Ellen Staples

For more than thirty years Wendy Cope has been one of the nation's most popular and respected poets. In this anthology she celebrates the joyful aspects of the season but doesn't overlook the problems and sadness it can bring.

Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in 1950s South Africa, where racial laws are tightening. The apparatus of repression rolls on, but Dinah finds her own way. As we follow her journey through childhood and adolescence, we enter into one of the darker passages of twentieth-century history.

Mannerling, the splendid family estate gambled away by Sir Beverley, remains the passion of his daughters. Beverley himself has died; the eldest daughter, Isabella - having failed in her bid to reclaim the family home - is blissfully wed. The mantle of saviour now falls to the next eldest daughter, Jessica and as scandal and intrigue swirl around her, Jessica must discover where the heart finds true happiness. . . .  Book 2 of series.

Book 4 of 'Down to Earth' series. Sequel to 'Buttered Side Down' (6677). Faith is in London learning the art of dog grooming. Upon returning to Devon they launch their next venture, a nursery and market garden. Life is never dull at 'Phyllishayes'!

Hartmann and Fibich, childhood refugees from the Nazis, grow up in England where they become close friends and business partners in a London printing business. Hartmann is able to maintain a bright outlook on life and looks towards the future. Fibich, on the other hand, broods about the past.

One morning a librarian finds a reader who has been locked in overnight. She starts to talk to him, a one-way conversation that soon gathers pace as an outpouring of frustrations, observations and anguishes. Two things shine through: her shy, unrequited passion for a quiet researcher named Martin, and an ardent and absolute love of books.

Kate Somersby has finally returned home after years of running away. Old Man Isaac is selling the clock house on the green and she’s determined to make him an offer – the very bricks that make up the little clock house hold precious memories for her. Only entrepreneur Daniel Westlake is standing in her way. Their rivalry is the talk of the village and soon rumours are spreading thicker than jam on a scone…

In a small town in Brittany, a library houses manuscripts that were rejected for publication. Visiting while on holiday, young editor Delphine Despero is thrilled to discover a novel so powerful that she feels compelled to bring it back to Paris to publish it. The book is a sensation, prompting fevered interest in the identity of its author - apparently one Henri Pick, a now-deceased pizza chef from Crozon. Sceptics cry that the whole thing is a hoax: how could this man have written such a masterpiece? An obstinate journalist, Jean-Michel Rouche, heads to Brittany to investigate.

Lady Rose Summer prides herself on not being a jealous woman and she knows her engagement to Captain Harry Cathcart is only a ruse to keep her parents from shipping her off to India to find a husband. But then Harry's latest client, Dolores Duval starts appearing everywhere at his side. And that changes everything. In a fit of temper Rose threatens Dolores - only to be found the very next day standing over her dead body. Only Harry can clear Rose's name - and to do that he has to put the real murderer behind bars.  Book 4 of series.

Teenager Lewis Hoxworthy discovers a painting in a medieval barn; a discovery which excites archaeologist Neil Watson who is excavating an ancient manor house nearby. But when former rock star Jonny Shellmer is found shot through the head in Lewis's father's field and Lewis himself goes missing, Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan face one of their most intriguing cases yet. Book 6 of series.

In 1951 the Australian writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston left grey, post-war London for Greece. Settling first on the tiny island of Kalymnos, then Hydra, their plan was to live simply and focus on their writing The result is Charmian Clift's best known and most loved books, Mermaid Singing and Peel Me a Lotus. Peel Me a Lotus, the companion volume to Mermaid Singing relates their move to Hydra where they bought a house and grappled with the chaos of domestic life whilst becoming the centre of an informal bohemian community of artists and writers. That group included Leonard Cohen, who became their lodger, and his girlfriend Marianne Ihlen. Clift paints an evocative picture of the characters and sun-drenched rhythms of traditional life, long before backpackers and mass tourism descended.

The course of true love never did run smooth. A magical retelling of Hermia, Helen, Demetrius and Lysander's classic story - and of the impish fairy Puck, who meddles in their tangled web of love with hilarious consequences.

Duke Senior, exiled from court, takes refuge in the Forest of Arden with a group of loyal lords. Here, life is simple and peaceful - unlike life back at court, where Ferdinand's daughter, Rosalind, is tormented by her uncle, Duke Frederick. She decides to seek out her father in the forest, disguising herself as a boy for safety, but this creates all sorts of problems when she runs into her love, Orlando!

Marine archaeologist Rachel Gardener is thrilled to be summoned to the coast of Cumbria to investigate a newly discovered shipwreck. She is also relieved to escape the tensions of her troubled marriage, and to be closer to her ailing mother.

But when a mysteriously sunken ship is discovered to be a slaving ship from the 1700s, Rachel is determined to explore the town of Whitehaven's link to the slave trade and soon she learns of Abigail Fenton, the young wife of a slave trader, who has a surprising secret of her own. The more Rachel learns about Abigail, the more she wonders if the past can inform the present… Can Rachel learn from Abigail and break free from her troubled history and embrace the future she longs to claim for her own?

Wendy’s life can be neatly divided into two: before and after. Before her husband’s car accident, it was just the two of them. It didn’t matter what others thought about their small, quiet life together – they were happy. After the coma, Wendy barely recognises herself. Knowing that every breath her husband takes might be his last, Wendy has no choice but to try to carry on without him. Should she feel guilty about living while his life is on pause? And when – if – he wakes up, will he still love the woman she has become?

Rene is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building. Apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Rene lives with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, lives twelve-year-old Paloma Josse. Unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever.