Showing results by narrator "Maggie Mash" in All Categories

A heartrending tale of love and tragedy during The Birmingham Blitz. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Annie Groves. For Kathy O’Malley, life has not been easy with her husband, Barry, out of work and with two children to feed. Then when war breaks out in 1939, many of the local men enlist...

Marla Wolfblade is reeling from the loss of her closest confidant, Elizaar the Fool, who taught her the Rules of Gaining and Wielding Power, and helped shape her into a force in Hythria. But Marla's plans for revenge are disrupted when she discovers she has a dangerous adversary... On the border, Fardohnya has massed its troops for an invasion, and Marla's eldest son, Damin Wolfblade, heir to the throne of Hythria, finds his ability to fight back is thwarted by tradition, politics, and the foolishness of the High Prince...

Berlin 1941. Marie Jalowicz Simon, a 19-year-old Jewish woman, makes an extraordinary decision. All around her Jews are being rounded up for deportation, forced labour and extermination. Marie takes off her yellow star and vanishes into the city. Always on the move, never certain who could be trusted and how far, her quick-witted determination and the most amazing and hair-raising strokes of luck ensured her survival.

How important is it that you're happy? We can't be happy all the time, but happy people get sick less often, have more energy, are better motivated and more creative. They're more fun to be around, too. So why would you not want to let a little more happiness into your life? Liggy Webb is an expert when it comes to understanding what makes people tick; she's worked with huge companies, national bodies, and the United Nations, helping people to develop their confidence, appreciation, resilience, and communication so that they're happier, healthier, and more effective. 

Touching true stories from the heyday of the Butlin’s holiday camps. ‘When I got to the camp I felt as if I’d suddenly walked into Utopia – it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze… There seemed to be...

Previously published as Sisters of Fortune. Sophie and Rosa Moran are born into a working-class family struggling to rise above poverty. Their father is a lowly employee at Thackreys' Bank, a powerful family-run concern. Sophie and her sister first come into contact with the Thackrey family - especially young Lydia - as children through their father's job. In spite of the social differences between them, they form an enduring friendship.

The eldest was a razor-sharp novelist of upper-class manners; the second was loved by John Betjeman; the third was a fascist who married Oswald Mosley; the fourth idolized Hitler and shot herself in the head when Britain declared war on Germany; the fifth was a member of the American Communist Party; the sixth became Duchess of Devonshire. They were the Mitford sisters....

In his heyday, during the 1960s and early 1970s, B. S. Johnson was one of the best-known novelists in Britain. House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy is Johnson's most richly characterised, humane and sympathetic work. Eight residents in a home for the elderly sit down to dinner, along with the House Mother herself, and each takes it in turn to relay the proceedings of the evening from their own, individual perspective.

March 1944, West London: It's been five months since Verity Clement fled home for a life on Britain's canals. Hauling cargo between London and Birmingham is tough but easier to face than the turbulence she's left behind. When Verity's sweetheart returns unexpectedly from the front line, she dreams of a brighter future. But life aboard the Marigold is never smooth sailing. New recruit Sylvia is struggling with demons from her past while crewmate Polly receives devastating news. Verity does her best to help, but a shocking discovery is about to turn her life upside down....

In 1972 Elizabeth Romer moved to a farmhouse in Tuscany, where she discovered a life moulded by the past and tasted the simple, sublime flavours of traditional Italian cooking for the first time. Here, she introduces the Cerotti family, who farm one section of the valley, and vividly describes, month by month, the Tuscan year. From January's prosciutto and salami, to cheese-making in March, to threshing the corn in high summer, to the game and chanterelles of autumn and the chestnut woods of November and December.

1960. Having been friends ever since they met in a Blackpool boardinghouse five years before, Val, Cissie and Janice are all now happily married, preoccupied with their growing families. But the new decade will bring change for all. Val and Sam's son's behaviour is causing concern, and Val finds it hard at times to love him as she should. Running a thriving café in Harrogate, Janice and her husband, Phil, decide to expand into the restaurant business: have they bitten off more than they can chew? Meanwhile Cissie's life is thrown into jeopardy when she encounters an old flame....

The brand new thriller featuring Investigative Analyst Fredrika Bergman and Alex Recht of the Stockholm police. On a cold winter's day, a pre-school teacher is shot to death in front of parents and children at the Jewish Congregation in Stockholm. Just a few hours later two Jewish boys go...

In June 2014, Julia White - a beautiful and intelligent young woman - blows up a coffee shop in central London, killing 24 people before turning herself in to the police. Apart from publishing a potentially ironic manifesto, she refuses to explain the reasons for her actions.... Clare Hardenberg, an investigative journalist, has been commissioned to write a biography of Julia, but at the start of the novel she is on her way to prison herself. What has brought her to this point?

The inspiration behind the powerful new film starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson, this is the story of Dido Belle, whose adoption by an aristocratic family challenged the conventions of 18th century England. In one of the most famous portraits in the world, a pretty girl...

Marie is turning 69 this year, but there are no signs of her slowing down - she has a new lodger (very into conspiracy theories), an intractable iPhone to wrestle with, and a trip to India to plan! As usual the year brings plenty of challenges as well as opportunities. Marie is burgled, which sends the street into uproar. Ex-husband David is still around and getting rather too close for comfort.

Set on the island of Mallorca, The Rocks is a double love story told in reverse. Opening in 2005 with a dramatic event that seems to seal the mystery of two lives, the story moves backwards in time, unravelling over 60 years amid the olive groves and bars, the boats and poolside parties, the lives and relationships of two intertwined families within an expat community of endearing and flawed characters.

October 1943. Nineteen-year-old Polly Holmes is leaving poor bombed London behind to join the war effort on Britain's canals. Stepping aboard the Marigold amid pouring rain, there's lots for Polly to get to grips with. Not least her fellow crew: strong and impetuous Verity, whose bark is worse than her bite, and seasoned skipper Bet. With her sweetheart away fighting in the RAF and her beloved brother killed in action, there's plenty of heartache to be healed on the waterway.

In the middle of a rainy Swedish summer, a little girl is abducted from a crowded train. Despite hundreds of potential witnesses, no one noticed when the girl was taken. Her mother, left behind at the previous station, alerted the crew immediately. But as the train pulled into Stockholm Central...

Barby Keel is used to all manner of creatures arriving at the door of the Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary where she lives and works, deep within the Sussex countryside. Nothing can prepare her for the arrival of Teddy, however, a neglected, traumatised puppy who is dumped at the gates of the...

Beth thought she had been rescued from a life of servitude by an offer of marriage from gentleman farmer Edgar Collins, but her future would be bleaker than she could ever imagine. When the legitimacy of her twin babies with Edgar is called into question, the tiny infants are taken from Beth and sent far away. James is adopted by Edgar's uncle, the very wealthy Lord Redfern, master of Redfern Abbey. But little Daisy is sent to a cold-hearted childless couple who raise her to be a maid rather than a daughter.