Kate Forrest is invisible... Ned, the husband she adores, doesn't seem to know she's alive, and her two charming children have grown into stroppy adolescents. Her boss is suddenly shunting her towards career Siberia, and her demanding mother is never off the phone. With her fortieth birthday fast approaching, all Kate wants to do is run away from the lot of them. And so she does. On impulse, Kate walks out of her job, her family and her life, and gets on a plane to Italy. With no ties and no responsibilities, she soon finds herself deliriously caught up in La Dolce Vita - and the arms of a man barely half her age. But when the unthinkable threatens her family, Kate is brutally forced to choose between her past and the future.
Marine sniper Kyle Swanson and his beautiful girlfriend, CIA agent Lauren Carson, are on a mission in Pakistan when their world is turned inside out. Kyle is captured and thrown in prison. Lauren is accused of being a double agent. The one person they can trust to help is the man who sent them on the black operation - Jim Hall, a legendary CIA agent, Kyle's sniper mentor, and Lauren's boss and former lover.But Hall has gone rogue. He is selling America's innermost secrets to a ruthless Pakistani warlord who wants to mould al- Qaeda into a legitimate political party, and secure a nuclear arsenal. For Jim Hall, his former protege Swanson is the final obstacle.Caught in the sights of a man he once idolized, and who taught him how to shoot, Swanson must prevent a global disaster - from the streets of Washington to the Bavarian Alps, the two snipers stalk each other in a deadly hunt that has only one possible outcome.
'This is my tale and I will leave you to tell whether it be high romance or tragedy.' Sixteen-year-old Frances Stuart arrives at the Restoration court to find her innocence and beauty are highly-prized commodities, envied by the women and desired by the men. Before long, King Charles II falls passionately in love with her and will stop at nothing to make her his mistress. But Frances is no conventional court beauty. She is determined to make her own choices in life, and to be with the man she loves. Can she overcome the dangerous pitfalls of the King's obsession, the Queen's jealousy, and the traps set for her by the King's notorious mistresses, and make the life she wants for herself? Set against the drama of the Great Plague and the Fire of London, The Painted Lady brings to life the vibrant and decadent court of Charles II and in Frances Stuart discovers a passionate young woman prepared to fight for her own destiny. Praise for Maeve Haran's The Lady and the Poet 'This is history as pure entertainment, an inventive and delicious feast of passion, wit and intrigue.' The Times 'With its fascinating insight into Tudor life, this will absorb you to the end' She 'The clothes, the jewels, the smell of the place are all evoked; and everyone from the Queen herself to the elusive, sexy figure of Donne come wonderfully to life' A. N. Wilson, Readers' Digest
Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity's cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died. Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed. His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity - but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force. Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity . . . until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth.
From the grand houses of Brighton to imposing London mansions, life as a kitchen maid could be exhausting and demoralising. It's not just being at the beck and call of the people upstairs, when even the children of the family can treat you like dirt, but having to deal with temperamental cooks, starchy butlers and chauffeurs with a roving eye. Marriage is the only escape, but with one evening off a week Margaret has no time to lose. Between Perce the bus conductor (who brings his mother on dates) and Mr Hailsham the fishmonger (who looks - and smells - a bit like his wares), her initial prospects are hardly the stuff of dreams. But then she meets Albert; a butcher boy-turned-milkman. Could he be the perfect husband? And can she make the perfect wife when, as she soon discovers, years spent serving others don't prepare you for managing your own life? Soon Margaret begins to wonder - how can someone like her ever improve their station? Told with her trademark wit and warmth, Climbing the Stairs is a unique, sharp-eyed tale of a time when the idea of masters and servants began to lose its sway, and of a remarkable woman who grasped the opportunities of this brave new world with both hands. 'Margaret Powell was the first person outside my family to introduce me to that world, so near and yet seemingly so far away, where servants and their employers would live their vividly different lives under one roof. Her memories, funny and poignant, angry and charming, haunted me until, many years later, I made my own attempts to capture those people for the camera. I certainly owe her a great debt' Julian Fellowes
NOT EVEN THE BOMBS THAT DESTROYED THEIR CITY COULD BREAK THEIR SPIRIT ... Three generations of strong, determined women and the war that threatened to tear them apart. In the backstreets of Liverpool, Eileen Watson lives with her mother, Nellie, daughter Mel and her three tear-away sons. Life isn't great, but they have eachother, and family can get you through anything. Or...can it? Then, on the third day in September 1939, Britain declares war on Germany and their lives change forever. The children have to be evacuated, but daughter Mel refuses to go, and so Eileen says goodbye to het mother and sons, moves away from the street they love and faces a future without most of the people in her precious family. Thus begins a journey for them all. A journey filled with forbidden love, tragedy and the terrifying sounds of a city they love crumbling into craters left by the Luftwaffe. Their lives will never be the same again ...
Whistling Tor is a place of secrets, a mysterious, wooded hill housing the crumbling fortress of a chieftain whose name is spoken throughout the district in tones of revulsion and bitterness. A curse lies over Anluan's family and his people; those woods hold a perilous force whose every whisper threatens doom. For young scribe Caitrin it is a safe haven. This place where nobody else is prepared to go seems exactly what she needs, for Caitrin is fleeing her own demons. As Caitrin comes to know Anluan and his home in more depth she realizes that it is only through her love and determination that the curse can be broken and Anluan and his people set free.
Deborah, cultured and intelligent, has been handicapped since childhood. Convinced of her lack of attractiveness, her work has become her life. Leigh, a painter, refuses to be discouraged by her rejections. As Deborah blossoms into a woman in love, she is drawn into a sinister unknown world.
Inspiring the Hitchcock classic, Marnie is a psychological crime novel by the author of the Poldark series, Winston Graham.Marnie appears to be charming and efficient. A true professional. But inwardly she is unscrupulous, a rebel against society and the law. When she starts working for a small family firm, two of the partners vie for her attentions, and as Mark Rutland, the younger partner, forces his way into Marnie's world he becomes desperate to understand her. Why is she so cynical, so uncaring? Why is she a thief and a liar? Who is the real Marnie? Mark sets a trap . . . but it is not only Marnie who is caught . . .
The play opens in a hospital; the characters are patients, doctors and nurses. It is a recognizable, predictable world. And yet, as the scenes unfold - in dialogue crackling with intelligence and insight, with incandescent bite and humour - our sense of normalcy is rocked from under us. Are these doctors and nurses really just patients from the Arno Klein Psychiatric Wing? Or are they something else entirely: people who are playing psychiatric patients playing doctors and nurses? And who, exactly, is Arno Klein? Described by the Boston Globe on its first performance as 'an unselfconscious, fizzing, inventive black comedy that is enormously funny', The Day Room displays Don DeLillo's extraordinary talents in the brightest of lights.
Daire Santos has already saved her grandmother's life - and her soul. But at a cost: the Richter family has been let loose in the Lowerworld. Daire and her boyfriend Dace Richter must work together to find them before chaos ensues and the balance between good and evil is destroyed. As their relationship deepens, Dace's evil brother Cade grows stronger than ever, building his power and forcing Daire and Dace to confront the horrifying prophecy that has brought them all together. It will leave Daire no choice but to claim her true destiny as Seeker, but only by making an unthinkable sacrifice.
Strange things have been happening to Daire Santos. Animals follow her, crows mock her, glowing people appear from nowhere. Worried that Daire's having a breakdown, her mother sends her to stay with the grandmother she's never met, who lives on the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico.There Daire crosses paths with Dace, a gorgeous guy with unearthly blue eyes. Her grandmother recognizes Daire's episodes for what they are - a call to her true destiny as a Soul Seeker, a person who can navigate between the living and the dead. Guided by her grandmother, Daire must be quick to learn how to harness her powers, because Dace's brother is an evil shape-shifter, out to steal them. Daire must embrace her fate as a Soul Seeker and discover whether Dace is the guy she's meant to be with . . . or if he's allied with the enemy she's destined to destroy.
She looked at him and smiled sadly. 'You've lived too long among the dead, Quirke,' she said. He nodded. 'Yes, I suppose I have.' She was not the first one to have told him that, and she would not be the last. 1950s Dublin. When a body is found in the canal, pathologist Quirke and his detective friend Inspector Hackett must find the truth behind this brutal murder. But in a world where the police are not trusted and secrets often remain buried there is perhaps little hope of bringing the perpetrator to justice. As spring storms descend on Dublin, Quirke and Hackett's investigation will lead them into the dark heart of the organisation that really runs this troubled city: the church. Meanwhile Quirke's daughter Phoebe realises she is being followed; and when Quirke's terrible childhood in a priest-run orphanage returns to haunt him, he will face his greatest trial yet . . .
'A stunner. I am heartbroken to have finished it' Ali Smith In Jackie Kay's first collection of stories, ordinary lives are transformed by secrets. Her world might seem familiar - sex, death and family cast long shadows - but the roles of mothers, daughters and lovers are imagined and revealed in the most surprising of ways. Sometimes it is the things that we choose to hide within ourselves which can transform us - and that has never been more true than in Jackie Kay's warm, exuberant storytelling. She sees the extraordinary in everyday life, and lights it up with humour and generosity in a way that is uniquely her own. 'If stories like these can still be written, the short story form must still be alive, not to say kicking' Irish Times
Why would suicide need a witness? On the east coast of Ireland, Victor Delahaye, one of the country's most prominent citizens, takes his business partner's son out sailing. But once at sea, Davy Clancy is horrified to witness Delahaye take out a gun and shoot himself dead. This strange event captures the attention of Detective Inspector Hackett and his friend Pathologist Doctor Quirke. The Delahayes and Clancys have been rivals for generations and the suicide lays bare the perplexing characters at the heart of the mystery, from Mona, Delahaye's toxic young widow, to Jonas and James, his strange, enigmatic twin sons; and Jack Clancy, his down-trodden, womanizing partner. And when a second death occurs, one even more shocking than the first, Quirke begins to realise that terrible secrets lie buried within these entangled families; and that in this world of jealousy, ruthless ambition and pride - nothing is quite as it seems . . .
TERROR FROM THE DEEP . . .When a plane crashes into the Antarctic ice, exposing an enormous cave system, a rescue and research team is dispatched. Twenty-four hours later, all contact is lost.Captain Alex Hunter and his highly trained commandos, along with a team of scientists, are fast tracked to the hot zone to find out what went wrong. Meanwhile, the alluring petrobiologist Aimee Weir is sent to follow up on the detection of a vast underground reservoir. If the unidentified substance proves to be oil, every country in the world will want to know about it--even wage war over it. Or worse.Once suspended into the caves, Alex, Aimee, and the others can't locate a single survivor--or even a trace of their remains. Nor is there a energy source, only specters of the dead haunting the tunnels. But soon they will discover that something very much alive is brewing beneath the surface. It is a force that dates back to the very dawn of time--an ancient terror that hunts and kills to survive...
In seven short stories Malcolm Bradbury takes a subtly ironic look at a variety of targets: American academics, provincial Britain, the aspirations of social workers, psychologists, the well-intentioned. . . In addition he delights us with an irreverent and hilarious series of parodies of some of the greatest paradigms of the British and American literary scenes: a passage from Iris Murdoch's little-known The Sublime and the Ridiculous; Muriel Spark (a whole novel); the fifth volume of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet; John Osborne; J. D. Salinger and many more. 'A very funny book indeed. Malcolm Bradbury is a satirist of great assurance and accomplishment' Observer 'Bradbury's eye is sharp, his trigger-finger steady and unafraid, and his range and explosive power devastating' The Times
To the Hermitage tells two stories. The first is of the narrator, a novelist, on a trip to Stockholm and Russia for an academic seminar called the Diderot Project. The second takes place two hundred years earlier and recreates the journey the French philosopher Denis Diderot made to Russia at the invitation of Catherine the Great, a woman whose influence could change the path of history . . . Malcolm Bradbury's last novel is rich with his satirical wit, but it is also deeply personal and weaves a wonderfully wry self-portrait.
With 3.2 million copies of her Immortals series in print, Alyson Noel is one of the hottest paranormal teen authors writing today. EVERLASTING is the sixth and final instalment of the epic love story that has enchanted readers across the world. Ever and Damen have spent centuries facing down bitter rivals, jealous friends and their own worst fears-all in the hope of being together forever. Now in EVERLASTING, their destiny is finally within reach. Will they be united . . . or torn apart forever? Readers will finally discover the truth in this anxiously awaited conclusion!
Winner of the Betty Trask Award, Never Mind is the first in Edward St Aubyn's semi-autobiographical Patrick Melrose novels, adapted for TV for Sky Atlantic and starring Benedict Cumberbatch as aristocratic addict, Patrick.At his mother's family house in the south of France, Patrick Melrose has the run of a magical garden. Bravely imaginative and self-sufficient, five-year-old Patrick encounters the volatile lives of adults with care. His father, David, rules with considered cruelty, and Eleanor, his mother, has retreated into drink. They are expecting guests for dinner. But this afternoon is unlike the chain of summer days before, and the shocking events that precede the guests' arrival tear Patrick's world in two.Never Mind was originally published, along with Bad News and Some Hope, as part of a three book omnibus , also called Some Hope.
A powerful and compelling story which explores one of the most difficult decisions we might ever have to make.One morning in October, William Harris is confronted by the shocking disappearance of the woman he loves.Julia Seymour has vanished without trace - from his life, from her daughter's and from her own. Her sudden departure seems to be both deliberate and final.But William is determined to find her. In the days that follow, he tries to piece together what might have driven her away. His search takes him to London, to India - and to Julia's life before he met her.In the process, William discovers secrets about Julia's past that challenge and disturb his view of all they shared together. Secrets that illuminate the present in ways he could never have expected.Praise for Catherine Dunne'A real touch of Jodi Picoult . . . a domestic setting . . . tension . . . and a little bit of darkness'Arena Arts Review, RTE Radio 1
For ten years after WWII, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis weren't only the most successful show business act in history, they were history. Starting as a fill-in for another act in Atlantic city, their improvised, anarchic routines soon sold out all the greatest venues in America. They made films, they made millions. They made a legend. But amidst the dazzling success and the late night laughter, tensions developed between the reserved straight man, Martin, and the manic goon, Lewis. When the duo, who had reinvented the comic double-act, split acrimoniously in 1956 they didn't speak to one another for the next 20 years. This is an intimate memoir of those years of fame and success by one of the only surviving legends of the rat-pack era. Jerry Lewis remembers everything - the casinos, the mobsters, the endless pranks, the cocktails, the women, the meteoric rise to stardom. Here for the first and only time and in his own inimitable, wise-cracking voice he re-lives his days of glory with Dean Martin and gives a frank account of their relationship and break-up. A hilarious ride and heart-breaking, cautionary tale of what fame and fortune can do to love and friendship.
Famously described as the 'Apostle to the Apostles', after her discovery of Jesus' resurrection, Mary has sparked curiosity, controversy and veneration since her name first appeared in the Gospel of Mark. But who was Mary Magdalene? Was she a prostitute, a goddess, a feminist icon, a church leader or all of these things? Using testaments, letters and narrative Margaret George brings to life one of the most mysterious and controversial characters in the bible, creating an epic that is both immediate and moving. 'Margaret George proves herself to be the very best when it comes to historical fiction. Her new novel is a gripping and moving story' Barbara Taylor Bradford
Meet Pat McNab, forty-five years old, often to be found endlessly puffing smokes and propping up the counter of Sullivan's Select Bar or sitting on his mother's knee, both of them singing away together like some ridiculous two-headed human juke box. But that was all before the story really begins. Emerald Germs of Ireland is, in essence, Pat McNab's post-matricide year. This is another great romp from the master of black comedy.
'Gemmell has written a powerful novel that does not flinch from strong emotion or description to provide a luminous insight into the fringes of Australian society and the long, dark night of the soul' The Times 'The desolate landscapes of central Australia, eerily beautiful and cruel, are superbly evoked in Cleave. Nikki Gemmell's heroine, Snip Freeman, is a painter who, as a child, lived in the centre until her father Bud deserted her . . . Prompted by her grandmother, she heads west from Sydney with a stranger, Dave, in search of Bud, her own childhood and, perhaps, a new life. Gemmell writes brilliantly about the journey, about Snip's insistence that she feels lust, not love, for Dave, and later about Snip and her father marooned in the desert, both hallucinating as they run out of water and hope' Sunday Time s
Joe, struggling to survive his job in a high-powered law firm, is faced with the challenge of finding his childhood friend, Jenna, who has been missing for four years. But has she disappeared through choice? Or is she under the powerful influence of her husband, the restless, troubled Chetwood? For Joe, the search is a matter of duty, but also of conscience - for he introduced them to each other, he was enthralled by them both . . . Helped by his prickly girlfriend, Sarah, Joe manages to find the beautiful, faded Jenna, only to realize too late that he has set some terrible events in motion . . .
Mateship n. the quality or state of being a mate; esp: fellowship On the outskirts of a country town in the early 1950s, a lonely farmer trains his binoculars on a raucous family of kookaburras roosting next to his dairy. But as Harry observes the birds through a year of feast, famine, birth, death, war, romance and song, his neighbour, Betty, has her own set of binoculars trained on him. Of Betty's two fatherless children, it is Michael who gravitates towards the gentle man next door, and Harry, sensing Michael is ready to stretch his wings, decides to teach him the oldest lessons in the world. Harry knows all about girls. But how much does he really know Betty? Mateship with Birds is a tender, witty novel of young lust and mature love. A glorious tale of innocence lost, it celebrates life on one small farm in a vast, ancient landscape, and a collection of misfits who question what a family might be.
Set in the epic years before and after the First World War, Chaff Upon The Wind is a moving novel of Lincolnshire life from Margaret DickinsonKitty Clegg has always accepted the hard work in her job as a kitchen maid at the Manor Farm. But now, at sixteen, she seizes the chance to go up in the world and to become a lady's maid. Handsome Jack Thorndyke has more than once held Kitty's adoring gaze. As he prepares his gleaming threshing machine for its winter work, he finally asks her to be his chosen Harvest Nell when the last of the golden Lincolnshire corn is cut. Carried away by her excitement, Kitty fails to heed the warnings whispered into her ear. Jack is far from the marrying kind. Worse still, his playful charm has attracted another - a young girl far above his station. Will Kitty's dreams be scattered like chaff upon the wind? Or can she hold on to a very special kind of love: a love which will bring both heartache and joy to the Manor in the turbulent decades to come?
The women of Reality, Reality are mesmerizing, whether in love or in solitude. Full of compassion, generosity, sorrow and joy, their fifteen unforgettable stories explore the power of the imagination to make things real, and celebrate, most of all, those who dare to dream.
'Disguised as a young Dinka woman, God came at dusk to a refugee camp in the North Dafur region of Sudan. He wore a flimsy cotton dress, battered leather sandals, hoop earrings, and a length of black-and-white beads around his neck.' So begins Ron Currie Jnr's blasphemous and heretical debut novel. God -- or Sora, as she's called -- has come to earth to experience its conflicts first hand, but of course, adopting a human form also means assuming human frailty and mortality, and when God is killed in action, so to speak, the nations of the world are stripped of all they once thought certain, everything they once held dear. Waves of panic, civil unrest and mass suicide sweep the globe -- but those who have survived the initial shock are subsequently even more shocked to find that life goes on. Somehow. And then, of course, they are faced with the dilema of how -- precisely -- to carry on living this new, God-less life of theirs; the question of who (or what) to believe in now God is dead. Like the holy grail of fiction, God is Dead is a debut novel that is truly -- and terrifyingly -- original. Both fantastic (in all senses of the word) and hypnotic, it promises to be the book of 2007 and beyond.
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