Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards. It was a time when women everywhere were largely silent.In this brilliant reimagining, Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Ásta, the pastor's wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Ásta meets the loss of both her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home: the stories in her head. Steeped in the sagas and folk tales of her northern homeland, she finds herself experiencing not just the separations and agonies of captivity, but the reassessments that come in any age when intelligent eyes are opened to other lives, other cultures and other kinds of loving.The Sealwoman's Gift is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. The novel is full of stories - Icelandic ones told to fend off a slave-owner's advances, Arabian ones to help an old man die. And there are others, too: the stories we tell ourselves to protect our minds from what cannot otherwise be borne, the stories we need to make us happy.

    

    A few among the Scottish nobles, for both political and religious reasons, are eager for this alliance too. They kill Cardinal Beaton, who is Mary’s great protector, and take St Andrews Castle, expecting rescue any day from England.For a sister and brother – spirited Bethia, living outside the castle in St Andrews, and Will among the rebels inside the castle – the long siege becomes a fight for survival. But it’s also a struggle over loyalties and the choices they each must make: whether to save their family, or follow their hearts…This debut novel closely follows the tumultuous events of the siege of St Andrews Castle, and its dramatic re-takingRunner up SAW Barbara Hammond TrophyFinalist Wishing Shelf Book Awards

    Her violet-eyed Grandma had predicted she'd be sly, while blowing Benson and Hedges smoke rings over her Ma's swollen belly. In the hospital, her family eyed her suspiciously, so close she could smell whether they'd had booze or food for breakfast. It was mostly booze.Tony Hogan tells the story of a Scottish childhood of sordid council flats and B&Bs, screeching women, feckless men, fags and booze and drugs, the dole queue and bread and marge sandwiches. It is also the story of an irresistible, irrepressible heroine, a dysfunctional family you can't help but adore, the absurdities of the eighties and the fierce bonds that tie people together no matter what. Told in an arrestingly original—and cry-out-loud funny—voice, it launches itself headlong into the middle of one of life's great fights, between the pull of the past and the freedom of the future. And Janie Ryan, born and bred for combat, is ready to win.

    The walking wounded. These are the stories of ordinary people.

    In time they're joined by rugged farmhand Tom, come to lend some muscle to Ellen's ageing father, who has begun to find sheep farming hard to manage alone. Almost inevitably romance grows between Ellen and the new arrival but once married however, Ellen discovers that Tom has a brutish side to his character. As war in Europe spreads, she begins to dream of him leaving for the trenches as a way for her to escape.Even with Tom fighting abroad however, the family can not hide from the realities of war as a group of POWs are brought to their valley to build a reservoir. And amongst the men, sworn enemies and shunned by all the locals, Ellen finds a gentler heart that she finds difficult to resist...

    The interactions between Jake, Joni, Angie, and Vic reveal a hellish cocktail of adolescent ad mid-life crises, the savagery of sibling rivalry, the waking nightmare of a marriage gone cold, and, naturally, the unbridgeable, infernal chasm between the generations. It's a story of everyday life.

    Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . . the only way to survive is to open your heart.

    It was a decision her mother railed against from the moment the idea was raised. Win had very little agency in the world, every choice was determined by the men in her life. And strangely, she wanted the same for her daughter. Attending university wasn't for the likes of the Orr family. Worse still, it would mean leaving Win behind - and Win wanted Deborah with her at all times, rather like she wanted her arm with her at all times. But while she managed to escape, Deborah's severing from her family was only superficial. She continued to travel back to Motherwell, fantasizing about the day that Win might come to accept her as good enough. Though of course it was never meant to be.Motherwell is a sharp, candid and often humorous memoir about the long shadow that can be cast when the core relationship in your life compromises every effort you make to become an individual. It is about what we inherit - the good and the very bad - and how a deeper understanding of the place and people you have come from can bring you towards redemption.

    Separated from past friends and surrounded by people who resent her rise to the throne, the sole close companion she has left is Jane Boleyn, the infamous Lady Rochford. And this is not the only strain upon Catherine. People from her past come calling, the threat that the King may find out she is not the pure, innocent maiden he thinks she is puts her in peril. Catherine must imitate the Queens of the past in order to survive. And she must ignore her love for another man. On the day of her wedding, Catherine begins a dangerous game, wearing a mask, hoping to fool the King, until the day she can be free. No More Time to Dance is book two in The Story of Catherine Howard, by G. Lawrence The author's thank are due to Julia Gibbs, proof reader of this work, and BetiBup Designs, the cover artist.

    But then again, he wasn’t sure if butlers were inappropriately touched by titled guests that often. He sighed. Being a butler was turning out to be quite a bit more complicated than he’d anticipated... Paul DeVoreaux, the Inchworthy hunting box, near Pineneedle Drift, December 1814 They’re not butler or housekeeper; in fact, they’re not servants at all. Yet that is the pretense they must observe if their real identities and their whereabouts are to remain a secret. For Paul DeVoreaux and Harriet Selkirk, fleeing London and the Ton is the best and safest idea at this particular time in their lives. A small hunting box in December is an even better one. Or so they think. Thrust into the roles for which they are ill-prepared, Paul becomes a surprisingly effective butler, and Harriet assumes the role of housekeeper to the best of her ability. The arriving house party seems to find nothing amiss, and the seasonal revelries begin. Unfortunately, the guests are nothing if not frisky, and Paul and Harriet find themselves forced into yet another masquerade. But this one isn’t quite as simple as donning a lace cap, or answering the front door… A Ridlington Christmas Novella – A stand-alone holiday romance featuring characters introduced in the “Six Pearls of Baron Ridlington” series by Sahara Kelly. Please check the Amazon page devoted to these books for more details.

    She is a novelist, short story writer, memoiriere, librettist, essayist, and poet. Following on from her most recent award-winning creative non-fiction, This is Not About Me and All Made Up, comes her fourth short story collection, the outstanding Jellyfish, confirming her position as one of the most elegant, unflinching, masterful chroniclers of contemporary life and love.

    Perfect for fans of The Single Ladies of the Jacaranda Retirement Village and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.Eighty-five-year-old Henry Arthur Applebee has had a pretty good life. But one regret has haunted him for the last sixty-five years. And so, on an ordinary December morning, he boards a train from London to Edinburgh. His goal is simple: to find the woman who disappeared from his life decades earlier. But Henry isn’t the only person on a mission. Also bound for Edinburgh is troubled teen, Ariel. And when the two strangers collide, what began as one humble journey will catapult them both into a whole new world…

    To Cas, torn between Scotland and her New Zealand home, the object seems as odd and out-of-place as herself. Intrigued, she begins to search for its origins, thinking it will bring a brief respite from isolation. Instead, the Calgary chess piece opens the door to friendships and new hope. Her son, meanwhile, brings home his own revelation to shake her world.