. . Burns is as good a writer about the South as you’re going to read for a long, long time.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution A classic bestseller, Cold Sassy Tree is the story of Will Tweedy, a fourteen-year-old boy coming of age at the turn of the century in rural Georgia. His grandfather, a recent widower, inspires a whirlwind of gossip in their small town when he marries a woman half his age. Brimming with characters who are wise, unimpeachably pious, and deliciously irreverent, it is a resplendent treasure. The unfinished sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy, follows Will Tweedy into adulthood, as he grapples with the influences of the modern world on his cherished southern hometown. Olive Ann Burns (1924–1990) was born on a farm in Banks County, Georgia. She received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and for ten years was on the Sunday magazine staff of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She turned to writing as a respite during treatment for cancer. Her first novel, Cold Sassy Tree, made her a best-selling author at age 60.

    Mark Bradley in London she was only eighteen. She and her mother were both attracted by "Brad," and the situation thus engendered proved fateful, since it led to Brad's association with a great Viennese physicist and to his involvement in a tragic drama. But there was another drama, larger and less personal, that drew him into its widening orbit, a drama that became a secret and later an obsession.Probing yet protective, Jane's love makes the strong thread in a pattern of deeply moving and significant events—strange events, too—and yet, to quote Daniel Webster, there is often "nothing so strange" as the truth.Although the earlier scenes of Nothing So Strange are laid abroad, its outlook is American and its climax could only have taken place in America. It is as exciting and as human as anything Mr. Hilton has ever written.

    It came to little, being no more than that I should miss love and fortune in the sunlight and find them in the rain. The woman was a haggard, black-faced gypsy, and when my mother asked for more she turned on her heel and spoke gibberish; for which she was presently driven out of the place by Tarn Roberton, the baillie, and the village dogs. But the thing stuck in my memory, and together with the fact that I was a Thursday's bairn, and so, according to the old rhyme, "had far to go," convinced me long ere I had come to man's estate that wanderings and surprises would be my portion.It is in the rain that this tale begins. I was just turned of eighteen, and in the back-end of a dripping September set out from our moorland house of Auchencairn to complete my course at Edinburgh College. The year was 1685, an ill year for our countryside; for the folk were at odds with the King's Government, about religion, and the land was full of covenants and repressions. Small wonder that I was backward with my colleging. . . .

    At 18, she had everything—fine luxuries, a prominent family, and an extravagant estate in Marseille. The one thing she didn’t have was her freedom. As the sole heir to the Fontaine fortune, her future was forged with a betrothal to a stranger from a foreign country, but when her family perishes at sea, Isabel sees this as a chance to hide her identity and change her fate.Taken in by poor, elderly farmers on the Spanish island of Menorca, Isabel is torn between the growing affection for a neighbor and the guilt of living a lie. The simplicity and genuine goodness of this life takes her on a journey she never believed was possible, yet, as time passes and the threat of her untruths face exposure, Isabel must make an agonizing choice.When that choice is taken from her prematurely and danger cultivates from an implausible guise, will Isabel accept the outcome, or fight to save those she loves?A historical fiction novel set in both Algiers, Algeria during French occupation and Menorca, Spain. Told in the perspective of four characters, Second Survivor is a twist on the tragic shipwreck . . . the General Chanzy in the Mediterranean Sea. 156 people aboard the barge lost their lives on the morning of 10 February 1910. There was only one survivor. This story shares the fate of a Second Survivor.

     Livy Prescott is a young wife dependent upon,beholden to, and manipulated by Celene, a slave. In 1860, Edward Prescott gallops into Livy Taylor’s life racing his carriage down the main street of her tiny Pennsylvania town, winning a bet and her heart. After they wed, Livy is swept away to Merrywood, Edward’s home in the hills of North Carolina. There Livy faces the daunting task of adjusting to her new life as Mistress of Merrywood and slave-owner. And there Livy encounters Celene, the beautiful slave cook of Merrywood, skilled in the healing arts and privy to the deepest secrets of the Prescotts. Gradually Livy learns the extent of Celene’s influence and the hold she maintains over her master, causing Livy to question who is the real mistress of Merrywood.

    Little does he know that the sleepy little town will soon be a firestorm and he will be caught right in the middle. With Indians lurking around and thirsty for blood, he knows that he needs to stop them from attacking the village. Is his fearlessness enough to help him in this risky mission?Jake's life becomes more exciting when he meets Emily, daughter of one of the wealthiest ranchers in the area, and he is instantly attracted to her. Even though he longs to get to know her better, his priority now is to trace the Indians, find out their plan and protect Jenkins Bend. His mission becomes even harder when a greedy shadowy figure's betrayal will change the course of events. Are Brandt and the townsmen truly prepared for the approaching threat?With a traitor among them and with time running fast, the stakes become too high. Will they manage to defend Jenkins Bend and triumph over the enemy before it's too late? A gripping, action-packed story, featuring authentic and captivating characters, vivid descriptions, and suspense, that will leave readers breathless. A must-read for fans of Western adventures with a touch of romance.

    A man sits on a bench in front of his old school remembering the place where one particular day changed his life and those of many others dramatically years earlier.

    It contains his earliest poems - in nazm, ghazal and qita form - that set him on course to becoming the greatest and most-read Urdu poet of the 20th century.

    Contains more than 400 letters and poems written to family, creditors, debtors, and bankers.

    With degrees in both Medicine and Law, at the age of seventeen, Clint still felt empty and dissatisfied. He struck up a bargain with his father, to be allowed four years to go West and see the lands, experience life, then return to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor in the family practice. When he boarded the train west with fifty thousand dollars set up in a bank account, Clint had no way of knowing just how much his life would turn in a completely different way.

    It ends with a promise. On her deathbed Frances extracts it from her three daughters—the utterly capable homemaker Alice; the recalcitrant Allegra, a recovering alcoholic; and bohemian Edie, who shrinks in the face of any commitment: their promise to “look after Libba.” As if the formidable, tough-minded Libba Charles, author of ten books, a literary celebrity, needed looking after. Yet when they are summoned by Libba to Creek Cabin, their mother’s summer hideaway in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, they go. None of them is prepared, though, for what they will discover there—about their mother, about Libba, about themselves—in this poignant, adroit rendering of reunions and farewells.

    With its progressive curriculum, complacent staff and beautiful grounds, it looks like Paradise. But the clever, the odd and the bookish are relentlessly persecuted as pupils make their own rules in a bubble of privilege and prejudice. When Alice, the Headmaster?s intellectual step-daughter, and the much-expelled American millionaire Winthrop T Sheen join forces against the school bully, Grub Viner, a gifted pianist and school ?joker?, has to choose between love and loyalty, and black comedy escalates to murder. Savagely funny, compelling and a cult classic, A Private Place has struck a chord with generations. `A viciously clever satire on progressive schools... Will cause distress in liberal circles? Independent `Bitingly funny and horribly accurate? Daily Telegraph `A genuinely gripping novel? Spectator `Craig writes with ruthless honesty and jet black wit? Cosmopolitan

    It is the second Paul Muller novel set in Europe before World War II. Muller is recruited to become a spy to resist Hitler's campaign to absorb Austria into the German Reich and, from his perch in Vienna, finds himself at the epicenter of the desperate struggle to preserve Austrian independence. Muller plays a dangerous game in helping Austria oppose Hitler's demands and he hatches a bold plan to divert Austria's gold reserves so they stay out of Hitler's grasp. The novel captures this gripping drama in rich and vivid detail as political pressures mount and the threat of war looms. A Spy in Vienna re-creates for readers the fraught atmosphere of 1930's, when the threat of Nazi violence hung over Europe. Aficionados of that epoch will relish the authenticity of the novel, which reawakens the tensions and turbulence of the era, with its undercurrent of violence and fear. The narrative recaptures the urgency of the crisis as repeated confrontations escalated to an explosive conclusion. Today, sitting at the safe remove of eighty years, we know the outcome. Hitler's bald aggression prevailed; his takeover of Austria became a crucial stepping stone leading to World War II. But the characters in the novel know none of this; for them, the events they are caught up in are frightening and bewildering, confronting them with dire choices and fearful consequences. The novel transports the reader into that contemporary maelstrom of intrigue and danger—combining real history with a compelling story. Admirers of Paul Muller in Danzig will revel in his new adventures in Vienna, as once again he confronts Nazi tyranny.

    Meet the Air Raid Girls: three young women keen to do their bit during the Yorkshire blitz.Connie's life has taken an unexpected turn since her husband died - she's living at home and working in the family bakery - but night shifts as an ARP Warden give her a firm sense of purpose.Her younger sister Lizzie is eager to play her part too, perhaps as an ambulance driver. Her fiance refuses to support her decision... but does he really know what's best for her?Twenty-year-old Pamela has led a sheltered life, but when her family's home is destroyed in a raid she must learn to stand on her own two feet - helped by new friends.As bombs fall and fires rage, the young women face the destruction of everything they've ever known. Can their fighting spirit prevail? And what of their families and the men they love?A thrilling and heartwarming new story of friendship, love and duty in wartime by the author of The Spitfire Girls, for fans of Elaine Everest and Rosie Hendry.