The era abounded in great actors--Gielgud, Richardson, Guinness, Burton, O'Toole--but none could challenge Laurence Olivier's range and power. By the 1940s he had achieved international stardom. His affair with Vivien Leigh led to a marriage as glamorous and as tragic as any in Hollywood history. He was as accomplished a director as he was a leading man: his three Shakespearian adaptations are among the most memorable ever filmed. And yet, at the height of his fame, he accepted what was no more than an administrator's wage to become the founding Director of the National Theatre. In 2013 the theatre celebrates its fiftieth anniversary; without Olivier's leadership it would never have achieved the status that it enjoys today. Off-stage, Olivier was the most extravagant of characters: generous, yet almost insanely jealous of those few contemporaries whom he deemed to be his rivals; charming but with a ferocious temper. With access to more than fifty hours of candid, unpublished interviews, Ziegler ensures that Olivier's true character--at its most undisguised--shines through as never before.

    For reasons Sam doesn’t entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie’s parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam’s father alone to raise two sons.Watching as her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella - and force her to confront her past and her friends.After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam’s inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella’s old friend Suzie—and Sam’s older brother, Michael—seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong.Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them.

    When her gangster boyfriend Tim is sent down, Susie Jones’ life is thrown into turmoil.Left to run his criminal empire, Susie finds solace in new acquaintances made in Strangeways Visitors’ Centre with unforeseen consequences.

    

    Now that her children are close to flying the nest, she is looking across the table and thinking, Is this really how my life was meant to be?As women, we make sacrifices for our children, for our husbands and for our families. Some are worth it and some we may regret. But there comes a point when it's time to follow our own hearts. This is the story of what happens when we do. It probably helped to have been round the block a few times when it came to creating Harper, but I think her story can be enjoyed whoever you are and whatever your age.I hope you'll grow to love her, as I have - and to laugh and cry with her on her journey. Lots of love,Denise xx

    She just wants her roof to not leak and the furnace to work.Keene Emmerson is ready to settle down, but he's not expecting to find love in a single wide trailer amidst the chaos of kids and construction and a pair of September sky blue eyes.When Keene volunteers to take some Christmas gifts out to Shelby's place and help put an addition on her trailer, he doesn't expect to start falling for the down-on-her-luck single mother. He's only thinking he'll spread a little Christmas cheer and do a good deed or two.But when a snowstorm collapses Shelby's roof and forces them together for the holidays, he realizes he's falling for the woman who swore never to marry again.Can he convince her that a good man is worth risking her heart for?

    One of the beloved central characters is critically wounded and another is murdered. The bonds of friendship and love are tested after the tragedy causes all involved to make irrational decisions that complicate their lives even more. Nothing will ever be the same as everyone is forced to make monumental, life-altering decisions. Can relationships be salvaged in time to help one other through the consequences of poor judgment?

    When she married rising political star Duff Cooper, they became the golden couple who knew everyone who was anyone; they sat at the very heart of British public life.Diana’s letters to her only son, John Julius Norwich, cover the period 1939 to 1952. They take us from the rumblings of war, through the Blitz, which the Coopers spent holed up in the Dorchester (because it was newer, and therefore less vulnerable, than the Ritz), to rurual Sussex where we see Diana blissfully setting up a smallholding as part of the war effort. After a spell with the Free French in Algiers, Duff was appointed British Ambassador to France and the couple settled into the glorious embassy in post-Liberation Paris. Over and beyond all the glitz, Diana emerges in these letters as highly intelligent, funny, fiercely loyal: a woman who disliked extravagance, who was often cripplingly shy, who was happiest in the countryside with her cow and goats and whose greatest love and preoccupation were her husband and son. As a portrait of a time and some of history’s most dramatic and important events, these letters are invaluable. But they also give us a vivid and touching portrait of the love between a mother and son, separated by war, oceans – and the constraints of the time they lived in.‘Please, darling monster, write as often as you can. It’s so sad waiting for letters that don’t come and are not even written. I love my darling boy. Don’t treat me so badly again or I’ll have your lights and liver when I get home.’ 19 November 1939‘I wish, I wish it was all over – Hitler defeated, the lights up again and the guns still.’ 2 October 1940‘Yesterday was a gallop of spirits and people and sun and fun.’ 26 September 1948‘I do my best but I’ll always be a bum.’ 12 October 1948

    Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother’s depression and Grace’s religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip to Mexico and discovers she’s pregnant with—she believes—the child of God.Distraught, Oren sends Jory and Grace to an isolated home at the edge of the town. There, they prepare for the much-awaited arrival of the baby while building a makeshift family that includes an elderly eccentric neighbor and a tattooed social outcast who drives an ice cream truck.The Girl Who Slept with God is a literary achievement about a family’s desperate need for truth, love, purity, and redemption.

    While sifting through his papers, she finds he'd been researching an uncle she never knew he'd had. Intrigued, she visits her father's childhood home, the once beautiful Carlyon Manor. She meets an old woman named Beatrice who has an extraordinary story to tell.

    Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic haunted by his violent past. His sister, Audrun, alone in her bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life. Into this closed world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London seeking to remake his life in France. But from the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion.

    But this is not London as we know it. In a collapsed society, Lalla struggles to imagine her future. When a government announcement invites her to enjoy a new life in Regent’s Park, Lalla sees a glimmer of hope. But what is she willing to risk?

    This book chronicles a hectic school year for college-aged Joe Talbert. His life is changed forever when he gets an interesting homework assignment--writing a biography.   Joe's subject is a cranky old man who was convicted of cold-blooded murder over thirty years ago. As Joe writes his paper he becomes unsure on whether his subject is telling the true, or if there is more to the murder that he doesn't know. Joe goes on a wild chase to find out who the real murderer is, getting himself if perilous trouble along the way.   In this sidekick you’ll find:   A brief biography on Allen Eskens   A guide on the writing style used in the story   Background information to help readers better understand the book   Character descriptions   Themes to watch out for   Detailed summaries for each chapter   General review of the book with additional things to think about   Disclaimer: This book serves as an accompaniment to the bestseller The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens. It is meant to broaden the reader's understanding of the book and to offer some insights which can easily be overlooked. You should order a copy of the actual book before reading this.

    But then things get a whole lot worse when Josie's inheritance is stolen and her granddmother's death brings eviction from the only home she's ever known. Determined to rise above these bitter blows, Josie struggles to support herself, and, desperate for affection, stumbles into an ill-fated love affair. But there are those around who do recognise Josie's worth, and, although she is unaware of it, one man in particular is keeping a close eye on her progress...

    After a violent incident with their guardian, they are out on the streets. She has no option but to accept the help of Maudie, whose home at the end of Hope Street is full of thieves.