield if she had to.
Their holiday brochure said 18-30... But they've just turned 35. After ten years together Charlie Mansell has been dumped by his live-in girlfriend, Sarah. All he wants to do is wallow in misery, but mates Andy and Tom have a better idea: a week of sun, sea and souvlaki in Malia, party capital of the Greek islands. But Charlie and his mates aren't eighteen any more. Or even under thirty. And it shows. It isn't the cheap beer, the late nights or even the fast-food that's the problem. It's girls. And life. And most of all... each other. WISH YOU WERE HERE is a heart-warming, funny and wise tale about love and friendship and how seven days in the sun can change your life forever.
Improper and impious!' her family crimes, but in most unladylike fashion, Miriam Jacobson defies her parents. Finding the thought of marriage horrifying, she rejects their suitable choice of bridegroom, choosing instead a life of adventure and travelling to the continent to join her physician uncle in his work. Following on from his death and the outbreak of war, Miriam decides it's time to go home. To secure passage to England, she accepts a patriotic mission from the Rothschild banking family, though it means enduring a lengthy journey through France and Spain in the company of two insufferable gentlemen - one an intolerant aristocrat and the second a member of her own faith who seems to dislike her and yet is somehow disturbingly familiar.
After having lived peacefully in Cambridgeshire as an evacuee, 15-year-old Ruby Blakeley is bought back to reality when her bully of a brother Ray comes to take her home to East London. Far from being welcomed back with open arms, Ruby finds herself being treated as a skivvy by her widowed mother and subject to a tirade of taunts from her two brothers. Things get worse when she becomes pregnant. Unable to tackle her family, Ruby runs away and makes a new start for herself in Southend. But she soon finds she can?t escape her past.
They want to know why. Why am I here? What happened to you, Chloe Doe? Thats what they ask at the Madeline Parker Institute for Girls ? girls like Chloe, a seventeen-year-old prostitute. Chloe says she does what she does because she has to pay the rent, because she has to eat ? and because shes good at it. The way she sees it, everyones job has one or two things about it they don?t like and her job isn?t so different. Chloe has no intention of taking seriously the attempts to reform her; what other kind of future is out there for her and why would she want to look back at her past? But then she meets her counsellor, Dr Dearborn. Even if he does have crazy hair that makes him look like the Joker, Chloe soon realizes he is smart, and not just ?book smart? ? he is the first person in a long time to find the chink in her armour. The only person who can get her to remember the tragic event she would rather forget and finally persuade her she is someone worth saving. Told in a heart breakingly sardonic voice, this is the story of a girl on the brink of self-destruction and the events that brought her there.
Home place, Sussex, 1937. The English family at home?Every summer, brothers Hugh, Edward and Rupert Cazalet take their families back to their childhood home in the heart of Sussex for two glorious, sunlit months. But not even this idyllic sitting can alleviate heartache, fear and loneliness. Hugh, haunted by memories of battle in France, is terrified at the prospect of another war. Handsome, charming Edward who escaped from the war unscathed is more occupied by his continuous affairs, of which his desperately bored wife, Villy, is unaware. Talented painter Rupert finds he cannot birth paint and be married to his beautiful, demanding wife Zoe. And their sister Rachel is so loyal to her family that she has no time to devote to the woman she feels so passionate about - lovely, half-Jewish Sid.