Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Contemporary Fiction

Ashcombe was the most beautiful house Saskia had ever seen as a little girl, providing a perfect sanctuary to hide from the tragedy which shattered her childhood. Now an adult, Saskia is still living at Ashcombe and, as a book restorer ,devotes her days tending to broken, battered books. When she discovers a notebook carefully concealed in an old Bible, Saskia finds herself drawn into a heart-rending tale of wartime love....

As a librarian, Imogen read a lot of books, but none of them covered real life on the Riviera. Her holiday with tennis ace Nicky and the whole glamorous coterie of journalist, playboy, photographer was a revelation. But the path of a jet-set virgin in that lovely wicked world was a hard one. Imogen began to wonder if virtue really was its own reward....

In this prize-winning poetry collection, we watch as the cartographer, used to assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognise a wholly different understanding of place as he tries to map his way to the rastaman’s eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that every place name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

The name of your first-born. The face of your lover. Your age. Your address... What would happen if your memory of these began to fade? When Claire starts to write her Memory Book, she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have of her. But how can she hold onto the past when her future is slipping through her fingers...?

Impetuous Ali Anderson has always been a loose cannon. While she’s still trying to come to terms with the death of her baby son and subsequent divorce from Elliot, she takes it upon herself to play God with her best friend’s incomprehensible marriage. Ali’s meddling has disastrous consequences. Finding herself cut off from those she loves, she comes to realise that a little forgiveness goes a long way...

Julian Treslove and Sam Finkler are old school friends. Despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they've never quite lost touch with each other - or with their former teacher, Libor Sevick. Now all three are recently widowed, in their own way, and spend sweetly painful evenings together reminiscing. Until an unexpected violent attack brings everything they thought they knew into question.

Ellis Hock runs a menswear store in Massachusetts but still dreams of the four years he spent in Malawi. When his wife leaves him, he realises that there is only one place for him to go: back to Malawi, where he can be happy again.

Jas overhears his wife in bed with an Italian. Now his plan to retire early and spend their winters in Italy is out the window. He tries to confront Linda, but it all goes wrong. Is she toying with him?

She's toying with lots of other things - Italians, sexy underwear, massage oil. Jas tries to end it all, but that goes wrong too. Is his life over? Or has he got the wrong end of the stick? And just when things can't get worse, worse is what they get.

Luke Livingstone is a respected solicitor, a father and grandfather, a pillar of the community. Yet Luke is struggling with an unbearable secret, and it's threatening to destroy him. All his life, Luke has hidden the truth about himself and his identity. It's a truth so fundamental that it will shatter his family and leave him outcast. But to continue living, he must become the person - the woman - he knows himself to be, whatever the cost.

Prinkipo Island, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Sirin Saka. It ought to be a time of fond reminiscence, looking back on a long and fruitful artistic career, on memories spanning almost a century, but also of an era when imperial forces fought over her homeland. But the deep past is something Sirin has spent a lifetime trying to conceal. Her grandchildren, Nur and Fikret, and great grandchild do not know what Sirin is hiding, though they are intimately aware of the secret's psychological consequences.

Luke and Anna, 30-something and restless, decide on a sea change. Worn down by city life and wounded by a loss neither can talk about, they flee to a sleepy village by the coast. There, surrounded by nature, they begin to feel rejuvenated. But when bushfire threatens their new home, they must confront what they have tried to put behind them. Vertigo is a fable of love and awakening by one of Australia's finest writers, about the unexpected way emotions can return and life can change.

The town of Little Woodford seems peaceful and picture-postcard beautiful, with its marketplace, ancient church and immaculate allotments. But behind the tranquil facade, troubles are brewing. Olivia Lewthwaite, former town councillor, pillar of the WI and all-round busybody, has been forced by her husband's gambling debts to sell their house - her pride and joy. She hates the new estate they've moved to and knows she needs to humble herself to apply for a job.

Holly moved to Brighton to escape her grief over the death of her boyfriend, Sam. But now she is here, sitting on a bench, listening to the sea sway...what is supposed to happen next? The solitude she had so craved leaves her feeling wrecked. Stranded. But after she meets Frank, the tide begins to shift. Frank, a retired magician who has experienced his own loss but manages to be there for everyone else. Gradually, as he introduces Holly to a circle of new friends, young and old, all with their own stories of love and grief to share, she begins to learn to live again.

Grace and Tom Penderford are the luckiest people alive. They have a wonderful marriage, a comfortable life and a beautiful baby girl, Chloe. Then, in a heartbeat, happiness becomes despair, and their lives change forever. When three-year-old Chloe falls ill and dies, Tom and Grace's world is ripped apart. As their family of three becomes two, they must find a way to mend each other's broken hearts...and save their marriage, if they can.

Nicole is starting again. She’s left her old life behind and has just arrived in the sleepy Australian town of Rosella Cove, renting the old cottage by the water. At first Nicole is determined to avoid making personal ties, but when she discovers a hidden box of letters she soon realises that she’s not the first person with secrets to have lived there. As Nicole begins to let her guard down, she starts to find connections with the close-knit community - especially with handsome Danny, who has been helping her restore the cottage.

Kitty Montrose is packing up her house and the memories that go with it. Under this roof, she's seen her children grow up, her grandchildren arrive, and her marriage come and go. Kitty knows better than most that the twists and turns of life can bring joy, despair and everything in between. But when she was a little girl, she had hoped for more. She dreamed of finding her true soul mate. Someone to laugh with, cry with and share her twilight years.

Little Woodford has a sleepy high street, a weekly market, a weathered old stone church and lovingly tended allotments. A peaceful, unexciting place, the very heart of middle England. In Little Woodford no one has fingers in more pies than Olivia Laithwaite, parish councillor, chair of the local WI, wife, mother and all-round queen bee. So of course it's Olivia who is first to spot that The Beeches has been sold at last. Soon rumours begin to swirl around the young widow who has bought this lovely house. Why exactly did she leave London with her beautiful stepdaughter and young sons?

Once upon a time, Ellie had her 'happily ever after' moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband's tragic death leaves her alone with their son and facing with a mountain of debt. On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie decides to rent out some rooms. And all too soon the indomitable Allegra, estranged Sabine on secondment from Berlin and lads' mag aficionado Matt enter her ordered but fragile existence - each with their own messy life in tow.

When Felix Kendall vanishes, his wife Kate is left in turmoil. As she and their children adjust to a hand-to-mouth existence, she looks back on their marriage and Felix's orphaned upbringing in search of clues, confronting the possibility that she has badly misread him. And as Kate gradually discovers strengths she never knew she had, Felix is coming to terms with just what he has lost.

Esme Posorsky is an enigma. For as long as people can remember, she has been part of community life in the quaint Cornish fishing village of Tremarnock, but does anyone really know her? She is usually to be found working in her pottery studio or at home with her beloved cat, Rasputin. But when an old school friend turns up with a secret from the past, nothing will ever be the same again.