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Then, when his grandfather died, everything changed. Her husband should be in the bed next to her, but he's been out a lot recently, during the small hours of the morning. Ursula liked to run things her way, and brooked no opposition when the ambitious decision was made largely by herself to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream as their next production. But as he is leaving, they both realise that perhaps this situation could work out for both of them after all But little does he know that what he learns from these birds could help him for years to come.
He is happiest playing with his daemon, Asta, in their canoe, La Belle Sauvage. But now as the rain builds, the world around Malcolm and Asta is, it seems, set to become increasingly far from ordinary.
Finding himself linked to a baby by the name of Lyra Belacqua, Malcolm is forced to undertake the challenge of his life and to make a dangerous journey that will change him and Lyra for ever. Bucks Book Award Shortlist. Boy At the Back of the Class By: Edexcel A Level Maths: The Workbook provides focussed revision sections and extensive exam practice. Full step-by-step solutions are provided online. We supply any UK book in Print.
And overall Obama's a fun person to sit alongside as she tells you the story of her life. As First Lady of the United States of America - the first African-American to serve in that role - she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U. I loved every page. Ealing Teen Reads Shortlist.
He sets out on a journey to find his way in the world, and his encounters with the people he meets leads him to a true understanding of what it means to follow his dream. Dave the lonely monster By: But a new friendship in the Yorkshire Dales forces her to reconsider whether a new beginning really means moving away. In 'Festival at Rowdean', Melanie has spent an exciting year abroad nannying for a family with two children, so her return home seems something of an anticlimax. Everything now seems so dull in her home village of Rowdean. She is mortified when the village committee then insist she be involved in the organisation of a village festival.
But could this be just the thing to bring her home town back to life for her? Sitting completely still for long periods of time can be uncomfortable, but the money helps her to keep her flat and bring up her daughter Janie. But as one of the students begins to notice Lisa's features, could an unlikely friendship form? In 'Summer Promise', Linda, recently divorced and in need of a break, decides to take her two children on a fortnight's holiday in France, renting a house from a friend of a friend. However when she arrives at the house, she finds a man already there, claiming to be the owner.
It emerges that this man, Graham, is the ex-husband of the woman who suggested the idea to Linda, and that she had forgotten to inform her that the situation had changed and that Graham now owns the house outright. He makes it clear to Linda that they can't possibly stay there as he is busy with work and it would be an inconvenience. But as Linda frantically tries to find a hotel, her youngest child James falls ill with chicken pox. Graham relents, and agrees to let them stay in the house, packing his bags to move out for two weeks. But as he is leaving, they both realise that perhaps this situation could work out for both of them after all In 'A Gull Named Helen', when little Daniel clams up following the death of his grandmother, everyone thinks a school trip to the seaside will be just what he needs.
In the lighthouse where they are staying, Daniel is offered the little room right at the very top of the tower, while the other children must sleep in the basement. Watching from his bedroom window, Daniel becomes mesmerised by the seagulls circling overhead. As he spends the next few days feeding them scraps of bread, he forms a bond with one bird in particular, who he decides is called Helen - the same name as his grandmother. But little does he know that what he learns from these birds could help him for years to come. In 'Children on the Shore', Claire Foster has been used to living her own life, her own way.
Her daughter lives abroad with her own family. Claire was widowed years ago. So when she takes a temporary job as a secretary at a hospital, she is startled to find herself beginning a relationship with one of the doctors. Meanwhile, her daughter begins writing to her frequently, begging her to move closer to them so that she can be a part of her grandchildren's lives.
And then she is offered a new job, working for an author, which would reduce her free time dramatically. Which path - if any - should she choose?
Part of the Storycuts series, these three short stories were previously published in the collection 'Summer Promise and Other Stories'. But things begin to change, and she is unable to work out whether it is for the better. But when she meets Martin, a professor over from New Zealand, her life no longer seems perfect, but full of impossible choices. In 'Whose Baby are You, Babe? Her students look on curiously as she has the baby in a carrycot on the floor beside her as she teaches.
But what secrets lie behind the child's identity? Part of the Storycuts series, these two stories were previously published in the collection Summer Promise and Other Stories. Molly O'Connor's life was not an easy one. With six children and a husband who earned what he could as casual farmhand, fisherman, or drover, it was a constant struggle to keep her family fed and raised to be respectable. Of all her children, Breda - the Bright One - was closest to her heart.
As, one by one, her other children left Kilbally, Kathleen and Kieran to the Church, Moira to marriage, the twins to war, so Breda, the youngest, was the one who stayed close to her parents. Breda never wanted to leave the West of Ireland. She though Kilbally was the most beautiful place in the world. Then tragedy struck the O'Connors and the structure of their family life was irrevocably changed.
Reeling from unhappiness and humiliation, Breda decided to make a new life for herself - in Yorkshire with her Aunt Josie's family. There she was to discover a totally different world from the one she had left behind, with new people and new challenges for the future. She was born plain Dora, in a bleak northern town where her future seemed all too predictable. But from the moment she first walked, pursuing a coloured ball across the floor, she went after what she wanted, and got it. At the age of eighteen she wanted freedom and a new life - and a new name, Chloe.
She went to Brighton, to work as a mother's help to a Member of Parliament and his wife, and she glimpsed for the first time a life of luxury and wealth - a life which, she believed, could be hers.
But her new circumstances brought with them difficulties which she could not have foretold, including the passionate interest of her boss and the unexpected bond which she discovered with the small children in whose charge she had been put. Torn between the interest of an attractive older man and her feelings of affection and loyalty towards his wife and children, Chloe embarked upon a dangerous course.
Then a near tragedy changed everything for her, although it also brought a new love into her life and helped her to grow up and to appreciate what she had. Edgar Carson has returned from the trenches to find that the land fit for heroes didn't exist. The only nice thing that happened to him was Opal, the small, tough, Yorkshire beauty who married him. But by the time the 20s came, Edgar was on the dole, and Opal was pregnant for the second time. Bitterness began to corrode Edgar's spirit. But Opal was a fighter - she wasn't going to let the times, the drudgery, the poverty destroy her or her family.
She started with a 'house shop', just sweets and cotton reels sold from the top of her sideboard, and from then on she didn't stop - for Opal's dream was her own department store and a grand life for all of them Naomi had been contentedly and, she thought, happily married for nearly all of her adult life when her husband Edward explained kindly to her one day that he had fallen in love with a twenty-six year old and wanted a divorce. She had to leave the comfortable home she had shared with Edward and their three children, now all grown-up, and move into a small flat in the middle of Bath.
The dramatic change in her lifestyle threatened to overwhelm her. But gradually Naomi began to appreciate the changes, and even to enjoy them. For the first time in her life she could do what she liked, and make her own friends. If these included men friends - well, why not? Unfortunately her children could think of many reasons why not, and Naomi began a battle to establish her own independence, and to persuade her family that she had moved into the springtime of a whole new life.
In this warm and inspiring new novel, Elvi Rhodes's wonderful storytelling skills are used to explore a dilemma faced by many women today. Petra came into the close village community of Mindon when she was unexpectedly left a cottage there by an old friend of her mother's. She was lonely and unsettled - her parents had been killed in a car accident, her boyfriend had decided to go back to his wife, and as a painter she led a solitary life in her North Yorkshire home town.
But she felt immediately at home in the gracious stone house that had been bequeathed to her, and was made welcome by the local residents - in particular, by the members of the Mindon Amateur Dramatic Society somewhat appropriately known as MADS presided over by the formidable Ursula. Ursula liked to run things her way, and brooked no opposition when the ambitious decision was made largely by herself to put on A Midsummer Night's Dream as their next production.
Petra , to her surprise and pleasure, was put in charge of the wardrobe. Rivalries, squabbles, love affairs and seething resentments threatened to scupper the production, and all Ursula's managerial skills were needed to prevent disaster. But Petra had more pressing things on her mind than the costumes for the cast. A mystery from her past began to haunt her - and the answer to that mystery might solve the puzzle of why she had been left such a beautiful house by a total stranger.
Beckwith was isolated, sometimes beautiful, sometimes inhospitable, and had been owned by the Hendry family since When Cara fell in love with Edward Hendry, it was not what her family had intended for her. Edward was fifteen years older than Cara, a pacifist, and a widower with two children, one of whom bitterly resented her new stepmother. But Cara was determined to make the marriage work, in spite of the hard life on the farm, in spite of Edward's reserved personality and the shadow of Nancy, his former wife.
Her greatest friend on the farm was Edward's mother. Edith Hendry, a loyal and wise daleswoman, was to see the young bride through many tragedies, many vicissitudes and the years of trying to run the wild sheep farm on her own. And as Cara's life began to change, so Cara changed too, finding a complete and utter happiness where she had never expected to. When Frances changed her unsettled life in Brighton and bought an old farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales to run as a guesthouse, she was going into uncharted territory.
The villagers were very friendly and talked about the previous owners of Beck Farm but there seemed to be some mystery about them. What had happened to the wife of the previous owner - and why was she still resented? Frances was to find out while at the same time rebuilding her own life. The inhabitants of quiet, tree-lined Mulberry Lane take a keen interest in the comings and goings of their neighbours.
When number fifteen comes onto the market they are naturally intrigued to see a good-looking man being shown the property, and they hope to find a pleasant, quiet family moving in. But they are to be sadly disappointed - the house is to be a hostel for young offenders. Opinions are divided - some fearing that they will be murdered in their beds, others wanting to welcome these youths into their community.
However friendly the newcomers may be, there are others in Mulberry Lane who are determined to scupper the scheme at all costs Jack Tempest spent the first twelve years of his life on the canals. Then, when his grandfather died, everything changed.
In 'Meet the New Caroline Pritchard', Caroline Pritchard thinks her boyfriend Richard is going off her. And she's addicted to makeover shows on. In 'Meet the New Caroline Pritchard', Caroline Pritchard thinks her boyfriend Richard is going off her. And she's addicted to makeover shows on the television .
His mam and he moved to Skipton, Mam worked in the mills, and they lived as best they could. It was there that she bought the picture of the mountain, and when she died it was one of the few things he took with him. But the mountain was more than just a picture. It was a real place - Whernside - set amidst the rugged hill country of Yorkshire, and it was to Whernside that Jake was drawn, especially when he found they needed men to work on the new railway lines, cutting valleys, building viaducts, and carving a tunnel right through the great mountain itself.
As he settled into the new harsh life amongst the rough shanty villages of the railway workers, one woman lit his very existence - Beth Seymour. Beth was strong, brave, compassionate - and she was also married. Once she and Will had loved one another, but life for the rail builders was savage and coarse and Will Seymour was rapidly becoming brutalized by the manner in which he lived. Beneath the shadow of the mountain, in all its seasons, the passionate story of Beth, Will and Jake was played out to a dramatic climax.
This is a collection of stories to suit the reader's every mood - tender, funny, romantic, ironic, bitter-sweet, nostalgic. The couple in Summer Promise are, at first glance, placed in an appalling situation, but nevertheless in the warmth of southern France their relationship develops in an unexpected way. Be Your Age, Dear is a delightful tale of a generation gap which, in one family, seems non-existent - or has it gone into reverse?
The Meeting describes the ten-yearly reunion of a group of friends which, for obvious reasons, dwindles each time. The two members most closely involved come to a decision that was, perhaps, inevitable. Model of Beauty is set in a painting class, where the temporary illness of the generously endowed model brings about surprising consequences. These enchanting stories are guaranteed by turn to entertain, soothe, intrigue and touch you. Although Madeleine Bates and Sophia Parkinson were both eighteen years old, the contrast between their two lives could not have been greater.
Sophia, spoilt pretty daughter of Helsdon's richest mill owner, lived a life of petted indulgence at Mount Royd, the Parkinson home. Madeleine - daughter of a tyrannical and bigoted father who worked in the Parkinson mill - spent her time either at chapel, or working a fourteen hour day as housemaid at Mount Royd, a victim of Sophia's whims and occasional spitefulness.
But Madeleine - who beneath her obedient and dutiful exterior was volatile, strong-willed, and rebellious - was not the kind of young woman you could overlook, and when Leon Bonneau - younger son of a French wool baron - came to stay at Mount Royd he was, against his own inclinations, startled into noticing the dignity and beauty of the young housemaid. From that moment on the lives of everyone at Mount Royd began to change, and Madeleine stepped forward into a new and challenging future. If this is your author page then you can share your Twitter updates with your readers right here on LoveReading.
If this is your author page then you can share your Facebook updates with your readers right here on LoveReading. Click the button to find out more: A Store at War Joanna Toye. The Rumour Lesley Kara. Dear Mrs Bird A. American Tantrum The Donald J. Home Authors Elvi Rhodes.