The Byrnes are a fishing family living a life of grinding poverty on the Connemara coast. Dympna the only girl adores her father Micheal. She does her best to help her English mother & the family rub along by working very hard & expecting little. But beneath the smooth-seeming surface there are hidden secrets. Beatrice idolises her clever eldest son but her attitude to her husband & to Dympna is puzzling. Yet when the family desperately needs money it is Dympna who crosses the water to Liverpool to send money back for them. Meanwhile in Liverpool orphaned half-starved Jimmy Ruddock struggles to escape from his background with little success until he meets Elsie a tough young slum-dweller who helps him to better himself. Then he starts work abroad a Fleetwood trawler & meets up with Dympna... Set in the late 1920s & 30s No Silver Spoon charts the pleasures & pains of life
- & love
- in the glorious countryside of Connemara & in the fiercely competitive streets of the Liverpool slums. It confirms Katie Flynn as one of the most beloved & bestselling saga writers in Britain.

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Dave Jones is one of the most respected managers in football who took Cardiff to the FA Cup final Wolves to the Premier League & Stockport to their highest ever league position. But few fans if any could possibly identify with the anguish & turmoil that blighted his life. A staunch family man & loving father of four children Daves world was turned upside down when while manager of Premier League Southampton out of the blue he was charged with child abuse relating to his time working as a care worker. As he fought to clear his name from these totally false allegations supported by his loyal wife Ann who will also reveal her thoughts Dave lost his job & tragically his father. What he didnt lose was his determination to tell his side of the story even in the face of threats from those who sought to finish him. Now in unprecedented detail Dave reveals the effect the traumatic episode had on him & his family identifies those he believes were responsible
- & explains how against all the odds he picked up the pieces & resumed a highly successful managerial career.
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The 1980s was the revolutionary decade of the twentieth century. To look back in 1990 at the Britain of ten years earlier was to look into another country. The changes were not superficial like the revolution in fashion & music that enlivened the 1960s; nor were they quite as unsettling & joyless as the troubles of the 1970s. & yet they were irreversible. By the end of the decade society as a whole was wealthier money was easier to borrow there was less social upheaval less uncertainty about the future. Perhaps the greatest transformation of the decade was that by 1990 the British lived in a new ideological universe where the defining conflict of the twentieth century between capitalism & socialism was over. Thatcherism took the politics out of politics & created vast differences between rich & poor but no expectation that the existence of such gross inequalities was a problem that society or government could solve
- because as Mrs Thatcher said ' There is no such thing as society.. .people must look to themselves first'. From the Falklands war & the miners' strike to Bobby Sands & the Guildford Four from Diana & the New Romantics to Live Aid & the 'big bang' from the Rubik's cube to the ZX Spectrum Mc Smith's brilliant narrative account uncovers the truth behind the decade that changed Britain forever.
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On the morning she will never forget suburban teenager Cynthia Archer awakes with a nasty hangover & a feeling she is going to have an even nastier confrontation with her mom & dad. But when she leaves her bedroom she discovers the house is empty with no sign of her parents or younger brother Todd. In the blink of an eye without any explanation her family has simply disappeared. Twenty-five years later Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Were her family murdered? If so why was she spared? & if they're alive why did they abandon her in such a cruel way? Now married with a daughter of her own Cynthia fears that her new family will be taken from her just as her first one was. & so she agrees to take part in a TV documentary revisiting the case in the hope that somebody somewhere will remember something
- or even that her father mother or brother might finally reach out to her... Then a letter arrives which makes no sense & yet chills Cynthia to the core. & soon she begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...
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Nadine Gordimer is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work she attacks
- with a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality
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Popular Buddhist teacher Chdr"n has a surprise for her many readers & students: textual commentary. Her newest book comments at length on an eighth-century text by the Indian Buddhist sage Shantideva. Its a guidebook for developing bodhichitta an awakened mind that expresses itself in compassionate action to alleviate suffering. The lengthy text will certainly be unfamiliar to beginners but Ch"dr"n is a wise choice for an escort. She is a clear teacher explaining key terms (the Sanskrit term klesha for example may be translated as neurosis or affliction) & making things simple & characteristically plainspoken (" When we are distracted we cant remember anything weve studied or read"). She is also the right kind of motivator telling readers immediately whats in it for them: this book can inspire those who want to make the world a better place. Readers will need a helpful teacher & patience to take up the challenge offered by the long Buddhist text which has been important in Ch"dr"ns own study. Its not a book for beginners or a good introduction to Ch"dr"ns own body of accessible work. But for those wanting depth & greater awareness of the Buddhist canon this book opens a door" ...

Eva Montgomery is at the peak of her career when she is viciously attacked by a stalker. While still traumatised she makes the biggest mistake of her life
- one she can never turn back from. Sixteen years later Eva has managed to rebuild her life in a way that seemed impossible after the attack. Her home in Dorset high on the cliffs overlooking the sea is as elegant as she is but bears none of the scars. To an outsider her world seems perfect in every way. Then the past invades the present
- with shattering consequences. Hurt frightened & confused Eva struggles desperately to put right the terrible mistake she made sixteen years ago & finally break free from a past that nearly destroyed her.

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Join Mary Wade on a long & perilous journey that begins in the slums of eighteenth century London. Aged thirteen Mary is imprisoned in Newgate prison awaiting sentence of death for a petty theft. When her sentence is commuted to transportation she sets sail onboard a prison ship to the other side of the world. Australia brings the promise of a new life but does Mary have what it takes to make it in the land of opportunity? ...

No Way Down" is the the gripping terrifying story of a brutal struggle for survival on the upper slopes of the Himalayan K2 the worlds most hostile terrain by Graham Bowley. K2 August 1st 2008. Thirty climbers are attempting the summit of the most savage mountain on Earth. They make it. But before they start their descent an ice shelf collapses sweeping away their ropes. It is dark. Their lines are gone. They are low on oxygen. & it is getting very very cold. How many will make it down alive? "A gripping hour-by-hour dissection of events in the Western Himalayas over three deadly days. A fitting shelfmate to the modern classic " Into Thin Air". A cracking read". (" Sunday Times"). " Stories of heroism sadness & extraordinary endurance against all the odds [are] woven into a thrilling drama". (" Daily Mail"). " Unputdownable. A portrait of extreme courage folly & loss leavened by a small dose of survival.. .as complete a version of the calamitous story as will probably ever emerge". (" Financial Times"). " The best mountain-disaster memoir since " Into Thin Air"". (" Mail on Sunday"). Graham Bowley was born in England in 1968. He is a reporter for the " New York Times". He lives in Manhattan with his wife & their two daughters & son." ...

Amber is shocked when her brother falls to his death from a tower block. She's convinced it wasn't an accident & so begins her journey to discover the truth & bring some kind of justice for Connor. With twists turns & a fabulous multi-layered plot Bernard Ashley has created a thrilling & engrossing tale. Set in south east London this is a incredibly gritty & absorbing novel. ...