Showing results for "The Group" in Contemporary Fiction

The Group follows eight graduates from exclusive Vassar College as they find love and heartbreak, and choose careers and husbands against the backdrop of 1930s New York.

Fairacre is a village of cottages, a church and the school, and at the heart of the school, its head mistress, Miss Read. Through her discerning eye, we meet the villagers of Fairacre and see their trials and tribulations, from the irascible school cleaner Mrs. Pringle, to the young school children, with their scraped knees, hopeful faces, and inevitable mischief.

It's the May Day holiday, and a fair has come to the village of Thrush Green. The residents of Thrush Green all have their own views about the fair. For young Paul, just recovered from an illness, it is a joy to be allowed out to play at the fair; for Ruth, who returned to the soothing tranquility of Thrush Green nursing a broken heart, the fair is a welcome distraction from her own problems. And for Dr Lovell, the fair brings an unexpected new patient.

In the small Irish town of Knockglen, best friends Bernadette ('Benny') and Eve are inseparable. Benny is an adored only child, and Eve, a poor, birdlike orphan brought up by nuns. On their first day at University College, Dublin, a fatal road accident brings the pair together with fellow students Nan Mahon and Jack Foley, and new friendships are quickly struck. Jack and Nan introduce Eve and Benny to a life of excitement and sophistication.

The town of Rossmore is a special place, full of character and charm. Nestled beside the Whitethorn Woods, the town has grown since the days when it was small and friendly and everyone knew everyone else. But it still has the woods, with the well dedicated to St Ann, where generations have come to pray or make wishes or just to look back at the pretty little town. Which is why there is going to be such a fuss about the plans for the new road cutting through Whitethorn Woods.

A dark and disturbing new story from the master of the crime genre. A famous writer asks a box man to open an old safe that comes with the mansion he's just bought. It's not as easy a job as he's used to, but with money being tight and a child on the way, it'll pay to persevere - unless, of course, this is actually the job that will change things and haunt him for ever. Read by David W. Collins.

Beth is a woman in supreme control of all aspects of her life and family, with a stellar career and her house an oasis of calm. Her closest friend, Megan, is very different; somehow she swims through the chaos of her family with ease, the clutter on the stairs, the cat footprints on the kitchen work space. And while they could not be more different, Beth and Megan have a genuine friendship built on years of laugher, tears and true understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses.

There is a mystery surrounding the invitation by Craddock Fitch to the Big House. It is billed as a celebration of his business, but as everyone in the village has been invited, it is obviously more exciting than that. When everyone is assembled, they find that it is a lavish wedding reception for two very surprising people.

Dee loves her children very much, but now they are all grown up, shouldn't they leave home? Rosie moved out when she got married, but it didn't work out, so now she is back with her parents. Helen is a teacher, and doesn't earn enough for a place of her own. Anthony writes songs, and is just waiting for the day when someone will pay him for them. Until then, all three are happy at home. It doesn't cost them anything, and surely their parents like having a full house?

From an unusual weight-losing recipe found in an old notebook - and used with alarming consequences - to the queen of copy-cats who drives her neighbour mad with anger, Over The Gate is a hugely entertaining collection of tales from Fairacre, past and present.

Stan Barstow's A Kind of Loving finds Vic Brown in a bleak Yorkshire industrial town, striving for maturity in his relationship with girlfriend Ingrid and her small-town ways. The story examines in great detail his feelings as the relationship develops.

Richard Huw perfectly captures the mood and the character in his reading.

Running out on your wedding day never goes down well. When the pressure of her forthcoming marriage becomes too much, Jude bolts from the church, leaving a good man at the altar, her mother in a fury, and the guests with enough gossip to last a year. Guilty and ashamed, Jude flees to Pengarrock, a crumbling cliff-top mansion in Cornwall, where she takes a job cataloguing the Trevillion family's extensive library.

With the Rector Peter Harris and his family arrive back from Africa, the villagers of Turnham Malpas heave huge sighs of relief, everything is back to normal. But Peter has other ideas. He decides to return to Africa and fulfil his promise of working there for a year. The family he leaves behind is a very troubled one. Caroline's emails to Peter hide the fact that the twins, Beth and Alex, are traumatised by their experiences in Africa and her own distress that they will not share their feelings with her.

When the rector, Peter, and his wife Caroline, decide to go to Africa for a year to work in a mission, they take their twins with them. The village inhabitants whose lives revolve around the church and this family are bereft. They don't immediately take to the woman locum, Anna, who has modern ideas, happy clappy hymns and so forth, but she does fill the church with parishioners determined to keep an eye on her.

When a young man washes up, naked, on the sands of St Piran, he is quickly rescued by the villagers. From the retired village doctor and the schoolteacher, to the beachcomber and the owner of the local bar, the priest's wife and the romantic novelist, they take this lost soul into their midst. But what the villagers don't know is that Joe Haak worked as an analyst and has fled the City amid fears of a worldwide banking collapse caused by a computer program he invented. But is the end of the world really nigh?

Miss Read heard about the sale of Tyler's Row from the always well-informed Mrs Pringle - and before long Fairacre was alive with rumours. Why were the present owners selling?

Michael is a violinist from Rochdale. He plays in a trio in Vienna with Julia, a pianist, and they are much taken with each other. But the trio splits up and they go their separate ways. One day in London, from the top of a double-decker bus, Michael catches a glimpse of Julia. They eventually meet up, and she tells him that she is contentedly married and has a child. Michael persuades her to visit Vienna and Venice with him. He discovers that Julia has become deaf, though her deafness comes and goes.

Bath, 1821: Rachel Crofton escapes her unhappy employment as a governess by marrying a self-made businessman. But her new life soon takes an unexpected turn. Reclusive Jonathan Alleyn is a man tormented by the disappearance of his childhood sweetheart, Alice. Starling, foundling child and now servant, is convinced that Alice, the woman she loved as a sister, was stolen from her. Did Alice run away? Or did something altogether more sinister occur? As Starling tries to expose the lies behind Bath's immaculate facades, others want only to forget, and will go to extreme lengths to do so.

The Tides are a family full of secrets. Returning to Clifftops, the rambling family house high on the Dorset coastline, youngest daughter Dora hopes for a fresh start, for herself and the new life she carries. But can long-held secrets ever really be forgiven? And even if you can forgive, can you ever really learn to love again? Secrets of the Tides is the spellbinding debut from Hannah Richell; a rich and compelling family drama with a dark thread of suspense at its heart.

A mysterious toymaker who lives as a recluse in an old mansion, surrounded by the magical beings he has created...a sickly wife locked away in a hidden room...an enigma involving strange lights that shine out from the small island on which an old, disused lighthouse stands...a shadowy creature that hides deep in the woods...These are the elements of a mystery will bind 14-year-old Irene to Ismael during one magical summer spent in Blue Bay when her mother takes a job as a housekeeper for the enigmatic toymaker, Lazarus Jann.