Raised in Stepney the heart of London's East End Maggie Riley is the only child of an Irish widower. When she becomes pregnant at the age of fifteen she is delighted for it means she has captured her beloved Jim Burns. But life is a constant struggle
- to bring up her four sons to cope with a part-time husband to 'better herself'. & that struggle is set against critical events of the era: the Depression the Blackshirt marches the devastation of World War II & its aftermath. With the skill of a natural storyteller Lena Kennedy makes us share Maggie's life: we experience Maggie's hardships as she confronts poverty; we feel her grief when she sends her children off during the evacuation; we sympathise with her loneliness through the long years of the war; we share the impressions of her first trip abroad to South Africa & Australia. We rejoice in her triumphs & feel the sorrow of her tragedies.
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It's 12 October 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously Margaret Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off & packs their bags. He knows he too must survive. Damian his sister & his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks. But darkness threatens as Maggie takes hold: she snatches school milk smashes the unions & makes greed good. Following Maggie's advice Damian works hard & plans his escape. He discovers that stories can save your life &
- in spite of violence strikes AIDS & Clause 28
- manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgow's only gay club. Maggie & Me is a touching & darkly witty memoir about surviving Thatcher's Britain; a story of growing up gay in a straight world & coming out the other side in spite of & maybe because of the iron lady.

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Its 12 October 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously Maggie Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off & packs their bags. He knows he too must survive. Damian his sister & his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks. But darkness threatens as Maggie takes hold: she snatches school milk smashes the unions & makes greed good. Following Maggies advice Damian works hard & plans his escape. He discovers that stories can save your life &
- in spite of violence strikes AIDS & Clause 28
- manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgows only gay club. Maggie & Me is a touching & darkly witty memoir about surviving Thatchers Britain; a story of growing up gay in a straight world & coming out the other side in spite of & maybe because of the iron lady.

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Moodily atmospheric full of verve & energy Maggie Cassidy" is Kerouacs poignant tale of teenage romance in New Engl&. The story of Jack & Maggie in love with the idea of being in love looking ahead to marriage with hope & trepidation is told with touching simplicity. It skillfully captures both the intensity & the ordinariness of adolescent life with its torments & complications & is a beautiful evocation of growing up in America." ...

One of Lyn Andrews first eight novels transferring from the original publisher to Headline; already steady sellers they will be targeted for a huge increase in sales. Maggie May born into the slums of Liverpool in the 1880s had many difficulties to cope with
- a drunken father the early death of her gentle mother & the grinding poverty of their lives. But most of all she had to endure the shame of her name
- that of the citys most notorious prostitute. Taking care of her younger brother & desperately trying to live down her name Maggie manages to escape from Liverpool to enjoy an idyllic new life. But fate forces her back again & into the arms of a stranger who is to bring her both heartbreak & the greatest happiness she will ever know.

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There were plenty around Fellburn who said she was as plain as a pikestaff but Maggie Rowan more than made up for it by her dogged determination to succeed. They reckoned that once a miner's daughter like Maggie had tasted power she'd be like a beggar on horseback
- & ride straight to hell. Maggie's two main desires in life were a child she could love & one of those big houses on Brampton Hill
- which was what she had in her sights when she asked Christopher Taggart to marry her. & she meant to have them both despite the scorn of some folk who thought they knew what Maggie Rowan deserved better than she did herself.

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During his tragically short life Stephen Crane gained fame as a vividly distinctive writer. His stories of evolving American society are unflinchingly realistic & shrewdly ironic. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets tells of Maggies seduction & downfall into prostitution amid the harsh world of the Bronx where life is a battlefield. The other tales offer a diversity of insights into social hypocrisy child psychology & the wild violence of the frontiersmen. Such violence is ruthlessly depicted in The Blue Hotel. This collection of stories is replete with lively dialogue ominous atmospheres dry humour & graphic incidents. Praised by Joseph Conrad & Ernest Hemingway Stephen Cranes memorable tales have become enduringly influential. ...

Narrated against the backdrop of a ruthless regime determined to beat its enemies in the race to the moon Maggot Moon" is the stunning new novel from award-winning author Sally Gardner. When his best friend Hector is suddenly taken away Standish Treadwell realises that it is up to him his grandfather & a small band of rebels to confront & defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of the Motherl&. Utterly original & stunning it is impossible not to be moved by " Maggot Moons" powerful story & the unforgettable heroism of Standish." ...

Narrated against the backdrop of a ruthless regime determined to beat its enemies in the race to the moon MAGGOT MOON is the astonishing new novel from award-winning author Sally Gardner. When his best friend Hector is suddenly taken away Standish Treadwell realises that it is up to him his grandfather & a small band of rebels to confront & defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of the Motherl&. Utterly original & stunning it is impossible not to be moved by MAGGOT MOON's powerful story & the unforgettable heroism of Standish. ...

There is a tradition in Jiggys hometown by which the night before a boys first day at school his father takes him to the Piddle Pool near the old quarry. Boys pee in the pool for a lucky school life. But Jiggys dad never took him...and now Jiggy wants to change his run of bad luck. One night mid-piddle something happens
- & a genie rises out of the water. Will Jiggys luck be reversed...or will it just get worse?!
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