Hilary Spiers

It is 1966 and 12-year-old Mary Foster's narrow, prescribed world is abruptly disturbed by a sudden move from suburban London to a neglected Victorian house on the south coast of England.

A new friendship provides Mary with some comfort in an unfamiliar world of seagull squawks, endless horizons and strange new lodgers. But an unexpected discovery of deceit and deception profoundly affects her life and Mary is left to carry on, bitter and resentful, but silent on the matter.

Forty years later, Mary wants to know more. Another age, another era, another century; such secrecy and lies seem cowardly and irrelevant. Mary is anxious for the truth. Or at least she thinks she is - until the chance to uncover certain realities tests her resolve.

London, 1936. Socialite and journalist Lady Pamela pens the popular ‘Agent of Influence’ column, writing wittily about fashion and high society. For her latest piece, she interviews Wallis Simpson, the newly crowned king’s American mistress.

That’s when she’s approached by MI5. Lady Pamela’s mission: spy on Edward and Mrs Simpson and report on their connections with Nazi Germany. As she navigates the treacherous world of international espionage, Lady Pamela uses her skills of observation and intuition to infiltrate Wallis' inner circle.

As war clouds gather over Europe and the royal family faces its greatest ever crisis, is Lady Pamela in over her head? 

This is the story of how and why a talented writer came to take his own life.

When Diana Athill met the man she calls Didi, an Egyptian in exile, she fell in love instantly and out of love just as fast. Didi moved into her flat, they shared housework and holidays, and a life of easy intimacy seemed to beckon.

But Didi's sweetness and intelligence soon revealed a darker side - he was a gambler, a drinker and a womanizer, impossible to live with but impossible to ignore. With painful honesty, Athill explores the three years they spent together, a period that culminated in Didi's suicide - in her home - an event he described in the journals he left for her to read as 'the one authentic act of my life'.

Madeleine St John’s poignant and characteristically witty new novel tells the story of three people locked in an unhappy kaleidoscope of emotions and desires, none able to articulate the precise quality of their longing and dissatisfaction. There’s Alex, miserable in his cold and calmly professional marriage, unable to leave because of his two children. Next comes Andrew, recently home from ten years in America, leaving an ex-wife and a beloved daughter on the other side of the world. And finally, there’s Barbara, the enchanting and lustrous object of their affections, formidably self-possessed but strangely aimless and unfulfilled.

With elegance and acuity, Madeleine St John chronicles their progress through numerous false starts, reversals and apprehensions; the result is a memorable anatomy of desire and its opposite – despair.

When Janet Frame's doctor suggested that she write about her traumatic experiences in mental institutions in order to free herself from them, the result was Faces in the Water, a powerful and poignant novel.

Istina Mavet descends through increasingly desolate wards, with the threat of leucotomy ever present. As she observes her fellow patients, long dismissed by hospital staff with humour and compassion, she reveals her original and questing mind. This riveting novel became an international classic, translated into nine languages, and has also been used as a medical school text.

Pip Fitz-Amobi is not a detective anymore. The true-crime podcast about the murder case she and Ravi Singh solved together last year. has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her. But she will have to break that promise when Jamie Reynolds goes missing and the police won’t do anything about it. But will she find him before it’s too late? Book two in the series.

Book 2 in series.

When her bohemian life in Paris falls flat at the beginning of the First World War, Sally Lunton returns to the care of her guardian in Little Crampton to find a husband. With some encouragement from the local busybody, she makes a play for Mr. Bingley, the bank manager, although she has a rival in Mrs. Dalton, a widow with a young daughter to raise. These two ladies form a quiet alliance, recognizing that the prize isn't really worth fighting over but respecting the other's pursuit of financial security. Sally aims to win but is distracted by her unsettling emotions for a soldier tortured by his experience at the Front. This entertaining novel is full of acute and humorous observations of male and female attitudes to love and marriage. Sally is a spirited heroine, who is determined to settle into a comfortable life now that she is in her early thirties. But in securing her future, Sally must also face her past.

It's Halloween and Thea is looking forward to a peaceful autumn after two disastrous housesitting incidents in which she became embroiled in murder and mayhem. But the bad luck that plagues her is never far away, and it it becomes apparent that even the cosy village of Cold Aston has its share of murder.

A dragon. A boy. A journey.

Firedrake, a brave young dragon, embarks on a magical journey to find the legendary place where silver dragons can live in peace for ever.

Along the way, he discovers extraordinary new friends and a courage he never knew he had. But the greatest enemy of all is never far behind - a heartless monster intent on destroying the last dragons on earth ...

London 1882: When a wealthy philanthropist disappears from a locked and guarded room, Frances Doughty is reluctantly drawn into a case that tears the veil of mystery from her own past. Can London’s very own Lady Detective solve this sinister new case before a murderer catches up with her and she becomes the next victim?

When Kitty Peck took over Paradise - her grandmother's East End criminal empire - she was determined to transform the music halls into the jewels of Limehouse. But a new threat appears in the form of an eerily charismatic preacher on a crusade against 'wickedness and vice'. Can Kitty save Paradise from destruction, without losing any more of the people she loves? Book 4 of the 'Kitty Peck Mysteries'.

As a favour, private detective Kate Brannigan agrees to track down a missing songwriter, Moira Pollock, a search that takes her into some of the seediest parts of Leeds and Bradford. But little does she realize that finding Moira is a prelude to murder…

From wronged wives to nosy neighbours, from distant dads to new-found family, from secrets to lies, fresh starts to false endings - and everything in between...A collection of brilliant short stories from the best writers around.

Tom Ripley detests murder - unless it is absolutely necessary. If possible he prefers someone else to do the dirty work; in this case, a victim of a fatal disease, with no criminal record, who will murder for a reward, in order to provide for his young widow and child.

When a troubled young runaway arrives on Tom Ripley's French estate, he is drawn into a world he thought he'd left behind: a seedy underworld involving kidnapping plots, lies and deception. Ripley becomes the boy's protector as friendship develops between the young man with a guilty conscience and the older one with no conscience at all.

London, 1941. Emmeline Lake dreams of becoming a War Correspondent – but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for renowned agony aunt, Henrietta Bird. Mrs Bird insists that letters containing any form of unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. But as Emmy reads the desperate pleas from women, she decides the only thing for it is to secretly write back . . .

A rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. This meticulous portrait of these two women is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship.

Book 1 in the Neapolitan series.

Miss Harriet Brown, daughter of a Methodist minister, is the embodiment of propriety and Christian charity. The virtues Harriet possesses are far from fashionable but the Tribble sisters feel confident their new charge will attract a worthy vicar or two before the end of the season - if first they can vanquish confirmed rake and gambler Lord Charles Marsham who seems perversely determined to woo Harriet!  Book 6 of series.

This is the story of a rector's daughter who triumphed over unrequited love and family tragedy to take her place as one of the world's most popular writers.

Luke is a comic-mad eleven-year old who shares a treehouse with his geeky older brother, Zack. Luke' s only mistake is to go for a wee right at the wrong time. While he's gone, an alien gives his undeserving, never-read-a-comic-in-his-life brother superpowers and then tells him to save the universe. Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his arch-nemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world...

It starts with a plane crash. There are survivors: a teenage girl and her little brother. They are running from something. But what? Then the men arrive. They are hunting the girl and boy. And - and that's all we can tell you ...

When Fran uncovers a bone in the garden of Longbarrow House on the same afternoon that Leo breaks his leg, it is just the first in a series of strange and unsettling coincidences. Leo is left immobilised for the rest of the summer and Fran is roped in to keep him company, forced to listen to his foolish theories about the looming threat of war in Europe. Suddenly the garden she has loved all her life seems to hold threatening shadows of the future, and Fran starts to fear what she and Leo might find next ...

Pip lives on his wits in the city of Clarel. When he pickpockets the wrong man, he finds himself in possession of a strange object, a heart in a silver casket. Pip has unwittingly broken an ancient spell, and his theft will have far-reaching consequences for the whole city. As the ancient war between the Spectres and witches of Clarel reignites, the heart prepares to seek revenge for all it has suffered.

Twelve tales of crime and mystery. With contributions from celebrated crime writers including Ann Cleeves and Martin Edwards, these page-turning stories uncover a world of intrigue, suspense and fear.

A complete collection of stories set in the deep south of an America now long gone, from one of the most original and powerful American writers of the twentieth century. X rated, contains offensive language. Some people may find the language in this book, and attitudes related to race offensive.

The Sheedy sisters had lived in Stone House for as long as anyone could remember. Set high on the cliffs on the west coast of Ireland, overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean, it was falling into disrepair - until one woman, with a past she needed to forget, breathed new life into the place. Now a hotel, with a big warm kitchen and log fires, it provides a welcome few can resist.

1952, French Indochina. After her mother's death, eighteen-year-old half-French, half-Vietnamese Nicole is given an abandoned silk shop in the Vietnamese quarter of Hanoi. But when Nicole is awakened to the corruption of the militant rebels who want to end French rule, her own family's involvement shocks her to the core...

A hilarious, creative and incredibly moving memoir from much loved comedian, writer and presenter Sue Perkins. X rated, contains offensive language.

In this varied collection of short stories we hear of a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding; a dream house that is hiding something sinister and an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

1935, Norfolk. War is looming and the sprawling country estate of Alderberen Hall is shadowed by suspicion and paranoia. Thirteen year old Delphine is determined to uncover the secrets of the Hall's elite society, but she uncovers a world more dark and threatening than she ever imagined...

Alice Howland is a cognitive psychology professor and a renowned expert in linguistics, with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful and disoriented, she dismisses it until a tragic diagnosis changes her life - and her relationship with her family and the world around her - for ever. Alice has early onset Alzheimer's disease.

It's the summer of 1965, and the streets of Queens, New York shimmer in a heatwave. One July morning, Ruth Malone wakes to find a bedroom window wide open and her two young children missing. After a desperate search, the police make a horrifying discovery.

Four members of the Coverdale family died in the space of fifteen minutes on St Valentine's Day. Eunice Parchman, the illiterate housekeeper, shot them down while they were watching television. Two weeks later she was arrested for the crime. But the tragedy neither began nor ended there...

From caves in Pakistan to the underground tunnels of London's Piccadilly line, each of the stories collected here takes the reader into a very different world. Everyday triumphs and tragedies are briefly illuminated, the secret places of relationships laid bare – together these tales showcase the variety and vibrancy of the modern short story.

Having fled Rome and a stultifying marriage, Isabel Osmond is in London, brooding on the recent disclosure of her husband's shocking betrayal of her. Reawakened by the knowledge of having been grievously wronged, she determines to resume her youthful quest for freedom and independence.

Through rallies and marches, in freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote. But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?