Bea Holland

Annabel is in the thick of sandwich generation territory.

Widowed for nearly a decade and bringing up two teenagers alone, she now faces the dilemma of what is best for her ageing mother.

Her strong-willed sisters, Ginnie and Clarissa, have already mentally sold her mother's London house, mentally spent the proceeds, but Annabel isn't sure what her mother will think of their plan...

After a decade on her own, Annabel's children have also decided now is the time to act as match makers. But when family secrets come to light which threaten the entire fabric of Annabel's childhood and family, what - or who - she needs in her life comes becomes suddenly crystal clear to her, in the most surprising of ways...

Emma Harte is now eighty years old and ready to hand over the reins of the vast business empire she has created. To her favourite grandchild, Paula McGill Fairley, Emma bequeaths her mighty retailing empire with these heartfelt words: ‘I charge you to hold my dream.’ 

'Wait they leave the rock?' 'Of course. How else would they survive? On opposite sides of the world half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work intent on ignoring their painful past. When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines they're drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer - one that had tragic consequences.

Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and - ready or not - to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them. 

The mirror neuron is a part of the brain that has shaped each and every one of us throughout our lifetimes. It is the very essence of what makes us human, but most of us have never even heard of it. Mirror Thinking explores how the mirror neuron has defined us through the role models we observe and interact with.

All of the learning we take from our world is down to our brain's mirror system, but it doesn't stop there. This incredible system is also responsible for our emotional connections with others, how we pass on learning between the generations through stories, and how we imagine and innovate within our own minds. In Mirror Thinking, psychologist and award-winning author Fiona Murden looks at the mirrors that have shaped our lives.

I want to make my husband fall back in love with me - so I can shatter his heart. I want it to hurt. Paula has had Robert's back since they got together as drama students. She gave up her dreams so he could make it now he's one of the nation's most popular actors. But Paula's just discovered he's having an affair. Now she's going to break his heart like he broke hers. It will be her greatest acting role ever. Revenge is sweet... Isn't it?

Set in Yorkshire, Hong Kong and America, this remarkable novel continues the story of an unorthodox and endlessly fascinating family. As the spirit of Emma Harte lives on in her granddaughter, Paula O’Neill, an engrossing drama is played out in the glamorous arena of the wealthy and privileged, underscored by a cutthroat world of jealousy and treachery. Paula must act with daring and courage to preserve her formidable grandmother’s glittering empire from unscrupulous enemies - so that Emma’s precious dream lives on for the next generation. 

In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall. Emma Harte is 16, single and pregnant. By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia. But what is the price she has paid?