An inspiring true story of a life devoted to helping Downs children. Alex Bell is a 53 year old woman who lives in Swinton on the outskirts of Manchester. She is feisty funny with a real firecracker of a personality. She has needed that strength of character for Alex is the adoptive mother of 8 children with Downs Syndrome or other disabilities children who some parts of society would perhaps prefer to forget. Age 28 & unmarried Alex adopted her first Downs child Matthew
- & became one of the first people in the UK to be approved for adoption as a single woman. Amazingly she went on to take eight more children under her wing Simon Adrian Nathan Andrew Chloe Tom Emily & Callum. Some had been through a frustratingly bureaucratic care system or moved from one foster parent to another. It sometimes seemed an impossible challenge but Alex was determined to give these children stability love & the best life possible. With her down-to-earth charm Alex also brings together the families often torn apart by Downs. She encourages the birth families to get together
- some of whom have sadly turned their backs on their son or daughter but others have now long been happily involved in their childrens lives. The nine children each have unique sometimes heartbreaking stories but they are also the most joyful compelling & fascinating children youre ever likely to meet: * Happy-to-lucky Matthew 24 who takes people on tours of Man. Utd
- the only Downs child to be given such a privileged position & testament to Alexs care * Adrian the family timekeeper & numbers wiz as if born with a clock inside his brain * Chloe the lovable mischievous scamp known as Little Miss Dynamite Prepare to be amazed moved & entranced by this powerful true story that will change the way we all look at disabilities. Alex believes special needs children are gifts & spending any time with her it becomes obvious that she also has a very special gift of her own.


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Pretty Amy Curran was just eighteen years old when she met Barney Patterson the love of her life on Southport Pier in 1939. Their romantic passionate marriage was made in heaven
- but with the outbreak of war Barney volunteered to fight & the couple were separated for five long years. When he returned to Liverpool after VE Day he wasn't the same person
- & neither was Amy. How could things have become so twisted that one day Amy would kill the husband she once so adored? & what happened to their little girl Pearl just five years old at the time? In 1971 Amy is released from prison
- although her freedom will change the lives of others not least that of her daughter. But Pearl has her own demons to exorcise in her quest for happiness. & the greatest question she must ask herself is this: can she ever love her mother after what she did?


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Are there Old Testemant roots of the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Margaret Barker traces the roots of the devotion to Mary as Mother of the Lord back to the Old Testament & the first temple in Jerusalem. The evidence is consistent over more than a millennium: there had been a female deity in Israel the Mother figure in the Royal cult who had been abandoned about 600BCE. She was almost written out of the Hebrew text almost excluded from the canon. This first of two volumes traces the history of the Lady in the Temple & looks forward to the second volume in which Barker will show how the Lady of the Temple is reclaimed in the advent of Christianity & becomes the Lady in the Church. The result is breathtaking & like all Barkers work is impossible to put down. ...

' More than 300 million people in the world speak English & the rest it sometimes seems try to...' Only Bill Bryson could make a book about the English language so entertaining. With his boundless enthusiasm & restless eye for the absurd this is his astonishing tour of English. From its mongrel origins to its status as the world's most-spoken tongue; its apparent simplicity to its deceptive complexity; its vibrant swearing to its uncertain spelling & pronunciation Bryson covers all this as well as the many curious eccentricities that make it as maddening to learn as it is flexible to use. Bill Bryson's classic Mother Tongue" is a highly readable & hilarious tale of how English came to be the world's language." ...

This title features two timeless stories from New York Times" bestseller Debbie Macomber! " The Matchmakers": Dori Robertsons little son wants a new father. Hes already chosen the guy
- his sporting hero Gavin Parker. & Gavins daughter wants her dad to marry again too. Gavin suggests he & Dori start dating just to keep the kids happy. But their children have some more tricks up their sleeves! " The Courtship of Carol Sommars": Peter Sommars is fifteen & he needs a little more independence. Which is why hed like his mum Carol to start dating. He even knows the perfect man-Alex Preston his best friends dad. Alex is interested but Carols doing everything she can to sidestep his pursuit. Which only makes Alex & the boys more determined."
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Destitute. Quinta Haig is struggling to make ends meet at Top Field with her ailing mother Laura. Their small Yorkshire farm is run-down & isolated & when the only way to take their goods to market is lost Quinta is prepared to sacrifice almost anything for both of them to survive. Desired. Noah Bilton a wealthy neighbour has designs on Top Field as well as ideas for the future of Laura & her daughter. He offers an uneasy solution to keep them out of the workhouse but Laura Haig will have nothing to do with it or him. When strangers appear at Top Field looking for shelter Quintas hopes are renewed
- but Noah is resolved to take what he wants by fair means or foul. Deserted. Quinta finds love against all odds but is deserted at her most vulnerable. The hardships that follow give her a steely determination to seek retribution from the man who has wronged her
- but can revenge ever bring back her happiness?

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When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry. When he is reported missing believed killed in action Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace & ruin she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower knowing she must keep the secret of her childs birth for ever. Reluctantly she sends her beloved daughter to a foster mother in Cripplegate little realising she has entrusted Cassys care to Biddy Henchard a woman who runs a notorious baby farm in an area full of poverty & disease. Despite her terrible upbringing Cassy survives the old womans cruel neglect. All the while she dreams of a mother she has never known hoping she will come & save her from her dreadful fate. But when Biddy dies suddenly ten-year-old Cassy finds herself destitute & with little hope of ever finding the mother she so longs for... ...

From rural rags to brief riches & back to ruin this is a moving saga of hard work bad luck & finally hope for a familys future. Gloria Sullivan cant quite believe where she has ended up. Growing up with no money worries she fell head over heels in love with the handsome hardworking Irishman employed by her father. They were the golden couple
- until the Wall Street crash when everything was lost. Finally she agreed to start again in London with husband Joe & their small son. World War Two was raging & Joe laboured on the docks by day & fighting fires by night. He was a hero
- but one dreadful fire left him terribly injured. Once more Gloria resolved to leave everything behind & to take Joe home to his family farm in Ireland his only hope of recovery. Gloria now dutifully nurses her husband but she cant settle in the countryside. Then a nearby American base begins recruiting civilians. Gloria tells everyone its her chance to do her bit
- but will she be tempted to do much more?


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When Eloise Cribb receives the news that her husband's ship has been lost at sea she wonders how she is ever going to manage. With two young children the rent overdue & almost nothing to live on she has no alternative but to turn to his estranged family for help. She sets off on the long & arduous journey to Yorkshire but is met with hostility & soon realises she has little choice but to return to London. Virtually destitute & desperate Eloise is faced with her worst nightmare: she must either go to the workhouse or abandon her children at the Foundling Hospital. But she is determined to keep them safe & under her protective wing at all costs... ...

Taken in by her grandparents to ease the pressure on her poverty-stricken family Katie Benfield knows she's one of the lucky ones. Even so she dreams of a better life & of pursuing a nursing career. Despite many hardships Katie achieves her goal but tragedy strikes Winton Colliery & both her grandfather & Katie's childhood sweetheart Billy are killed in a mining accident. Shocked & distraught Katie finds herself vulnerable to the advances of the owner of the mine Matthew Hamilton a married man who wastes no time in taking advantage of her. Thrown out by her grandmother her reputation & career in tatters Katie finds herself facing a home for unmarried mothers. Only Matthew Hamilton offers her a way to keep her baby but only if she forgoes her principles & becomes his mistress... ...