Avita Jay

1936. Civil war in Spain. A world on the brink of chaos . . .

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire - not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection.

But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight for the Democratic party in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco and his Fascist party.

To the dismay of her irascible father, Lucy decides that the only way to bring her boys back safely is to travel to Spain herself to persuade them to come home.

Yet when she sees the horrific effects of the war, she quickly becomes immersed in the lifesaving work the Quakers are doing to help the civilian population, many of whom are refugees.

As the war progresses and the situation becomes increasingly perilous, Lucy realises that the challenge going forward is not so much which brother she will end up with, but whether any of them will survive the carnage long enough to decide . . .

The legendary blue dragon Tintaglia is dying of wounds inflicted by hunters sent by the Duke of Chalced, who meanwhile preserves his dwindling life by consuming the blood of the dragon’s poet Selden Vestrit. If Tintaglia perishes, her ancestral memories will die with her. And danger threatens from beyond the city, too. For war is coming: war between dragonkind and those who would destroy them.  Book 4 of series.

Acclaimed cultural historian Lucy Inglis takes the reader on an epic journey through the stories of women over hundreds of thousands of years. From ancient Mesopotamian birthing practices to the lost contraceptives of Ancient Rome and the strange story of the feminists who fought for the right to forget childbirth, this is a truly sweeping history that explores the competing ideologies and lived realities that have shaped so many lives.

Lucy Inglis charts the battle for control throughout history over reproduction, birth and women's bodies - a fight still raging in many places across the world. With birth rates falling and infant mortality in many societies on the rise once more, this bold and timely book raises vital questions about how we think about motherhood and pregnancy today. Lucy Inglis has spent over a decade researching the history of childbirth, drawing on new and unseen sources from a wide-ranging array of disciplines.

Horry Winwood doesn't play by the rules. So when her family are near ruin and her sister is about to enter a loveless marriage to a wealthy man to settle the family debts, young and headstrong Horry proposes to marry him in her sister's place. As her new husband's attentions fall elsewhere, Horry begins to feel increasingly unhappy. Then she meets the attractive and dangerous Lord Lethbridge and her days suddenly become more exciting. But there is bad blood between Horry's husband and her new acquaitnance, and as complications and deceptions mount, the social tangle grows ever trickier to unpick. Will Horry's gamble cost her everything she holds most dear?

In the brief golden years of King Edward VII’s reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of war that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood.

John Venton's drunken fall from a cliff leaves his family with an embarrassing ghost. His twin children flee in separate directions, as their mother embraces merry widowhood. Only their grandfather finds solace in the crumbling house, painting their story onto a large canvas map. As the twins are drawn back to the house, they discover that their father's absence is part of the map's mysterious pull.

1943: in the ruins of Blitzed London, Stella Thorne and Dan Rosinski fall in love. Sixty years later Dan sends a letter to the house where they shared a brief yet perfect happiness. But Stella has gone, and the letter is opened by Jess. She is captivated by the story of a love affair that burned so bright. Can she help Dan find Stella before it is too late?

A mother and her two teenage children sit at the dinner table. In the middle stands a large pot of cooked mussels. Why has the father not returned home? As the evening wears on, we glimpse the issues that are tearing this family apart.

Fifteen-year-old Pearl has lived her whole life protected within the small community at Seed, where they worship Nature and idolise their leader, Papa S. But when some outsiders arrive, Pearl experiences feelings that she never knew existed and begins to realise that there is darkness at the heart of Seed, from which she must escape before it's too late.

Amira, Sarah, Paula, Ewan and Charlie have worked together for years - they know each other inside out. But their comfortable routine life is suddenly shattered when an aggressive new boss walks in... Now, there's something chilling in the air. Who secretly hates everyone? Who is tortured by their past? Who is capable of murder?