Related to: 'Laurie Frankel'

Juliet Gardiner's critically acclaimed book - the first in a generation to tell the people's story of the Second World War - offers a compelling and comprehensive account of the pervasiveness of war on the Home Front. The book has been commended for its inclusion of many under-described aspects of the Home Front, and alongside familiar stories of food shortages, evacuation and the arrival of the GIs, are stories of Conscientious Objectors, persecuted Italians living in Britain and Lumber Jills working in the New Forest. Drawing on a multitude of sources, many previously unpublished, she tells the story of those six gruelling years in voices from the Orkney Islands to Cornwall, from the Houses of Parliament to the Nottinghamshire mines.

The new mystery in the Brenda & Effie series featuring the Bride of Frankenstein in WhitbyPenny is running away from a life of domestic strife and into mysterious Whitby - where she hopes to find herself. But in her quest for self-discovery, Penny may have stumbled on something far more sinister: the gateway to hell. For Whitby is no ordinary seaside resort, and all that keeps the evil at bay are Brenda and Effie - two very unusual old ladies. When a film crew comes to town to remake the sixties schlock horror movie Get Thee Inside Me, Satan, Brenda and Effie suspect something strange is afoot. Female lead Karla Sorenson is reprising her role and she doesn't look like she's aged a day. Surely that's not possible? Then there are the disturbing rumours surrounding the original movie - a cult classic that is, quite literally, spell-binding. As events spool out of control, Penny's new boss Robert draws her deeper into the movie's peculiar mystery. But can it be stopped before all hell breaks loose?

A compelling ghost story from the internationally bestselling author of WICKED Winifred Rudge, a writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to start her new novel about the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her step-cousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his home. Is the spirit Winnie's great-great-grandfather, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate and finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades - some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past.In the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession, with dark echoing overtones of A Christmas Carol, Lost presents a rich fictional world that will enrapture its readers.

'You're almost a virgin again': When Stacy Hamilton's best friend points out how long it's been since Stacy broke up with her last boyfriend she can't believe it. In college, a dry month had seemed unbearable. So what's happened? You'd think her job at Thongs.com concocting sexy lingerie would get her in the mood. But the guys she's been dating recently aren't exactly enticing. Stacy decides drastic action is required. It's time to widen her search for the ideal man...

When Mathilda Rainbird bequeaths her beautiful house in a Devonshire cove to three unknown relatives, she brings together a group of people who all secretly yearn for a sense of belonging. Tessa, a delightful twenty-two-year-old, still misses her dead parents and brother but has learned that it is better to be alone than to be with the wrong people. Will, a retired widow, is by nature a positive man. Enchanted by Mathilda's house and drawn to Isobel, Mathilda's housekeeper who still lives in the cove, he sees life taking an exciting turn. Beatrice, a retired prep-school matron, thinks the idea of living with her cousins is preposterous. But a magical Christmas spent in the cove soon wins her over. As they muck in together it is as though they have known each other all their lives. Isobel, who still grieves for her dear friend, recognises Mathilda in each one of them as she is warmly accepted as part of this delightful and truly extraordinary family.

When James McElroy saw the ad for a lodger with 'Bibi Sanders' in a smart Edinburgh street, he pictured a glamorous young landlady with whom he would form a meaningful and deep relationship. But Bibi's in her seventies. She's led a full life, including marriage to the domineering and difficult Callum, now deceased, and raised six children.She's not sure what to make of James and suspects - rightly - a troubling secret in his past. When Bibi sets out to re-visit the past for the final time via a tour of Britain in her rather unexpected Volvo sports car, James decides to go with her. It's a journey full of surprises and revelations which will change them both - and, in Isla Dewar's inimitable way, entertain and enlighten every reader.