Haworth Parsonage is the world-famous home of the Brontes. Crowds of tourists are drawn to Haworth every year to discover what inspired Anne Charlotte & Emily. Ann Dinsdale explores their lives there the impact of the sisters' home on their writing & their lasting legacy. However the Parsonage has also been home to several other families. This book begins with the early history of the house & those who lived there before the arrival of the Brontes. After Patrick Bronte's death in 1861 the Parsonage became home to four of his successors before being purchased by the Bronte Society in 1928. Thereafter it became home to four museum custodians & their families. All of these later occupants witnessed the development of tourism in Haworth which had begun in Mr Bronte's own lifetime & experienced the trials & tribulations of living in a literary shrine. Using a variety of sources mostly unpublished Ann Dinsdale also tells their stories. ...

THE FIFTH PATRICK MELROSE NOVEL As friends relatives & foes trickle in to pay their final respects to his mother Eleanor Patrick Melrose finds himself questioning whether a life without parents will be the liberation he has so long imagined. Yet as the memorial service ends & the family gathers one last time amidst the social niceties & the social horrors the calms & the rapids Patrick begins to sense a new current: the chance of some form of safety -- at last. ...

Paul O' Grady is one of Britain's very best loved entertainers. He is known & adored by millions whether as the creator of the acid-tongued Blonde Bombsite Lily Savage or the presenter of the fantastically successful award-winning Paul O' Grady Show" on Channel 4. Now in his own unique voice Paul O' Grady tells story of his early life in Irish Catholic Birkenhead that started him on the long & winding road from mischievous altar boy to national treasure. It is a brilliantly evoked hilarious & often moving tale of gossip in the back yard bragging in the corner shop & slanging matches on the front doorstep populated by larger-than-life characters with hearts of gold & tongues as sharp as razors. " At My Mother's Knee" features an unforgettable cast of rogues rascals lovers fighters saints & sinners
- & one iconic bus conductress. It's a book which really does have something for everyone & which reminds us that when all's said & done there's a bit of savage in all of us..."
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For MI5 Intelligence Officer Liz Carlyle the nagging complications of her private life are quickly forgotten at Monday's Counter-Terrorist meeting. An invisible may have entered mainland Britain. An 'invisible'
- a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country who can cross its borders unchecked & move about unnoticed
- is the ultimate nightmare. For Liz this signals the start of an operation that will test her to the limit. Who or what is the target? Where & who is the invisible? With each passing hour the danger increases. But as she desperately sifts the incoming intelligence & analyses the reports from her agents she finally realises that it is her ability to get inside her enemy's head that is the only hope of averting disaster.

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A 'one-off' from the best-selling creator of the Dr Kay Scarpetta series based on the serialisation in the New York Times. Moving between the chill of Cambridge Massachusetts & the sultry humidity of Knoxville Tennessee Winston Garano a police investigator is instructed to look into a twenty-year-old murder case. Although Win reckons there are many more pressing current cases which should have higher priority he gets on with the task unaware of the can of worms he will prise open. With her hallmark qualities of deft characterisation perfect research & tense story-telling Patricia Cornwell has created a novel which entertains intrigues & satisfies. ...

Two sisters. One man. One moment that will change all their lives forever... Living in the shadow of their domineering father Rhianon & Sabrina Webster plan two very different futures. Edwin dotes on his youngest daughter beautiful flighty Sabrina but it is homely steady Rhianon who holds their little family together. Until one fateful day when Pryce Pritchard the man Rhianon loves gets into a fight & all their worlds are thrown into turmoil. Pryce is arrested
- & Sabrina disappears... Months later Rhianon chances upon her sister & is shocked to find her pregnant living in squalid lodgings in the poorest part of Cardiff. When Davyn is born Sabrina will have nothing to do with him & kind-hearted Rhianon looks after the little boy patiently awaiting Pryces release. But when Pryce is finally set free he brings with him secrets that will devastate them all.
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Flann OBriens first novel is a brilliant impressionistic jumble of ideas mythology & nonsense. Operating on many levels it incorporates plots within plots giving full rein to OBriens dancing intellect & Celtic wit. The undergraduate narrator lives with his uncle in Dublin drinks too much with his friends & invents stories peopled with hilarious & unlikely characters one of whom in a typical OBrien conundrum creates a means by which women can give birth to full-grown people. Flann OBriens blend of farce satire & fantasy result in a remarkable astonishingly innovative book. ...

Its summer & time to head to Crabby Spit for a camping holiday. Dont forget to write! says Grandma. & sure enough the postcards come thick & fast detailing all the timeless pleasures of playing on the beach paddling & surfing finding treasures dancing to the glow of a bonfire. But look out for the mischievous family dog who makes it his business to collect all the belongings of an absent-minded artist. Full of Roland Harveys beautifully observed characters this is a humorous & hugely enjoyable picture book. ...

Summer 1931 in seedy Bayswater & James Ross is on his uppers. An aspiring writer whose stories nobody will buy (Its the slump) with a landlady harassing him for unpaid rent & occasional sleepless nights spent in the waiting room at Kings Cross Station he is reduced to selling carpet-cleaning lotion door-to-door. His prospects brighten when he meets the glamorous Suzi (the red hair & the tight jumper werent a false card: she really was a looker & no mistake) but their relationship turns out to be a source of increasing bafflement. Who is her boss the mysterious Mr Rasmussen
- whose face bears a startling resemblance to one of the portraits in Police News"
- & why is he so interested in the abandoned premises above the Cornhill jewellers shop? Worse mysterious Mr Haversham from West End Central is starting to take an interest in his affairs. With a brief to keep an eye on Schmiegelow James finds himself staying incognito at a grand Society weekend at a country house in Sussex where the truth
- about Suzi & her devious employer
- comes as an unexpected shock. Set against a backdrop of the 1931 financial crisis & the abandonment of the Gold Standard acted out in shabby bed-sitters & Lyons tea-shops " At the Chime of a City Clock" is an authentic slice of Thirties comedy-noir. Praise for " Kept: A Victorian Mystery": Very entertaining & well done with a sharp appreciation for the details The Times An ingenious tale of madness murder & deception
- " The Guardian". A stylish page-turner.. .all done with humour & cunning
- " Sunday Telegraph"."





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Growing up in a mining family Caths husband Doug promised his father he wouldnt follow in his dangerous footsteps. But after struggling with terrible poverty in 1970s Scotland Doug decided a pit job would provide his wife & young family much needed security despite extraordinary risks to life & limb. Every day Cath kissed her husband goodbye not knowing if shed see him again as he went to work at the coalface. & while her husband toiled deep below the mother-of-five put her cooking & cleaning skills to use in the colliery canteen. In good times & bad the miners wives pulled together as much as their men underground. Then Thatcher swept to power & suddenly loyalties were tested & a fight for survival of a different kind ensued. One for their very existence. ...