The autobiography of a young girl growing up in Maos China. Hong Ying grew up in a slum on the banks of the Yangtze an area permanently veiled in fog & steeped in superstition. Life was precarious & Hong Ying the youngest of the six children grew up afraid that she would be condemned to a life of carrying sand & emptying chamber pots. Gradually Hong Ying began to try & solve some of the mysteries which had seemed to surround her early life: a stalker who had followed her since she was a child a VD record in her fathers file & a persistent feeling that there was something strange about her birth. Among her discoveries Hong Ying learnt that her mother was once married to a Triadman who had died in a labour camp as a counter-revolutionary while her father now a blind sailor had several times barely escaped with his life during the civil war. Under the corrupt rule her mother had taken extreme measures to keep the children alive while several of her relatives starved to death during the Great Famine. Moreover Hong Yings stalker turned out to have an astoundingly close connection with her. After the tragic deaths of both her first lover & her first child Hong Ying decided she had to take control of her own life: she left home & worked hard to become a published poet & a novelist. After the events in Tiananmen Square she left China to live in London. ...

Josephine Tey's classic novel about Richard III the hunchback king whose remains were recently discovered. The Daughter of Time investigates his role in the death of his nephews the princes in the Tower & his own death on the battlefield. Richard III reigned for only two years & for centuries he was villified as the hunch-backed wicked uncle murderer of the princes in the Tower. Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time is an investigation into the real facts behind the last Plantagenet king's reign & an attempt to right what many believe to be the terrible injustice done to him by the Tudor dynasty. Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard recuperating from a broken leg becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains
- a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother's children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim turned into a monster by the the Tudors? Grant determines to find out once & for all with the help of the British Museum & an American scholar what kind of man Richard III really was & who killed the Princes in the Tower.
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A captivating new saga set in Liverpool & Ireland from the bestselling author of DAYS OF HOPE & FAR FROM HOME Angela ORourke is six when her parents hand her over to an aunt & uncle in a distant village. Its a common practice for large hard-up families in 1950s Ireland but for Angela it means that her mother & father dont love her any more. Still shes well cared for till shes sixteen when her uncle starts to take too much of an interest in her. Moving to Liverpool in the early 1960s she becomes a success in the world of fashion design. The pain of a disastrous love affair sends her home to Ireland just after the death of her aunt: & there among old papers Angela makes an astonishing discovery. As she learns the truth about the past a brighter new future beckons. ...

A family torn apart. A daughter's courage... When Elizabeth & her four sibling are orphaned she & her brother are sent to a children's home; their younger sisters into foster care. Life in the home is hard but she is determined to look after her brother & make a better life for them both. Working as a nurse gives her a purpose but she risks everything by falling for wounded officer Jack Benson. Far above her in wealth & station Elizabeth cannot marry him & she risks losing her nursing place if there is any hint of impropriety about her conduct. Then Elizabeth learns that her sister Jenny has been adopted by an abusive farmer. Torn between her hopeless love for Jack & her sister must Elizabeth make an extreme sacrifice to reunite her family? ...

This book will break open a secret. It is a gripping tale of love loyalty & domestic happiness that came to be overwhelmed by the forces of ambition deceit & treachery from the award-winning author of ' My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots'. The life of Sir Thomas More is familiar to many. His opposition to Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn his arrest for treason in 1534 his virtuoso defence at his trial & his execution in 1535 (and subsequent martyrdom) make up one of the most famous stories in British history. While More's place in history is secure Margaret his daughter has been almost forgotten. She was airbrushed out of the story even though she played a leading role in this very public drama. During More's imprisonment in the Tower of London Margaret became his sole intermediary with the outside world. She visited frequently & the pair wrote long & loving letters to one another. Margaret also smuggled more inflammatory letters in & out of the Tower during these visits & it is through these that we see a dramatic new portrait of Sir Thomas More emerge. In this enlightening new book John Guy returns to original sources that have been ignored by generations of historians & re-writes a story that we think we already know. ...

Readers of Princess Sultana's extraordinary biography Princess were gripped by her powerful indictment of women's lives behind the veil within the royal family of Saudi Arabia. They were every bit as fascinated by the sequel Daughters of Arabia. Here the princess turns the spotlight on her two daughters Maha & Amani both teenagers. Surrounded by untold opulence & luxury from the day they were born but stifled by the unbearably restrictive lifestyle imposed on them they reacted in equally desperate ways. Their dramatic & shocking stories together with many more which concern other members of Princess Sultana's huge family are set against a rich backdrop of Saudi Arabian culture & social mores which she depicts with equal colour & authenticity. We learn for example of the fascinating ritual of the world-famous annual pilgrimage to Makkah as we accompany the princess & her family to this holiest of cities. Throughout however she never tires of her quest to expose the injustices which her society levels against women. In her courageous campaign to improve the lot of her own daughters of Arabia Princess Sultana once more strikes a chord amongst all women who are lucky enough to have the freedom to speak out for themselves. ...

Daughters of Eden "focuses on the lives & fortunes of four very different young women at the outbreak of the Second World War. Marjorie left at a boarding school by her emigrating mother; plain Poppy pushed into marriage with a mean-spirited aristocrat; Kate despised by her father but determined to prove herself; & man-mad Lily who turns out to be the bravest of them all. That all of them are chosen to work undercover for the espionage unit at beautiful stately home is a surprise not least to them. At Eden Park they not only meet each other but become involved with three unusual young men -- Eugene the seemingly feckless Irishman; Robert Kates brother; & dashing Scott a master of disguise & the undisputed favourite of the unit. While there is hardly time for romance before each is sent out into the field there is just enough for passionate new relationships to form. Only Jack Ward the mysterious spymaster manages to remain aloof as he guides their destinies. The fact that they will look back on this time as having made them feel more exquisitely alive than ever before is not something they will know until much later." ...

The sweeping new novel from the bestselling author of LADY OF HAY switches between Roman Britain & the present day where history dramatically impacts on the lives of three women. Two thousand years ago as the Romans invade Britannia the princess who will become the powerful queen of the great tribe of the Brigantes watches the enemies of her people come ever closer. Cartimanduas world is from the start a maelstrom of love & conflict; revenge & retribution. In the present day Edinburgh-based historian Viv Lloyd Rees has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen. She has written a book & is working on a dramatisation of the young queens life with the help of actress Pat Hebden. Cartimanduas life takes one unexpected turn after another as tragedy changes the course of her future. But the young queen has formidable enemies -- among them Venutios her childhood sparring partner & Medb a woman whose jealousy threatens not only her happiness but her life. Vivs Head of Department Hugh Graham hounds her as she struggles to hide her visions of Cartimandua & her conviction that they are real. Her obsession grows ever more persistent & threatening as she takes possession of an ancient brooch that carries a curse. Both Pat & Hugh are drawn into this dual existence of bitter rivalry & overwhelming love as past envelopes present & the trio find themselves facing the greatest danger of their lives. ...

William Melvilles daughters are heiresses to the worlds most exclusive fashion dynasty. Beautiful & rich they are envied by all. But behind the glittering facade of their lives each girl hides a dark secret that threatens to tear their family apart. Smart ambitious Elizabeth knows how to manipulate every man she meets except the one who counts: her father. Gentle naive Caitlin the illegitimate child struggling to fit into a world of privilege while staying true to herself. stunning spoilt Amber the party girl with a weakness for bad boys but more fragile than anyone realises. As each of them seeks to carve out her own destiny Elizabeth Caitlin & Amber face difficult choices which will take them in wildly different directions. But as old wounds resurface & threaten to destroy the foundations of the Melville empire their paths will cross again. Because the simple truth is that no matter how far you go you cannot escape the claims of family. ...

An evocative & heartrending saga set in Liverpool during World War Two from the bestselling author of As Time Goes By Katie's full of trepidation as she arrives in Liverpool. It's her first posting & her work will be so secret that she can't even speak about it to the family she's billeted with. She makes it clear that she's here to do her bit for the war effort not to flirt with the many servicemen based at the nearby barracks. Which is just fine with Luke son of the household & battle-scarred veteran of Dunkirk. He's had his heart broken already by a flighty nurse. His mother can't help worry about him
- but she's got more than enough on her plate with her youngest children the teenage twins who don't see why a war should stop them having fun & achieving their ambition to go on the stage. Then the bombs begin to rain in Liverpool in earnest & everyone from oldest to youngest must realise what matters most in life.
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