Sue Limb

Sisters Alison and Maud are joint landladies of the Abbeyfield Guest House, dispensing hospitality to a variety of demanding clients while also looking after their irascible, bedridden father downstairs in the granny flat. Dreamy ornithologist Alison has just moved back from Bloomsbury, while Maud ran a 3000-acre farm in Africa - but neither sibling is really up to the task of managing a B&B, and chaos generally ensues.

In these two series, Alison has the hots for their accountant, Bernard - and is the reluctant object of a courtship display from a fellow bird-fancier; Maud comes up trumps in the middle of the night (but what will the guests make of what's in the saucepan?) and handyman Mr Mullet and the Bishop of Norwich get a little too close for comfort over tea. Meanwhile, the landladies' daddy complains about his new orthopaedic mattress, battles with hallucinogenic fungus and chips and prepares for his 85th birthday party - but what form will the celebrations take?

In March 1912, Captain Oates walked out to his death in an Antarctic blizzard and won a place for himself in history as 'a very gallant gentleman'. This biography shows that there was much more to Captain Oates's life than his final famous act of self-sacrifice.

Set in the eighteenth century, this novel tells the story of Jane, flattered when the handsome and charismatic William asks her to marry him, but soon realising her mistake when the man she really loves is about to marry someone else.

Autumn, 1646. The English Civil War is raging, and there's trouble ahead for Sir John and Lady Anne Firebasket. There's a Roundhead platoon camping out in the barn, a perplexed priest hiding behind the panelling and, unbeknown to the Firebaskets, their scullery maid Mercy is actually a disguised aristocrat (and Royalist spy) named Melissa Fortescue-Bottomley. While Mercy steels herself to carry out a deadly mission, pious steward Tobias Thynne rails against the Devil's vegetables and Father Francis takes to the rooftops in a borrowed nightgown for a rendition of 'Ave Maria'. With the whole household suffering from severe domestic derangement, it's a bad time for General Cromwell to show up - and then news arrives that the fugitive King Charles has also decided to pay a visit... As confusion reigns, Sir John takes to drink, Lady Anne takes to her bed and the New Model Army take up their muskets. Will Firebasket Hall survive the hostilities?

Not long after their mother's death, sisters Maureen and Lesley are packing up their family home. It's a painful duty, with Maureen trying to control the worst of Lesley's projectile lamenting. Then a strange man knocks at the door and introduces himself as David Johnson, a friend of Maureen's neighbour. He'd like to view the house if they are thinking of selling - which Maureen definitely is. But Lesley has other ideas and, behind Maureen's back, offers David their mother's old bedroom as a pied-a-terre.

Gradually, he forces his way into the sisters' lives, turning up at inopportune moments and constantly getting in their hair. As they both become increasingly fed up with him, Maureen and Lesley put aside their differences and unite to try and find out exactly who this David Johnson is, and what he is hiding. But when his secret is finally revealed, the sisters are in for a shock. The situation is about to get really out of hand...