Tucked away in the school’s beautiful private estate in the Cotswolds, can Gemma stay safe and build a new independent future? With a little help from her new friends, including some worldly-wise pupils, she's going to give it her best shot... Perfect for anyone who grew up hooked on Chalet School, Malory Towers, St Clare's and other classic school stories. ***Set in the same world as Debbie Young's popular Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries series and includes a little crossover. In the first book, Gemma pays a visit to Hector's House in Wendlebury Barrow and meets Sophie and Hector. ***

    Cerdic Elesing, King of Wessex and ancestor of all subsequent British monarchs, narrates in this fictional biography how he murdered, cheated, looted and lied his way to the great position he ultimately held - and in the process served with the great Roman leader Ambrosius and the Saxon warlord Aella, and was the foe Arthur defeated at Mount Badon.

    On one side stood the shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other side stood a remarkable alliance of rival kings – at least two from across the sea – who'd come together to destroy them once and for all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began, was enough to shock a violent age. Brunanburh may not today have the fame of Hastings, Crécy or Agincourt, but those later battles, fought for England, would not exist were it not for the blood spilled this day. Generations later it was still called, quite simply, the 'great battle'. But for centuries, its location has been lost. Today, an extraordinary effort, uniting enthusiasts, historians, archaeologists, linguists, and other researchers – amateurs and professionals, experienced and inexperienced alike – may well have found the site of the long-lost battle of Brunanburh, over a thousand years after its bloodied fields witnessed history. This groundbreaking new book tells the story of this remarkable discovery and delves into why and how the battle happened. Most importantly, though, it is about the men who fought and died at Brunanburh, and how much this forgotten struggle can tell us about who we are and how we relate to our past.

    He was a devoted family man and key figure in three Catholic art and craft communities: yet he also believed in complete sexual freedom. In her controversial, landmark biography, originally published in 1989, celebrated biographer Fiona MacCarthy delves into the complex, dark, and contradictory sides of the man and the artist for the first time - and the result is his definitive portrait.

    Sophie draws her reader in immediately and combines wit and poignancy to very powerful effect... Excellent.' --Katie Fforde'This is a beautifully written book… The characters are quite simply brilliant.' --Vanity Case Books'An extraordinary story...A born storyteller with a gift for characterisation, she writes with warmth, lovely earthy detail and a pathos which keeps a lump lodged in the throat...echoes of Victoria Wood.' --The Daily Mail'a brave, bold, warm, rich, amusing, engaging novel' --Hello! MagazinePhilippa Smith is in her forties and has a beautiful newborn baby girl. She also has no husband, and nowhere to turn. So she turns to the only place she knows: the beginning.Retracing her life, she confronts the daily obstacles that shaped her very existence. From the tragic events of her childhood abandonment, to the astonishing accomplishments of those close to her, Philippa learns of the sacrifices others chose to make, and the outcome of buried secrets.Philippa discovers a celebration of life, love, and the Golden era of television. A reflection of everyday people, in not so everyday situations.

    Treachery in Dark Ages Northumbria. Cerdic is the nephew of a great warrior who died a hero of the Anglo-Saxon country of Deira. Growing up in a quiet village, he dreams of the glories of battle and of one day writing his name into the sagas. He experiences the true horrors of war, however, when his home is attacked, his sister kidnapped, his family betrayed and his uncle's legendary sword stolen. Cerdic is thrown into the struggles that will determine the future of 6th century Britain and must show courageous leadership and overcome treachery, to save his kingdom, rescue his sister and return home with his uncle's sword. “I will take care of the body of my lord and you can carry the sword, story teller. For all good stories are about a sword.” The Northern Crown series follows the story of a young nobleman - Cerdic - as he lives through the darkest years of the Dark Ages. Through his eyes we witness the climatic events that forged the nations of Britain. For it out of this time that the English, Welsh, Irish and Scots races began to form: born in the conflict between Saxon and Celt, Pagan and Christian.

    A young refugee Saxon princess, 24 years old when she arrived north of the border, she gained the throne of Scotland and tamed her wild and warlike people. Single handed, she changed the nation's destiny and won their lasting love.

    Terrence, the owner’s mean-spirited father, is about to move into their famously all-female senior living home. Far from coasting into their twilight years, these women have a lot of living to do. And they’re planning to do it where the toilet seats stay firmly down.The home’s chef, Phoebe, is desperate to help her friends plot to keep the all-women community that means so much to them. It’s become her life raft, too. Her job might be the only thing that finally makes her parents proud. If only Phoebe’s (probably hopeless) love, Nick, wasn’t lining up on the other side of the battle.The stakes couldn’t be higher for everyone. Unless the home’s owner can improve business by moving men in, he’s going to close it down. Then the women will lose everything.

    His investigation takes hin into the backrooms of the Catholic Church, the boardrooms of Montreal's business elite and the soup kitchens and back alleys of street life in winter.

    In this poignant and witty debut, a bohemian and a Gucci-clad socialite form an unlikely friendship after leaving the city.

    Flight surgeon Jonathan Brandon isn't just handsome―he's everything Catherine could hope for in her betrothed. But her dream of a happily ever after is shattered when Jonnie vanishes before their wedding, leaving Catherine bereft, broken-hearted, and with a lifetime of unanswered questions.Arthur Howard is smitten with the lovely Catherine the moment he sees her. He's certain he's found the woman he wants to marry. Yet behind Catherine's sparkling green eyes is a haunted look―the look of a woman who has known loss. Can he love a woman who still grieves the loss of her fiancé? Arthur must find answers to the mystery surrounding the man Catherine intended to marry. What he discovers is a truth far stranger than fiction.

    

    In Odds Against, he lands a position with a detective agency. His first case brings him up against a field of thoroughbred criminals, and the odds against him are making it a long shot that he'll even survive.Whip Hand finds Halley haunted by his glory days, although he still finds a certain satisfaction in solving a case. Hired by the wife of one of England's top racehorse trainers, Halley needs to figure out why her husband's most promising horses have been performing so poorly, and winds up haunted by more than just memories.In Come to Grief, Halley becomes convinced that one of his closest friends-and one of the racing world's most beloved figures--is behind a series of shockingly violent acts. No one wants to believe that Ellis Quint could be guilty, so the public and press are turning their wrath against Halley instead. Now he's facing opposition at every turn-and finding danger lies straight ahead.

    When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect instagram lives, she feels like a f*ck up. Even worse, a forty-something f*ck-up.But when she lands a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys. Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It's time to turn her life around. A book for anyone who’s ever worried life isn’t going to plan, Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up by Alexandra Potter will make you laugh and it might even make you cry. But most importantly, it will remind you that you're not alone, because we’re all in this together. Time to fall in love with your life.

    It's just as well the coal is of the highest quality, as the upkeep of Netherwood Hall, his splendid estate on the outskirts of town, does not come cheap. And that's not to mention the cost of keeping his wife and daughters in the latest fashions—and keeping the heir, the charming but feckless Tobias, out of trouble. Below stairs, Eve Williams is the wife of one of Lord Netherwood's most stalwart employees. When her ordered existence amid the terraced rows of the miners' houses is brought crashing down by the twin arrivals of tragedy and charity, Eve must look to her own self-sufficiency, and talent, to provide for her three young children. And it's then that "upstairs" and "downstairs" collide in truly dramatic fashion.