Bücher der Reihe The Pan Real Lives Series

When Steve Duno found a puppy - flea-bitten and emaciated - on a Californian roadside, he had no idea what he was letting himself in for. Lou, as he called the dog, was the offspring of marijuana farm guard dogs; a half-Rotweiller, half-Alsatian bundle of intelligence, loyalty, and mischief. Despite his traumatic beginnings, Lou went on to achieve great things, from foiling an armed robbery and fighting kidnappers, to comforting elderly war veterans and Alzheimer's patients. Most importantly, he inspired his owner to become a pet behaviourist, and worked with him to rehabilitate hundreds of aggressive dogs that would otherwise have been put to sleep. With a vocabulary of over 200 words, there was never any doubt that Lou was smart. But he was also funny, heroic, and, for 16 years, Steve's best friend and companion. This is their story.

Born into a Romany gypsy family in 1939, Eva Petulengro's childhood seemed to her to be idyllic in every way. She would travel the country with her family in their painted caravan and spend evenings by the fire as they sang and told stories of their past. She didn't go to school or visit a doctor when she was unwell. Instead her family would gather wild herbs to make traditional remedies, hunt game and rabbits, and while the men tended horses to make a living, the young girls would join the women in reading palms. But Eva's perfect world would be turned upside down as the countryside became increasingly hostile to all travellers. Eva describes the wonderful characters in her family, from her grandfather 'Naughty' Petulengro to her four beautiful aunts who entranced everyone they met, as well as the fascinating people they came across on the road. Moving, evocative, romantic and funny, The Girl in the Painted Caravan vividly captures a way of life that has now, sadly, all but disappeared.

All Terrie ever wanted was to be part of a normal family. Instead, her earliest memories are of her father abusing her. But when he died and her mother's mental illness made it impossible for her to care for her daughter, Terrie went to live with a family friend. Things seemed perfect at first, but the biggest betrayal was yet to come. Her babysitter, a man in his thirties, knew exactly how to exploit Terrie's need for kindness. Pushed into sleeping with him from the age of ten, it wasn't long before Terrie fell pregnant and was forced to have an abortion. Frightened into continuing the relationship with this manipulative paedophile, she fell pregnant again at thirteen. Desperately wanting to have someone to love, she decided to keep her baby, but sadly she was too young to cope on her own and, heartbroken, she gave her little girl up for adoption. Over the years she had begged social services for help but they had failed to protect her from this evil man. But eventually, at the age of sixteen, her life changed forever when she found the courage to go to the police ... Written with total honesty, this is the inspiring story of a remarkable young woman who not only fought for justice but who found the strength to break free from her abusive past, to marry and create a happy, loving family of her own.

Funny, acutely observed, frighteningly honest and drawing on her own and hundreds of other mum's real experiences, Stephanie Calman serves up the perfect antidote to all those books that tell you that your children must be perfect, and to all those Stepford mums and kids out there who look as if they just might be: perfectly groomed, perfectly behaved and perfectly brilliant. The reality, as we all know, encompasses sleepless nights, no sex for years, baby sick on your best cashmere cardy, the terrible twos and then, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the sitting room, terrible teenagers whose only means of communication is the slamming door or the grunt.