Ann Widdecombe

Sequel to 'An Act of Treachery' (6366). Klaus-Pierre, the love child of a French woman and a German officer, lives with hostility from his French family. When his father's family learn of his existence he goes to live in Germany, where he is loved and happy. Eventually he tries to make his own peace with his French family.

Catherine Dessin is fifteen when the Germans enter Paris and she is taught by her family to hate the enemy. Two years later she falls in love with Klaus, a married German officer. Rejected by family and friends she has to cope with the aftermath of liberation, whilst Klaus also has to face a conflict of loyalties.

Mark and Claire have a perfect life until tragedy strikes when they are celebrating their daughter's baptism. Four-year-old Jeremy, their son, runs out into the path of a speeding car and is left paralysed and severely brain-damaged. Claire, Mark and their families are all affected by the accident and its aftermath.

Jason Kirk's life is torn appart when his wife of ten years unexpectedly leaves him, taking their two young children. His role as a father is reduced to that of a visitor , a situation he finds is not unusual among his friends and colleagues.

What is our modern concept of penance? Is it giving up chocolates for Lent or is it a lasting state of the awareness of sin? Penance in art, penance in literature, penance in history, penance in the Bible are all examined in an important and thoughtful meditation on the concept of penance in the 21st Century.

From her early family life in Singapore to her student ambitions at Birmingham and Oxford, this is the life story of one of our most outspoken and celebrated politicians, offering unique insight into her time as a Minister in three Departments and the Shadow Cabinet in the 1990s.