Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Parenting

We teach our children how to tie their shoelaces, how to read, how to ride a bike. We explain the weather and rainbows and why people have jobs. But when it comes to explaining the forceful, baffling, intense and marvellous emotions that we might experience, well, things become vague.

In 2016, English midwife Indie joined the staff at Attat Hospital in south-western Ethiopia, where Atsede led the midwifery services. It was a meeting that would change their lives. Their close professional relationship, and deep personal friendship, led to them opening a birth centre serving the Gurage women and families of Cheha Woreda, bringing compassionate midwifery care into the heart of traditional communities.

Algernon is at the end of his life. His granddaughter is at the start of hers. But they have more in common than they think. Every day of Algernon's 97 years has been broken up into an ordered routine. That's how it's been since the war, and he's not about to change now. Until his 15-year-old granddaughter arrives on his doorstep, turning Algernon's black-and-white life upside down. Everything from Anna's clothes to the way she sits glued to her phone is strange to Algernon, and he's not sure he likes it.

Nineteen-year-old Michelle has had a tough life, to say the least. Then she gets pregnant. She is convinced she would be a terrible mother but having grown up in care, she cannot bring herself to subject her child to the same fate. Amelia and her husband have dreamed of having a family for years, but have lost all hope after the worst kind of tragedy. Then they are offered the chance to adopt baby Grace, and it feels like they finally have everything they've ever wanted. But then Michelle decides she wants her daughter back, and it's up to the courts to decide.

In the Blood is Andrew Motion's beautifully written memoir of growing up in post-war England—an unforgettable evocation of family life, school life and country life. It also tells the story of how these worlds are shattered, when his mother suffers a terrible riding accident. The tragedy shadows the book, feeding its mood of elegy as well as its celebratory vigilance. Written from a teenage child's point of view, without the benefit of adult hindsight, Motion captures the pathos and puzzlement of childhood with great clarity of expression and freshness of memory. 

Alice, Nina and Jules have been best friends for 20 years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the cares and troubles of home behind and indulge in each other's friendship and warmth. But this year, aged 35, the cracks in their relationships are starting to show. After their weekend together in Paris, the three women never speak again. Each of them claims the other two ghosted them. But what really happened that weekend?

When Jennifer goes up to Cambridge University with her head full of the Romantic Poets, she never dreams that she will find her very own Byron. But then she meets gorgeous actor Laurie Lewis, and finds herself living a real-life love poem. Fifteen years and two children later, Jennifer and Laurie's relationship is starting to feel more like an epic tragedy. After a series of revelations turn her world upside down, Jennifer will do anything to keep her family together—even if it means moving hundreds of miles away to Laurie's childhood home in Westenbury, Yorkshire.

A Head Full of Everything demonstrates that being a teenager doesn't have to suck. And when it does, there's some cool things you can do to make it suck a little less. This book will challenge you to embrace your inner weird, to never grow up, be true to yourself, protect your mental health and be sure that for your seven glorious teenage years, you act your age. Literally. Best-selling author, award-winning comedian and international keynote speaker Gavin Oattes has written a personal development title for teens with a difference—there's no waffle, no dad chat, no fluff. 

Former child star Lily Thane is now a struggling 30-something actress. Her old stage-school buddy, Adam Harker, is on the brink of making it big, but he needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal and Lily fits the bill. Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam's dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic. But when Adam winds up dead in a swimming pool, Lily is the only person who cares enough to find out why. She's convinced someone was out to get Adam—and now they're after her.

For once, things are going well for 30-year-old Kerra Shaw. She has a fulfilling job helping small businesses in the local community, she is within a few minutes' walk of all the people she loves best and, most importantly, she has finally got together with her childhood sweetheart, Ross. It's not all plain sailing, though, because they have to keep their relationship a secret. The feud between their families still rages on, and Kerra doesn't want to pour fuel on its flame and risk losing everything. 

When Kerra left the quiet Cornish town of Penvennan Cove for the bright lights of London, she didn't look back. But after the death of her mother, she's decided it's time to face her past and return to the place she called home. Her father needs her, and perhaps she needs him more than she's willing to admit? Tackling town gossip, home renovations and a flame from her past, it's not quite smooth sailing for Kerra. Ross is the bad boy she was meant to forget, not a man who still sets her heart aflutter. 

Recently widowed, Winnie, 84, was in need of some companionship. Someone to help with the weekly food shop and offer tips on the crossword. Ben, 34, was looking for a new housemate. As the UK was locked down in 2020, Ben and Winnie's lives interwove, forming an unlikely friendship, where lessons were learnt (heat the red wine in the oven with the plates, preserve or pickle whatever you can, never throw anything away) and grief, both personal and that of a nation, was explored.

Looking after children can be overwhelming, especially when a lot of people say they have the 'right' answer. But what if, instead of following instructions, you parented like a scientist? What if you took the available evidence-based information, and then really looked at how it relates to the unique child in front of you? This is what scientist Dr Emma Byrne decided to do when she became a mother. This book will tell you what is probably happening neurologically and physiologically in your child. It will talk about how they might develop.

The Willows have been through a lot. Louise has devoted her life to caring for her disabled youngest daughter. Pete works abroad, almost never seeing his loved ones. Their eldest, Eliza, is burdened by all the secrets she's trying to keep from her overloaded family. Meanwhile, Patience observes the world while trapped in her own body. When the Willows are offered the opportunity for Patience to take part in a new gene therapy trial to cure her Rett syndrome, they face an impossible dilemma.

They would rather die than become mothers. A serial killer is on the loose in Tel Aviv. Each victim is found tied to a chair with a baby doll glued to their hands, the word 'mother' carved into their forehead like a mark of Cain. Stowed away between the wax figurines of the Bible museum where she works, Sheila Heller knows both victims. She suspects the killings have something to do with a pact their group all made at university - to never have children. What Sheila doesn't know is who is committing these gruesome acts of ritualistic violence, and whether she herself might be next.

This book is for anyone, whether they are sober-curious, already sober or considering becoming sober. Broken into four parts, you will discover how to: understand your relationship with alcohol, including grey-area drinking; use the full sober toolkit to help you build and sustain your sober life; stay sober, particularly on high days and holidays, and rediscover who you are without alcohol; and fine-tune your toolkit to make it perfect for you and your new life.

In Everything Is Going to be K.O. Kaiya Stone writes about her own experiences of living with specific learning difficulties: from struggling at school to being diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia while at university, to performing her own one-woman stand up show inspired by her journey. Always funny and unfailingly honest, Kaiya outlines the frustrations of having SPLDS but also the ways in which they have fuelled her creativity. 

From the beginning of their lives, the Olivier sisters stood out: surprisingly emancipated, strikingly beautiful, markedly determined and alarmingly 'wild'. Rupert Brooke was said to be in love with all four of them; D. H. Lawrence thought they were frankly 'wrong'; and Virginia Woolf found them curiously difficult to read. The sisters seemed always to be one step ahead of their time. Margery and Daphne studied at Cambridge when education was still thought by some to be damaging to ovaries.

Have you ever wondered how your early life shaped you? From beginning to say simple words like 'mama' and learning how to walk around unaided, to the first day of school and forming new friendships, everyone has been a child. The roots of our adult selves go right back to our first experiences. How we think, act and interact is influenced by our early years, yet most people don't know the key findings from the juiciest child development studies that can give us insight into our adult selves.

Autumn begins with a letter Karl Ove Knausgaard writes to his unborn daughter, showing her what to expect of the world. He writes one short piece per day, describing the material and natural world with the precision and mesmerising intensity that have become his trademark. With acute sensitivity he describes daily life with his wife and children in rural Sweden, drawing upon memories of his own childhood to give an inimitably tender perspective on the precious and unique bond between parent and child. Nothing is too small or too vast to escape his attention; this is a personal encyclopaedia on everything from chewing gum to the stars.