Showing 13–17 of 17 resultsSorted by latest
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£16.99
For Constance ‘Connie’ Costa, life is just beginning. She dreams of leaving behind her dull, dreary life in ’70s East London, shaking off her deeply embarrassing Greek-Cypriot community of interfering aunties and pretend ‘cousins’, and running away with her best mate Vas (fellow misfit; NHS specs; soul of a poet). She is determined to take her rightful place alongside her hero, David Bowie, onstage at Wembley Stadium. Only one thing stands in her way: her father, The Fat Murderer. No longer content with being an absolute imbecile and general abomination of nature, he has dialled up his campaign to ruin Connie’s life ever since the death of her mother. If she ever wants to claim the destiny that is rightfully hers, Connie has only one option left: to kill him.
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£16.99
It’s the summer of 1985 and the residents of Delmont Close are preparing a neighbourhood barbecue to watch the biggest music event in history: Live Aid. A day like no other that will end having reached millions and changed the lives of all who attend. House-proud Lydia Gordon, whose idols are Princess Di and Delia Smith, is determined to put on a show that will impress everyone – with her posh garden and state-of-the-art television and her sweet husband and two children, Hanna and David. But as the guests flood into number nine, so do all of the secrets that have been kept in the close.
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★ STAFF PICK!
Selected by Harriet
£16.99
Staff Pick!
Harriet Says…
I am giving everyone this book, it moved me so much. Beautifully written, in simple prose, it tells the story of a 20 year old boy who goes to live with his uncle, a small holding farmer in Cornwall, following the boy’s cardiac arrest.
His recovery and the slow pace of life on the farm are in sync, and the relationship between the uncle and nephew is poignant and reassuring.
Patrick Charnley, the son of poet and novelist Helen Dunmore, wrote this book after having suffered a cardiac arrest himself.
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After a near-death experience and life-changing injury, twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno goes to stay with his uncle on his small coastal farm a few miles from St Ives in Cornwall. Their existence is a simple one, their lives measured by the span of the days, the rhythms of the seasons and the animals they care for. But lurking in the shadows is local villain, Bill Sligo, who has designs on Jacob’s farm and in particular on a field near the cliffs housing a derelict mineshaft. Wanting to repay his uncle’s kindness, Jago determines to find out what Bill Sligo is up to. Jago is still vulnerable though, and in pursuing Sligo he delves into a murky world that he is ill-equipped to deal with. How far will Bill Sligo go to get what he wants? Jago doesn’t know it yet, but once again he is in grave danger.
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£25.00
When the Inter-Continental Hotel opened in Kabul in 1969, it reflected the hopes of the country – a glistening white edifice that embodied Afghanistan’s dreams of becoming an affluent, modern power. Five decades later, and the Inter-Continental is a dilapidated, shrapnel-damaged shell. It has endured civil wars, terrorist attacks, the US occupation, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban. But its decaying grandeur still hints at ordinary Afghans’ hopes of stability and prosperity. Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, has been staying at the Inter-Continental since 1988. She has spent decades meeting its staff and guests, and listening to their stories. And now, she uses their experiences to offer an evocative history of modern Afghanistan.
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£20.00
In ‘Fires Which Burned Brightly’, Faulks, a reluctant memoirist, offers readers a series of detailed snapshots from a life in progress. They include a post-war rural childhood – ‘cold mutton and wet washing on a rack over the range’ – the booze-sodden heyday of Fleet Street and a career as one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists. There are not one, but two daring escapes from boarding school; the delirium of a jetlagged American book tour; the writing of ‘Birdsong’ in his brother’s house in 1992; and memorable trips across the channel to France. Politics, psychiatry and frustrated ventures into the world of entertainment are analysed with patience and rueful humour.
