Book picks similar to
Term of Trial by James Barlow


fiction
paris
toxic-relationships
anti-hero

Eleven Lines to Somewhere


Alyson Rudd - 2020
    Sometimes we just take our own route to find it. When Ryan spots a young woman on the tube on his commute, he can’t take his eyes off her. Instantly attracted and intrigued, he’s keen to find out more about his mysterious fellow passenger.Sylvie spends all day travelling the underground, unable to leave for reasons unbeknownst to Ryan. But Ryan hasn’t dated for nearly ten years, when he was at university and the love of his life tragically died.For some inexplicable reason, he just can’t shake the feeling he wants to help Sylvie. In a world of missed opportunities and what-ifs, a connection has been made. This is a story of love and loss from the author of The First Time Lauren Pailing Died, perfect for fans of Anna Hope’s Expectation, David Nicholls’s Sweet Sorrow and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life.

The Blessing


Nancy Mitford - 1951
    Both are duped, however, by their son Sigismund -- the Blessing of the title -- a juvenile Machiavelli who mixes Gallic cunning with Saxon thoroughness to become one of Mitford's most memorable characters.

Hattie's Mill


Marcia Willett - 1997
    Sarah Farley feels a pang of envy for Hattie's freedom. For over twenty years, Sarah has tolerated her husband's infidelities - and her love for him is about to be tested again... As Hattie settles into life at the mill, she befriends two young boatmen. Toby is recovering from a broken marriage and, when he has a another chance at happiness, Hattie is glad welcome his new family into the fold. Joss's problems are not so easily solved, but when he turns to Hattie for help, the motherly love that blossoms in her heart enables them both to heal old wounds...

Cousin Kate


Georgette Heyer - 1968
    She has never met her Aunt Minerva Broome, and hardly knows what to expect at majestic country home of Staplewood. Her aunt, uncle, and cousin welcome her to their estate, buy her new clothes, and provide all the amenities a young lady of quality should have. Soon, Kate begins noticing strange things about the manor. Though the guests are few, even family dinners are formal. Unexplained noises and events occur in the night. Surrounded by her domineering Aunt, handsome but moody cousin Torquil, and cousin Philip, who appears to have taken her in instant dislike, Staplewood soon turns from an inviting stately house to a cold and gloomy mansion

A Northern Line Minute: The Northern Line


William Leith - 2013
    It's the line on which he has fought with his girlfriend, lost jobs, watched football teams lose and been stuck underground. It's a story of London life.

Seconds to Snap: One Explosive Day. A Family Destroyed. My Descent into Anorexia.


Tina McGuff - 2015
    In those few, short seconds, a black hole opened up in my life and I fell right in." Tina McGuff’s life was perfect – or so she thought. Living in Dundee with her devoted parents and three younger sisters, she was a happy, healthy, and confident 13-year-old. But all that changed in one horrifying act of revenge, and Tina’s world collapsed overnight. Terrified, lost, and confused, she turned to the one thing she thought she could control—food. And so began the biggest fight of her life. Tina’s life-or-death struggle with anorexia is told with devastating honesty in this extraordinary account of a girl at war with herself. Through her years in and out of psychiatric wards, Tina takes us to some of the darkest places of the mind. But in the end her courage, conviction, and sheer determination win out. It took Tina seconds to snap and a lifetime to recover—but today, as a passionate campaigner for mental health, she is living proof that there is always a reason to hope that one day, things will get better.

The Wanting Seed


Anthony Burgess - 1962
    Eventually, their world is transformed into a chaos of cannibalistic dining-clubs, fantastic fertility rituals, and wars without anger. It is a novel both extravagantly funny and grimly serious.

The Wasp Factory


Iain Banks - 1984
    Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly.The Wasp Factory is a work of horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all. A novel of extraordinary originality, imagination and comic ferocity.

Time of the Wolf


Elizabeth Harris - 1994
     Henry and Thea felt an almost supernatural attachment to the Fens of East Anglia and to the woman who guided them there - Florence, Henry’s grandmother. The two were fascinated by her stories of Dark-Ages passions, murder and betrayal. They knew that through her stories, Florence was trying to tell them something else, and that her interest in their growing love for each other seemed to have another dimension… Unknown to them, their passion had an extraordinary power — one that could awaken the ghosts of an evil that has survived the passing of the centuries. Tormented by visions of the past, knowing the future was not theirs, Henry and Thea are thrown back to the Dark-Age world of The House of the Wolf and a destiny from which only one person can save them … Praise for Elizabeth Harris '[Harris] writes these gorgeous books in modern day style, producing intense and beautiful tales of ancient charm' - Bangor Chronicle 'A worthy heir to Ellis Peters, though grittier, materialises' – Poison in the Pen 'Proof that a writer of medieval crime fiction can deliver something fresh' – The Times Elizabeth Harris was born in Cambridge and brought up in Kent, where she now lives. After graduation she did a variety of jobs including driving a van, being a lifeguard and working in the Civil Service. She has travelled extensively in Europe and America, and lived for some years in the Far East. Elizabeth Harris was one of the finalists of the 1989 Ian St James Awards. She is an acclaimed writer with many novels to her name. In The Quiet Earth, she deftly weaves the challenges and questions of modern life into those of the distant past, to deliver a story brimming with intrigue, history and romance. She is also the author of The Herb Gatherers.

The Clothes They Stood Up In


Alan Bennett - 1998
    "Robbed," Mrs. Ransome said. "Burgled," Mr. Ransome corrected. Premises were burgled; persons were robbed. Mr. Ransome was a solicitor by profession and thought words mattered. Though "burgled" was the wrong word too. Burglars select; they pick; they remove one item and ignore others. There is a limit to what burglars can take: they seldom take easy chairs, for example, and even more seldom settees. These burglars did. They took everything.This swift-moving comic fable will surprise you with its concealed depths. When the sedate Ransomes return from the opera to find their Notting Hill flat stripped absolutely bare—down to the toilet paper off the roll, they face a dilemma: Who are they without the things they've spent a lifetime accumulating? Suddenly the world is full of unlimited and frightening possibility.

The Bartlett Mystery (A Mystery Classic)


Louis Tracy - 1919
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The Challenges of a King (The Road to Hastings #1)


K.M. Ashman - 2021
    

On Being Ill


Virginia Woolf - 1930
    We cannot quote Shakespeare to describe a headache. We must, Woolf says, invent language to describe pain. And though illness enhances our perceptions, she observes that it reduces self-consciousness; it is "the great confessional." Woolf discusses the cultural taboos associated with illness and explores how illness changes the way we read. Poems clarify and astonish, Shakespeare exudes new brilliance, and so does melodramatic fiction!On Being Ill was published as an individual volume by Hogarth Press in 1930. While other Woolf essays, such as A Room of One’s Own and Three Guineas, were first published by Hogarth as individual volumes and have since been widely available, On Being Ill has been overlooked. The Paris Press edition features original cover art by Woolf’s sister, the painter Vanessa Bell. Hermione Lee’s Introduction discusses this extraordinary work, and explores Woolf’s revelations about poetry, language, and illness.

The Assault on Tony's


John O'Brien - 1996
    Barricaded in a bar called Tony's while a riot rages outside, the characters that people The Assault on Tony's are united by their desire to drink to the end, no matter what the consequences. In this stark and darkly humorous novel, social alliances are forged and challenged as each member of this macabre party ignores his fears in favor of keeping his tumbler full to the brim. As time goes on and the liquor supply starts to dwindle, the novel reaches a gritty intensity as it exposes the highs and lows of the human spirit.

Complete Plays


Sarah Kane - 2000
    That play, and the others that followed, have been produced all over the world. This anthology includes Kane's never-before-published Channel 4 screenplay, Skin. Complete Plays include Blasted, Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, and Skin.