In A Girl & Her Pig April Bloomfield takes us behind the scenes of her lauded restaurants
- the Spotted Pig the Breslin & the John
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Spring 1944 & Europe is in the grip of war. For Alice Todd it is the start of her second year as warden of the Land Army hostel in the Devonshire countryside & a time of change as she recovers from her broken marriage learning to balance her new working lifestyle with her continuing role as a mother to her only son. Her leadership has won her the affection & confidence of the land girls in her charge & as the seeds of friendship are sewn she finds herself increasingly caught up in the lives of the women who surround her. The Girl at the Farmhouse Gate" continues the story begun in the much-loved " Muddy Boots & Silk Stockings"." ...

Hurt & confused by the sudden end of her strange love affair with Venetian millionaire Marco Donato Sarah Thomson takes her bruised heart to Paris where she tries to forget her yearning for Marco by throwing herself into a new project: a study of the life of notorious nineteenth-century courtesan Augustine Levert whose sensual charms parted many a man from his fortune. It is while she is in France that Sarah meets her ex-boyfriend Steven who is hoping for a reconciliation. They rekindle their psychologically & sexually tortured relationship but when her life begins to parallel Augustine's story Sarah realises she will never erase Marco from her heart. Faced with a choice between safety & overwhelming passion will both women make the right decision? ...

Leaving the heartache of sexual betrayal behind her in London historian Sarah Thomson intends to make the most of her research trip to Venice. But she soon finds her attention consumed by mysterious millionaire Marco Donato. Despite their deepening relationship however the handsome playboy persists in playing a secretive game. What exactly is Marco hiding? The subject of Sarahs research is eighteenth-century Venetian Luciana Giordano. At a time when debauchery is the citys favourite pastime virginal Luciana is kept out of trouble by a zealous chaperone
- until she meets a man who promises to help her escape her restraints. But just what does the worldly stranger want to teach her in return?
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Born at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 Mary & Walter Tilfords baby daughter is named Thursday. It was meant to be a message of hope for the future
- but they could not foresee that by the time Thursday celebrated her 21st birthday Britain would once again be at war with Germany. Thursday is determined to help in the war effort & volunteers as a Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse. She is attached to the Royal Navy & begins her service at Haslar Hospital on the shores of Portsmouth Harbour. The realities of war are brought home to her when the casualties begin to arrive from Dunkirk & Thursday begins to understand the true meaning of courage. While experiencing all the natural hopes & dreams of any young woman finding pleasure & joy as well as sorrow in her work Thursday is given her own opportunity to show strength & bravery in the face of war
- & find a lasting love.

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Jane Green author of the best-sellers Second Chance" & " Straight Talking" examines love friendships & their limits in her moving & entertaining novel " Girl Friday". Since her divorce a year ago Kit Hargrove feels she has finally got her life back on track. Gone is the lonely Wall Street widow she used to be & in her place is a happier more fulfilled woman with a new job she loves
- working for uberfamous novelist Robert Mc Clore
- a small but cosy new home with her children & the beginnings of a tentative friendship with her exhusb&. She even has time for yoga classes with her new best friend Tracy. The only thing missing is a man. & when Tracy introduces her to Steve
- charming romantic & attentive
- Kit wonders if he could be the final piece of the jigsaw. But Kit doesnt know that Tracy is hiding a secret one that could destroy their friendship her happiness with Steve even her new life. Torn between suspicion & love Kit doesnt know which way to turn. For there are some betrayals that a friendship cant survive... Praise for Jane Green "A densely plotted brew of love & mistakes." (" The Times"). " Green keeps us transfixed until the very last word." (" Heat"). Bestselling author Jane Green has captured the imaginations of readers in the UK & the US with her frank & funny approach to those day-to-day issues that affect women everywhere. Other titles also published by Penguin include " The Other Woman" " Jemima J." " Babyville" " The Love Verb" (published as " Promises to Keep" in the USA) " Life Swap (Swapping Lives)" " The " Patchwork Marriage (Another Piece of My Heart)" " Spellbound (To Have & to Hold)" " The Beach House" " Mr. Maybe" & " Bookends". " Girl Friday" is published in the USA as " Dune Road"."



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When it comes to grades bookish high school student Mariko Kumakura is at the top of her class. Socially however she is shy & lonely typically eating lunch by herself. Enter the charismatic & beautiful Akko Oohashi whose goal is to befriend Mariko & burst her out of her introverted shell. In the process of transforming Plain Jane Mariko into one of the cutest most popular girls in school deep feelings begin to emerge that suggest something deeper than friendship. Will these feelings destroy the budding relationship between Mariko & Akko or will it turn into something else? ...

For Josie Flynn the war was just the start of a journey that began in heartbreak when she was sent to live with her aunt & uncle. Life took her to Barefoot House as the paid companion of an elderly woman; & seemed to promise lifelong happiness in New York with the handsome charismatic Jack Coltrane. But once again life is not turning out the way Josie imagines & she finds herself back in Liverpool alone. As she renews old loves & former friendships & reflects on her time at Barefoot House she embarks upon a career which is as unlikely as it is successful. ...

The Girl from Hockley is a new revised edition bringing together in one new volume this remarkable story. Born into the industrial slums of Birmingham in 1903 Kathleen Dayus became a legend in her own time. She vividly recalls her Edwardian childhood & her life as a young munitions worker during the war marriage & life below the poverty line in the 1920s. Early widowhood & the Depression forced her to relinquish her children to Dr Barnado's homes until eight long years later she could afford a home for them again. Her autobiography is a testament to the indomitable spirit humour & verve that characterised her life. Her extraordinary memory for the sights sounds & smells of her youth her marvellous sense of the comic & above all her spirited refusal to do anything but live life to the full deservedly made her one of the most compelling storytellers of our time. ...

Catherine Cookson was born 100 years ago in a run-down area on the south bank of the Tyne. Forty-four years later her debut novel Kate Hannigan established her as a bestselling storyteller of rare talent. But what readers didnt realise was that Kate Hannigan also represented the first step of the authors triumph over a nervous breakdown & a period of confinement in a mental asylum. Still in the throes of her illness she was transforming her fears out of necessity through her art. Piers Dudgeon was granted exclusive interviews over a 15-year period until Catherines death in 1998. Now in the company of her family & others who declined to be interviewed during her lifetime he sheds new light on the tortured drama of her personal life & her legacy to the nation. This revised biography is a revealing tribute to an enduringly popular writer in her centenary year & will fascinate her many loyal fans. ...