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When Noel Bostock - aged ten, no family - is evacuated from London to escape the Blitz, he winds up in St Albans with Vera Sedge - thiry-six, drowning in debts. Always desperate for money, she's unscrupulous about how she gets it. The war's thrown up all manner of new opportunities but what Vee needs is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she's a disaster. With Noel, she's a team. Together they cook up an idea. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn't actually safe at all . . . Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, 2015
In June 2020, a private Facebook group was set up for mothers of all ages and backgrounds to submit a sentence using the phrase 'Motherhood is ...', in order to represent their experiences of mothering during this challenging time. The aim was to collect the same number of sentences to the number of days the UK was in the first national lock-down; 92 in total. This number also took into account the length of time vulnerable mothers needed to shield. Over six months, 189 mothers joined the group, contributing a sentence and/or portrait picture of themselves drawn by their children which have been added to the book. The sentences are presented alongside beautiful artworks by artists who are mothers.
It is 1950s America, the Deep South; a world on the verge of change but still tainted by everyday injustices and the remnants of slavery. Lizzie and her family long for progress, inspired by Sojourner Truth, freedom fighter, and just one of the many heroes the history books forgot. With Sojourner's dreams pumping in their veins, they fight their own battles, old and new. But when the fight takes a life, can they summon up her courage and keep dreaming, or will it destroy them? A joyful and moving play, interspersed with the uplifting melodies of Negro Spirituals. Come and share in a moving and joyful celebration of freedom, which echoes powerfully in today's world.
Brigg lives in a small, grey room in a large, grey city. When he finds a book in the library labelled 'Do Not Read', he cannot resist borrowing it. In it, he comes upon pictures of bright, vibrant objects called flowers. A deceptively simple and haunting story, beautifully and mysteriously illustrated, set in a bleak future metropolis.
One summer night a little boy follows the person his grandmother calls the man made out of stars to find out what his secret is and where he goes.
'Evans is very funny . . . the Tom Sharpe for the next generation' Sunday Express Some are born odd, some achieve oddness and some are just in the wrong place at the wrong time... Netta Lee had always felt like the odd one out growing up. But when, as an adult, she returns to the Midlands to help her family move house, it becomes apparent that perhaps she isn’t the unusual one after all. A brother with a penchant for rubbish collection, a mother who seems to think she’s running the Bolshoi Ballet rather than the local junior dance school and a hoard of questionably competent friends challenge Netta’s ordered world. Perhaps the life – and the people – she tried so hard to leave behind are not as distant as she thought.
"Stuart Horten -- ten years old and small for his age -- moves to the dreary town of Beeton, far away from all his friends. And then he meets his new next-door neighbours, the unbearable Kingley triplets, and things get even worse. But in Beeton begins the strangest adventure of Stuart's life as he is swept up in quest to find his great-uncle's lost workshop -- a workshop stuffed with trickery and magic. There are clues to follow and puzzles to solve, but what starts as fun ends up as danger, and Stuart begins to realise that he can't finish the task by himself ..."--Dust jacket. Suggested level: primary, intermediate.
Longlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction.
**A BIRD IN WINTER - THE GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM LOUISE DOUGHTY - AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**SOON TO BE A MAJOR TV EVENT'Utterly mesmerising.' Deborah Moggach'Beautifully constructed.' Clare Mackintosh'A scarily plausible story . . .' GuardianThe new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author of Apple Tree YardPlatform Seven at 4am: Peterborough Railway Station is deserted. The man crossing the covered walkway on this freezing November morning is confident he's alone. As he sits on the metal bench at the far end of the platform it is clear his choice is strategic - he's as far away from the night staff as he can get.What the man doesn't realise is that he has company. Lisa Evans knows what he has decided. She knows what he is about to do as she tries and fails to stop him walking to the platform edge.Two deaths on Platform Seven. Two fatalities in eighteen months - surely they're connected?No one is more desperate to understand what connects them than Lisa Evans herself. After all, she was the first of the two to die.
You're called Fidge and you're nearly eleven. You've been hurled into a strange world. You have three companions: two are unbelievably weird and the third is your awful cousin Graham. You have to solve a series of nearly impossible clues. You need to deal with a cruel dictator and three thousand Wimbley Woos (yes, you read that sentence correctly).And the whole situation - the whole, entire thing - is your fault.Wed Wabbit is an adventure story about friendship, danger and the terror of never being able to get back home again. And it's funny. It's seriously funny.