Books Contemporary Fiction Books Bree & Eason survive the fire that takes their partners
- but neither of them are truly living
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KYM MARSH is one of our most-loved stars, but her life has been a rollercoaster ride through love, laughter & tears. Now Kym's ready to tell her full story for the first time, describing her difficult childhood growing up on a council estate in Wigan, & struggling at school with bullying & an eating disorder. She describes falling in love at 17 & finding herself pregnant while still a teenager. By the time she was 21, she was a single mum with two very young children, David & Emily, & it was a real struggle to make ends meet. But Kym had always dreamt of performing & even though the odds were stacked against her, she was determined to make her dream a reality. One day she auditioned for a new TV show called Popstars & her life changed forever. Kym now stars in the nation's favourite soap, Coronation Street. But her life off-screen hasn't been easy. She reflects on her marriage to Jack Ryder & how hard she tried to make it work. Kym found new love with Hollyoaks star Jamie Lomas & after tragically losing their first baby Archie in 2009, the couple were over the moon to welcome little Polly Lomas into the world earlier this year. Entertaining, funny & incredibly honest, From the Heart is a fantastic read all about how sometimes the best things happen in life when you refuse to give up hope. ...

A rich blend of history & spirituality, adventure & politics, laced with the thread of black comedy familiar to readers of William Dalrymple's previous work. In AD 587, two monks, John Moschos & Sophronius the Sophist, embarked on an extraordinary journey across the Byzantine world, from the shores of the Bosphorus to the sand dunes of Egypt. Their aim: to collect the wisdom of the sages & mystics of the Byzantine East before their fragile world shattered under the eruption of Islam. Almost 1500 years later, using the writings of John Moschos as his guide, William Dalrymple set off to retrace their footsteps. Taking in a civil war in Turkey, the ruins of Beirut, the tensions of the West Bank & a fundamentalist uprising in Egypt, William Dalrymple's account is a stirring elegy to the dying civilisation of Eastern Christianity. ...

Documenting the politics of African American women's hair, this linguistic ethnography explores everyday interaction in beauty parlors, Internet discussions, comedy clubs, & other contexts to describe how & why hair matters in African American women's day-to-day experiences. ...

Like many middle-aged baby-boomers, Richard Guise yearned to take on a physical challenge before he reached the age where walking across the kitchen would fall into that category. This is the tale of his 600-mile, 16-day bike ride through the Highlands of Scotl&, from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to Cape Wrath in the north. ...

When a homeless man is found murdered in picturesque Lincoln the police are met by a wall of silence from those who may hold the

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A memoir of friendships, foreign places, the delights of the palate, & the enjoyment of life, this book takes you from the pungency of the Durban market to the beauties of Kashmir, from the Silver Palate gourmet shop in New York to the gardens of Engl&. ...

In 1933, at the age of 15, George Dunn left the small Welsh mining village of Blaina for St Albans in Hertfordshire as part of the government's Labour Exchange Scheme. This book covers the memories of his life in Hertfordshire & his wartime experiences. ...

It is 1934. Next-door neighbours Lizzie & Celia are the best of friends.

But their families, the Miltons & the Slatterys,

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Lynn Stephens' life has been tough recently, thanks to Vincent Bol&, the manager at the four-star hotel where she works. But, after standing up to him, she is delighted when she is vindicated. Lynn loved her job & she was good at it & now, with the support & love of her partner, parents & friends, she can put this terrible time behind her & find a job in another hotel. But the consequences of Vincent's actions are more far-reaching than Lynn knows & the after-effects are still being felt throughout the small town. The Boland family is powerful & influential & it's not long before Lynn realizes that this man still has the capacity to destroy her & all she holds dear. ...