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Some Sunny Day: A nurse. A soldier. A wartime love story.
by Madge Lambert Robert BlairA moving true story of love on the front lines.It was July 1944 when Madge stepped onto a troopship that was to carry her thousands of miles away from home. Only twenty years old and not long qualified as a nurse, she had signed up to serve in the Burma Campaign. She would be based on the Indian border, near the frontline where a fierce battle was raging between Allied forces and the Japanese.As Madge arrived in Chittagong, she wondered how she would adapt to the ever present danger of invasion and to life in a military hospital. She spent long, exhausting hours nursing the badly-injured young soldiers in her care, but found strength in her friendship with the other nurses. And then, one day, she met Captain Basil Lambert . . . Could their fragile, new found romance survive the terrifying final months of war? Heart-warming and poignant, Some Sunny Day by Madge Lambert is a story of courage, sacrifice and the power of true love.
Felicity - Stands By
by Richmal CromptonFelicity – Stands By is a delightful, charming set of short stories by Richmal Crompton, following the adventures (and misadventures) of a young woman, Miss Norma Felicity Montague Harborough. Having finished school, Felicity returns to the family seat to live with her grandfather Sir Digby, sufferer of the infamous Harborough gout and the Harborough temper. Always well-meaning and often hapless, Felicity sets about to organize and matchmaker those around her: including rescuing her friend Sheila from the affections (and affectations) of local poet Marmaduke Eltham; joining travelling band ‘The Oranges’; and saving some rather important political papers from the clutches of a thief. Her escapades are a series of witty, warm and entertaining vignettes, sure to enchant anyone who loved the bestselling Just William series.
Quartet
by Richmal CromptonThe quartet at the heart of this delightful novel are the four Gainsborough siblings: beautiful but vain Lorna, ultra-sensitive Adrian, nature-loving Laurence and thoughtful, strange little Jenifer. We join them in 1900 – four happy children at the heart of a loving family, idolizing their strikingly beautiful mother, shrinking from their emotionally damaged Aunt Lena and ill-tempered governess, Miss Marchant. As their world widens on the journey to adulthood – through the advent of the motor car, the horrors of the First World War, the trials and tribulations of unrequited love and unfulfilled dreams – they must fight to keep that happiness. But with Lorna compelled to make everyone love her, Adrian’s artistic genius crippled by over-sensitivity to criticism, and Laurence so intent on success in business that he forgets to really live, will Jenifer’s clear-sighted pragmatism be enough to save them?A beautiful exploration of love and family, Quartet has a vivid cast of characters worthy of Elizabeth Gaskell and paints a wonderful, affectionate portrait of childhood to rival Richmal Crompton’s Just William.
Weatherley Parade
by Richmal CromptonWeatherley Parade is the compelling saga of the lives and loves of the Weatherley family, spanning the years 1902 to 1940. The story begins with Arthur Weatherley returning – tired and broken – from the Boer War to his wife and three children, and closes with his grandchildren facing the Battle of Britain. In the years between are births and death, public triumphs and private tragedies, all wrought against a backdrop of British history. As the Weatherley’s lives are marked by infidelity, alcoholism, and scandal, Edwardian England fades into the First World War and the young men and women – damaged by war and caught in the wake of a rapidly changing society – strive for a future in the shadow of the rise of Nazi Germany . . .A sumptuous, multi-generational saga and immaculately rendered period piece, Weatherley Parade’s sprawling cast of children and eccentrics is full of all the charm and character of Just William.
Frost at Morning
by Richmal CromptonFrost at Morning is the heartbreaking story of four young children who, deserted by their parents, have been sent off to a vicarage that takes in children as paying guests.There's Philip, a sensitive boy whose father has remarried and gained a more preferable stepson; anxious little Monica, with a mother spiralling towards alcoholism; adopted Geraldine, whose desperate desire be loved actively repels people; and beautiful, vain Angela, who is ignored by her eccentric novelist mother. Left to themselves they grow to depend on one another and, as they leave the vicarage and return to their fractured homes, it becomes clear that a bond has formed that will hold them forever. . .As the years pass, their adult lives connect and intertwine, and the damage inflicted by their childhoods creeps ever closer to the surface. Can they build themselves anew? Or will happiness elude them forever?An exquisitely written and poignant story, Richmal Crompton's Frost at Morning is a wonderful exploration of childhood and an evocative portrait of interwar Britain.
Linden Rise
by Richmal CromptonIt is the summer of 1892 and fifteen-year-old Tilly Pound has come to Linden Rise – the holiday cottage of the genteel but dysfunctional Culverton family – to work as a housemaid. She starts as just another member of ‘the help’ but, as the years pass and the 19th century judders its unwieldy way into the 20th, this tough and resourceful young woman becomes an anchor in a fragmenting world.Mr and Mrs Culverton are trapped in a loveless marriage, rocked by his obvious infidelities and marked by her helplessness and fragility. Their children are raising themselves until Tilly arrives, and it remains to be seen whether her lively good sense can change their lives for the better . . . A beautifully written, razor-sharp saga that paints a vivid portrait of the fraught and nuanced relationships between parents and their children, Linden Rise is full of the charming child characters that Richmal Crompton always evokes so beautifully.
Westover
by Richmal CromptonWhen Julia Gideon is widowed during the Second World War with five children to look after, she is left to manage Westover House with insufficient means for its upkeep. Urged by her solicitor brother to downsize and turn the family home into flats, she reluctantly agrees. However, as her new tenants move in it soon becomes clear that the manor house cannot contain the fiery personalities that are now living under its roof . . .From the hard up Godfrey and his wife Cynthia, who must share a flat with his brother Hubert and the uncouth Trixie; to Julia’s elderly aunts, Letitia and Lucy, who aspire to very different lives in their old age; and the faux-French Mrs Pollock whose overbearing presence in her daughter Ann-Marie’s life is protective to the point of suffocation – life is anything but simple at Westover. As heated relationships simmer away and family feuds break through to the surface, Richmal Crompton’s Westover is a keenly observed study of what happens when domestic life doesn’t run so smoothly . . .
The Dam Busters (Pan 70th Anniversary #1)
by Paul BrickhillA special edition of The Dam Busters by Paul Brickhill reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan’s 70th anniversary. On 17 May 1943, nearly 350 million tons of water crashed into the valleys of the Ruhr when the Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron breached the giant Moehne and Eder Dams with colossal ‘blockbuster’ bombs. The Dam Busters tells the story of the raid and the squadron of fearless airmen who carried it through. Again and again, the crews of 617 Squadron Bomber Command used their flying skills, their tremendous courage and Barnes Wallis’ highly accurate bouncing bombs to deal devastating blows to Nazi Germany.One of the most daring true stories to emerge from the Second World War, Paul Brickhill’s The Dam Busters inspired the famous 1955 film starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd.
African Sky: Red Earth / African Sky
by Tony ParkAfrican Sky by Tony Park, the author of Red Earth, is a full-throttle historical thriller that will engross fans of Clive Cussler.Rhodesia, 1943. A nation at war.Paul Bryant hasn't been able to get back in a plane since a fatal bombing mission over Germany. So, instead, the Squadron Leader is flying a desk at a pilot training school at Kumalo air base. But one of his trainees has just been reported missing.Pip Lovejoy, a volunteer policewoman, is also trying to suppress painful memories. When Felicity Langham, a high profile WAAF from the air base, is found raped and murdered, Pip and Bryant's paths cross.Suspicion immediately falls on the local black community, but Pip's investigations unearth a link between the Squadron Leader, the controversial heiress Catherine De Beers and the dead woman, which throws the case in a new, disturbing direction.What Pip thinks is a singular crime of passion soon escalates into a crisis that could change the course of the war.
Liszt
by Sir Sacheverell SitwellIn this classic work on music biography, Sacheverell Sitwell narrates Franz Liszt’s rapid ascent to European fame - and the effect that this incredible early success as a wonderfully gifted pianist had on his later life - with insight, sympathy and humanity, One of the very first studies of Liszt to be published in English, this remarkable biography uses the full force of Sitwell's poetic talent to bring this brilliant and difficult man’s world vividly to life, and captures the artistic mood of the era in extraordinary detail.Perceptive, engaging and full of personality, Liszt rightfully takes its place as one of the most important accounts of its subject's life.
The Wretched of the Earth
by Frantz Fanon Richard PhilcoxA distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
The New Men (Strangers and Brothers #6)
by C. P. SnowWinner of 1954 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction.As the Second World War draws to a close, Lewis Eliot becomes entangled in the ethics and practicalities of nuclear warfare, in the sixth novel of C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence.His scientist brother, Martin, and brilliant Cambridge fellow, Walter Luke, are researching atomic fission and trying to develop a war-winning bomb. Around them civil servants are jostling for position, ageing politicians are trying to stay relevant, and the military are pressuring for results. And all the time they must wrestle with reconciling the advancement of science with the creation of a weapon they hope will never be used.A quiet portrait of ordinary, fallible human beings caught up in the most terrifying research of all time, The New Men is told with a simplicity and measure and lack of sensationalism that singles Snow out from his contemporaries. A meticulous study of the public issues and private problems of post-war Britain, C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence is a towering achievement that stands alongside Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time as one of the great romans-fleuves of the twentieth century.Praise for the Strangers and Brothers sequence“Together, the sequence presents a vivid portrait of British academic, political and public life. Snow was that rare thing, a scientist and novelist.” Jeffrey Archer, Guardian“Balzacian masterpieces of the age” Philip Hensher, Telegraph“Through [the Strangers and Brothers sequence] as in no other work in our time we have explored the inner life of the new classless class that is the 20th century Establishment” New York Times“A very considerable achievement … It brings into the novel themes and locales never seen before (except perhaps in Trollope).” Anthony Burgess
The Wretched of the Earth (PDF)
by Frantz FanonA distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
Escaping Hitler: Stories Of Courage And Endurance On The Freedom Trails
by Monty Halls‘I was on a train, and a German soldier began shouting at me and poking me in the ribs with his machine gun. I just thought that was it, the game was up . . .’Downed airman Bob Frost faced danger at every turn as he was smuggled out of France and over the Pyrenees. Prisoner of war Len Harley went on the run in Italy, surviving months in hiding and then a hazardous climb over the Abruzzo mountains with German troops hot on his heels. These are just some of the stories told in heart-stopping detail as Monty Halls takes us along the freedom trails out of occupied Europe, from the immense French escape lines to lesser-known routes in Italy and Slovenia. Escaping Hitler features spies and traitors, extraordinary heroism from those who ran the escape routes and offered shelter to escapees, and great feats of endurance. The SAS in Operation Galia fought for forty days behind enemy lines in Italy and then, exhausted and pursued by the enemy, exfiltrated across the Apennine mountains. And in Slovenia Australian POW Ralph Churches and British Les Laws orchestrated the largest successful Allied escape of the entire war.Mixing new research, interviews with survivors and his own experience of walking the trails, Monty brings the past to life in this dramatic and gripping slice of military history.
Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary
by Martha BrockenbroughComplex, passionate, brilliant, flawed? Alexander Hamilton comes alive in Martha Brockenbrough's exciting biography Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary, which is an essential read for teen fans of Hamilton the musical.Discover the incredible true story behind the Tony Award-winning musical – Hamilton’s early years in the Caribbean; his involvement in the Revolutionary War; and his groundbreaking role in government, which still shapes American government today. Easy to follow, this gripping account of a founding father and American icon features illustrations, maps, timelines, infographics, and additional information ranging from Hamilton's own writings to facts about fashion, music, etiquette and custom of the times, including best historical insults and the etiquette of duels.
The Woman in White: A Novel (part Two) And Short Stories: The Dead Alive; The Fatal Cradle; Fatal Fortune; Blow Up With The Brig (Macmillan Collector's Library #160)
by Wilkie CollinsThe inspiration behind BBC1's sensational psychological thriller mini series.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. This beautiful Macmillan Collector’s Library edition of The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins features an afterword by writer, editor and playwright David Stuart Davies.On a moonlit London night, art teacher Walter Hartwright meets a young woman – beautiful, terrified and dressed entirely white – alone on the street. Compelled to help this piteous creature, he finds himself caught up in a world of secrets, murder and madness, with an impossible mystery to solve.The odds seem stacked against him, but a sleuthing partnership with the brilliantly clever Marian Halcombe may be just enough to outwit their formidable nemesis – the menacing Count Fosco.One of the great mystery thrillers of the nineteenth century and beyond, The Woman in White is a wonderful combination of rich characterisation and cunning melodrama that ensnares the reader from the very first page.
Shepherdess of Sheep
by Noel StreatfeildVibrant and vivacious, Sarah Onion takes it upon herself to find employment when she is orphaned at nineteen. She becomes an integral part of Charles and Ruth Lane’s household as governess to their four small children, but at what cost? The First World War soon unleashes calamity on the whole family. Charles enlists in the army and is sent to France, Ruth’s heart disease gets increasingly worse, their youngest daughter becomes increasingly difficult to deal with and all the while Sarah is falling in love.Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild plunges her reader into tragedy after tragedy but always keeps a light at the end of the tunnel in her wartime family novel, A Shepherdess of Sheep.
Caroline England
by Noel StreatfeildBorn into a very traditional family, Caroline Torry’s childhood is ruled by patriarchy and propriety. She grows up in the gorgeous Milton Manor which has belonged to her family for generations, but the pressure to produce a male heir gradually becomes too much for her mother . . .Despite her troubled upbringing, fifteen years later Caroline has a husband and children of her own. She’s grown into a caring mother and a devoted wife determined to give her family everything that was stripped from her own childhood. But when World War One breaks out things don’t quite go to plan . . .Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild navigates through three stages of Caroline’s life with expert skill and finesse in her wartime novel, Caroline England.
The Winter is Past
by Noel StreatfeildPicture a gorgeous English country house, surrounded by manicured lawns and sprawling oak trees. This is Levet, where the Laurence family have lived since the 18th century.Once full of children and excitement, the only Laurences left at Levet now are former actress Sara and her very upper class mother-in-law Lydia. That is until the Second World War erupts and Mrs. Vilder arrives with her three children after being evacuated from their home . . .Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild fills Levet with authentic families facing undeniable tragedy in this heart-warming wartime novel, The Winter is Past.
I Ordered a Table for Six
by Noel StreatfeildAdela Framley seems to be a perfect citizen. She’s a proud mother, she runs a charity for homes which have been bombed and wants to hold a dinner party in aid of the charity’s patron, Gardiner Penrose. But are there dark motives behind her good actions?Adela invites a curious mixture of friends and family to a fancy restaurant nearby and over the course of the dinner party we move between each guest’s daily troubles and anxieties . . . until a catastrophic event puts an end to their soiree.Carnegie Award winning author Noel Streatfeild takes us on a thought-provoking tour of tragedy and family life in wartime London in her poignant novel, I Ordered a Table for Six.
Myra Carrol
by Noel StreatfeildMyra Carrol has it all – beauty, kindness and a loving marriage. One afternoon she is searching through her barn for objects which could be of help in the Second World War, when she comes across an old picture of herself . . .She is immediately transported back to the carefree days of her childhood. Raised to be a strong woman by her governess Connie, Myra’s honesty, confidence and angelically beautiful face gave her the best start in life . . . until her father’s death takes her to boarding school.Through nostalgic flashbacks we learn about the events that shaped Myra’s life in this heart-warming family wartime novel by Carnegie Medal winning author, Noel Streatfeild.
Grass in Piccadilly
by Noel StreatfeildOnce fashionable and plush with flowers, post-war Mayfair has lost its dazzling charm. But that didn’t stop Charlotte Nettel and her husband Sir John from swapping life in the quiet northern countryside to convert their roomy Mayfair townhouse into flats.Their tenants come in all shapes and sizes – from pregnant couple Jack and Jenny to German migrants Paula and Heinrich – and they provide a constant stream of both entertainment and anxiety. But it’s Charlotte’s stepdaughter Penny, a disillusioned young women born into the uneasy interwar world, who proves to be the most difficult and scandalous tenant . . .Flashing between the lives of each tenant Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild gives us a kaleidoscopic view of post-war London in her ingenious novel, Grass in Piccadilly. For fans of Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry From Kensington.
Mothering Sunday
by Noel StreatfeildSeventy-year-old widowed Anna Caldwell likes to be alone, happy to potter around her garden chatting to her friend Miss Poe. However, the bliss of Anna’s peaceful lifestyle causes her five children much dismay.Jane, the eldest and most organised, gathers her siblings together to visit Anna on Mothering Sunday. Henry the politician, Margaret the doctor and the youngest, Felicity, all agree to attend with their partners . . . but that leaves Tony, the shadow on the family’s respectable past.Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild pieces together a startling image of the post-war British family in her novel Mothering Sunday.
Aunt Clara
by Noel StreatfeildSixty-two-year-old Clara leads a virtuous life. She spends all her time helping others and she always puts her friends and family first. It’s a shame that nobody, including her four siblings and their myriad of children, ever stops to say thank you and appreciate all she does.. . . until wealthy Uncle Simon comes into her life. Like Clara, Simon never married, never had children and he lived alone – the two understood each other like no one else in the family could. So when Uncle Simon dies, and leaves very specific wishes to Clara in his will, the path of her life changes in ways she could never imagined.Thrown into the world of circuses, greyhound-racing and dubious house-property, Aunt Clara encounters bizarre incidents and an unlikely love story in this enchanting novel from Carnegie Medal winning author, Noel Streatfeild.
It Pays to Be Good
by Noel StreatfeildFlossie Elk was an astonishingly beautiful baby. But whilst her mother Fanny encouraged Flossie to use the power of those dazzling looks, her greengrocer father George stood by the belief that “Beauty is a lure of Satan.”When the First World War breaks out and George joins the army, Fanny sends her daughter to dance academy where Flossie’s beauty can shine like it’s never been able to before. Not before long Flossie is given a starring role on stage, but with less than honourable intentions . . .Carnegie Award winning author Noel Streatfeild explores the dark side of the backstage world, which she knows all too well from her own life, in this witty and enchanting wartime novel, It Pays to be Good.