Showing titles in Family Life

Sent away to convent school at the age of six, Irini McGuire has never really known her celebrated archaeologist mother, Bridget, who lives on the paradise island of Santorini. So, when Irini receives news that Bridget has been injured at a dig and is in coma she knows it is time to return to the island of her birth. Discovering her mother's notes, and driven by rumours that her mother's injury was no accident, Irini starts to reveal the dark secrets behind her family's separation. Can she unearth the truth about her parents and her past before it is too late?

London, March 2020. Wendy's husband, Richard, is one of the early COVID casualties, and as the world hunkers down against the pandemic, Wendy and her two kids - home from university - lock down into their grief and remembrance. Except Wendy has this gnawing sensation, a tightness in her chest every time she thinks of Richard. He could be harsh, critical, belittling in front of others. But he did his best - didn't he? He looked after them, even if he did make all the decisions and laugh at her small ambitions. Even if he controlled everything in Wendy's so-called life.

Abandoned as a baby on the steps of a remote inn, Ruby Blake has been raised by the innkeeper’s wife, Martha Metcalfe, unknowing of the family searching for her. One wild stormy night, Ruby is reunited with her long-lost father, who wants to whisk her away to Banksgill Farm for a happy life with her true family. Feeling betrayed by Martha, Ruby follows her father for the chance of a new life. However, Ruby is quickly outcast from her real family for being born of Romani blood by everyone but the charming stable hand, Tom Adams.

This collection features unabridged recordings of the first three novels in E.F. Benson’s beloved Mapp and Lucia series. Narrated by Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales, this collection brings to life E.F. Benson’s comic tales of marriage, mishaps and mayhem.

Elizabeth's eyes have failed. She can no longer read the books she loves or see the paintings that move her, but her mind remains sharp, and music fills the vacancy left by her blindness. When her father's journals are discovered on a shipwrecked boat, she enlists the help of a delinquent teen, Morgan, to read to her. As an unlikely friendship grows between them, Elizabeth is carried back to her childhood home - the lighthouse on Porphyry Island, Lake Superior - and to the memory of her enigmatic twin sister, Emily.

Heartbroken after the loss of a friend and the collapse of her marriage, Stella hopes that this trip to the idyllic Greek island of Crete will give her and her family a chance to heal. And when she first steps into the breath-taking Villa Ariadne, with its views over the azure waters and intoxicating scent of lemons, Stella’s troubles seem to melt away. Until the arrival of an old acquaintance, and an unwelcome revelation, threaten to undermine the peace at the villa, and Stella is forced to make a difficult decision.

Jennifer Quinn has a secret. Her love of baking has just won her a spot as a contestant on a primetime TV show. It's only the second time in fifty-nine years that she's kept something from her beloved husband Bernard. She's about to be whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras, timed challenges and celebrity judges. She could be in with a chance of being crowned the best baker in Britain. But, as Mrs Quinn's quiet ambitions turn into unexpected stardom, the other secret she's been keeping is in danger of resurfacing. It was supposed to stay hidden forever.

From the number one best-selling author Emma Hannigan comes The Gift of Friends, a magical story of love, friendship and hope. Kingfishers Road - a leafy, peaceful street in the town of Vayhill. But there are whispers behind closed doors. Who is moving into number 10? Engaged to handsome, wealthy Justin Johnston, Danielle appears to her new neighbours to have the perfect, glossy life. But not everything is as it seems....

8.45 P.M. Realise there have been so many times in my life when have fantasised about going to a scan with Mark or Daniel: just not both at the same time. Before motherhood before marriage Bridget with biological clock ticking very, very loudly finds herself unexpectedly pregnant at the eleventh hour: a joyful pregnancy which is dominated however by a crucial but terribly awkward question - who is the father?

A widow at twenty-six, Primrose Bloom returns to idyllic Good Hope, Wisconsin, with her two rambunctious young boys, seeking the beauty of the lakeside landscape and the comfort of home. After the loss of her husband and her job, all she's looking for is peace. Prim is resolved not to date again until her boys are in college, but her will starts crumbling whenever she's around her former high school debate partner, Max Brody.

Meet the daughters of Iris Parker. Dee, sensitive and big-hearted; Rose, uptight and controlled; and Fleur, the reckless free spirit. At the reading of their mother's will, the three estranged women are aghast to discover that their inheritance comes with very tricky strings attached. If they are to inherit her wealth, they must spend a series of weekends together over the course of a year and carry out their mother's bucket list.

After the tragic loss of his wife, Helen, Luke Hansard is desperate to keep her memory alive. In an effort to stay close to her, he reaches out to an online friend Helen often mentioned: a reclusive photographer with a curious interest in beautiful but broken objects. But first he must find her - and she doesn’t want to be found. Orla Kendrick lives alone in the ruins of a remote Suffolk castle, hiding from the haunting past that has left her physically and emotionally scarred.

The beginning of Janet, Viv and Zelda’s friendship could not have been less promising. Navigating their new lives as widows, the three women venture to the same dreary bereavement group in a chilly church hall. But what bonds them is not their shared predicament, but instead how quickly they all decide to flee the depressing gathering, choosing instead to share a bottle of wine. The Three Muscat-eers is born. The women may be down but they’re not out; in their sixties but certainly not past it. They agree a mission: to find fulfilment as single women and recover their joie de vivre.

From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the 20th century to the teens of the 21st, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of 12 characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope....

July 1981. As the country prepares to celebrate Prince Charles’ wedding to Lady Diana, Libby wants to be as far away from royal wedding fever as possible. Having caught her own fiancé in bed with her best friend just weeks before they were due to marry, she’s fled London for the comfort of the Suffolk countryside.

A childhood accident robbed Vinnie of his memories, making him sensitive and anxious, and his difference soon attracted bullies. If it wasn’t for his family and his brother, Frank, Vinnie wouldn’t have survived. But as the boys grow up, and after the devastating loss of their parents, Vinnie finds himself increasingly involved in violent situations whenever he’s with Frank. When Vinnie is accused of a terrible crime and looks set for a long stretch behind bars, fragments of his memory start to return and he begins to unravel his past.

Hull, 1856. James Ripley and his wife Moira have always looked out for the poor of Hull. When, during one stormy night, there is a flood in a nearby cellar—a popular shelter for the homeless—James rushes to help. Among those rescued is a dark-haired little girl who speaks a language no one can understand. Some say that she came to the cellar with her mother, but no one knows where the mother is now. Concerned for the child's safety, James is unsure of what to do.

Frank is a miserable old curmudgeon. An agoraphobic recluse and widower whose only company is the 'ghost' of his wife, Marcie. He is estranged from friends and family and is entirely cut off from the rest of the world. That is until he meets Red. Red is six years old. He's a funny, imaginative, and kind little boy who - following the separation of his parents - moves in next door. Red is fascinated by his new neighbour and seemingly oblivious to Frank's grumpy demeanour and strange ways.

Why exactly Charley Bordelon's late father left her eight hundred sprawling acres of sugarcane land in rural Louisiana is as mysterious as it was generous. Recognizing this as a chance to start over, Charley and her 11-year-old daughter, Micah, say good-bye to Los Angeles. They arrive just in time for growing season but no amount of planning can prepare Charley for a Louisiana that's mired in the past: as her judgmental but big-hearted grandmother tells her, cane farming is always going to be a white man's business.

Thirty-three-year-old Ruth Henderson and her daughter Maggie have some hard choices to make. Following the tragic death of Maggie’s father, they are left with a mountain of debt and broken hearts. So, despite her vow never to return home after the fall-out from her teenage pregnancy, Ruth can’t see any option other than for the two of them to move back in with her parents.