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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.
Judith
by Noel Streatfeild'Passionately, as other children collect shells, stamps or bus tickets, Judith collected kind words and kind looks dropped by Mother.'Twelve-year-old Judith has been brought up in Europe by her mother, governess and highbrow uncles and aunts. She’s had her hand held all the way through life – even though that hand has often been cold and distant. Now she’s about to board a plane to England all alone to visit the father who abandoned her . . .Although instead of despising her distant father, Judith finds she really likes him. He treats her as an adult, his side of the family seem to enjoy her company and she finally receives the appreciation she’s always craved from her mother. But is he really as wonderful as he seems?Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfield navigates through complicated family issues in this perceptive coming of age novel, Judith.
The Silent Speaker
by Noel StreatfeildHelen Blair is famous for her dinner parties. She hand picks her guests to ensure that every evening is a success, and tonight’s will be the most memorable dinner party of all . . . An hour after the sparkling evening comes to a close, one of the women takes her own life. There was no indication of her unhappiness during the evening, and this unexpected suicide sends shockwaves through the other guests.As each guest tries to uncover the truth and motive behind this death the narrative unfolds like a multi-stranded detective story. The Silent Speaker is a tragic and enthralling story of suicide 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.
Parson's Nine
by Noel StreatfeildChristmas is disrupted by the death of a distant relative in the vicarage . . . but with death comes a substantial inheritance for David, Catherine and their nine children.Catherine resolves to send her eldest children, Edras and Tobit, to a preparatory school and she hires a governess for her younger children. Miss Crosby is a passionate woman striving for women’s emancipation – including emancipation for young and clever Judith from the constraints of marriage . . .But as the First World War erupts the family approaches catastrophe, can all nine children emerge from it unscathed? Carnegie Medal winning Noel Streatfeild showcases courage and endurance in her family wartime novel, Parson’s Nine.
Luke
by Noel StreatfeildAndrew and Freda Dawson are enjoying a happy, second marriage in the English countryside with their collective brood of three children. But their idyllic existence is shattered when Freda finds her husband dead one evening . . .It becomes apparent his death was not from natural causes and all evidence points to suicide, but there are lingering doubts about Freda’s role in the death . . . and about the possible role her precocious son Luke could have played.Carnegie Medal winning author Noel Streatfeild delves into the cracks of a seemingly perfect marriage in her interwar family novel, Luke.
The Girl from Paris (Paget Family Saga #3)
by Joan AikenAn elegant Victorian young lady educated at a familiar sounding boarding school in Brussels (think Charlotte Bronte's Villette) and now A Girl From Paris, Ellen Paget is on a (never ending) journey of romantic adventure - often attracting the wrong kind of admiration - in the third and final of Joan Aiken’s regency dramas. Twenty-one-year old Ellen is an intelligent and spirited heroine, whisked away from her teaching profession and unsuitable romance in Brussels by her godmother to become a governess in the household of a grand Parisian Comte. But as the Count's family tensions and their literary salon scene (think George Sand and Baudelaire) are reaching sinister heights, Ellen finds gothic entanglements in the schemes of her brutal father back home in The Hermitage. She must now extract herself from all these ties and discover who her true friends are, in order to find her own happiness.Joan Aiken plunges into the hearts of two contrasting families in this dark and romantic adventure.
The Smile of the Stranger (Paget Family Saga #1)
by Joan AikenStrong, subversive heroine Juliana Paget is forced to flee from her Italian home during the French Revolution in the first of Joan Aiken’s romantic regency adventures, The Smile of a Stranger.Escaping from the horrors of revolutionary France, seventeen year old Juliana embarks on a wild and dangerous journey, crossing the channel in a hot air balloon to the supposed safety of English soil. But what awaits her is far from harmless: an evil aunt, a dangerous prospective husband, and a threatening presence from her past . . . Aiken’s plucky but disarmingly innocent heroine must learn to tell truth from fiction in this gripping romantic adventure.
The Weeping Ash (Paget Family Saga #2)
by Joan AikenTwo intertwining adventures – one of English drama and one of Indian conflict – both meet at the Paget family home in the second of Joan Aiken’s romantic regency adventures, The Weeping Ash. Aiken's earlier heroine Juliana Paget kindly lends The Hermitage Estate to her widowed cousin Thomas and his new wife Fanny – on one condition – that if their missing cousins arrive they must be welcomed in. Little does Juliana know that cousin Thomas is an abusive tyrant who torments his stoic wife, entrapping her in the beautiful Paget house. Thousands of miles away in India, twin Paget cousins Scylla, governess to the old Maharaja's family, and her poet brother Cal are fleeing for their lives with the orphaned royal heir. They must survive a perilous journey - assisted by the dashing Colonel Cameron - across Kafiristan, Afghanistan, Persia, and Turkey before finally arriving at The Hermitage Estate.But the adventure does not stop here. A dark and explosive confrontation awaits the Pagets as Aiken's two spirited heroines strive for independence in this thrilling romantic adventure.
The Five-Minute Marriage
by Joan AikenDelphie Carteret is forced into a dangerous marriage of convenience in Joan Aiken’s stunning regency drama, The Five Minute Marriage. Delphie has been disinherited from her family’s life of luxury and wealth, and as her mother's health and wits deteriorate she has no choice but to seek help from distant relatives. However when she arrives at the family’s grand house she discovers part of their fortune is rightfully hers, and the only way to obtain her inheritance is through a sham marriage to her cousin.Unknowingly Delphie has tangled herself in a web of family rivalry and deceit which goes back for generations. Other members of the family are not just in debt but in the Marshalsea - the debtors' prison described by Dickens. Forced to maintain the charade of her marriage, Delphie is finally drawn into a dramatic fight for her life, and a surprisingly romantic finale on the roof of the family mansion . . .Joan Aiken has woven together an enchanting plot of romance and rivalry that will grip readers till the very end. Fans of Georgette Heyer should definitely make this novel their next read.
Castle Barebane
by Joan Aiken'Joan Aiken writes superbly, with a force, a colour and strength of imagination that one encounters all too rarely today. I loved every moment of it.' London Daily TelegraphStrong and independent Vahalla Montgomery, a heroine straight out of a Henry James novel, abandons her New York career as a journalist to search for her half-brother in Joan Aiken’s gothic novel, Castle Barebane.Wishing to escape from her pretentious New York fiancé, Valla is happy to have an excuse to travel to England, only to discover that her half-brother and his wife have disappeared from their London home – leaving their young two children all alone. Finding Victorian London a gloomy and sinister place, haunted by a series of Ripper style murders, Valla takes the children up to Scotland to a bleak family property known as Castle Barebane. In this Gothic ruin, perched on the edge of a cliff, the mystery surrounding her missing brother only gets darker, and more terrifying . . . This unforgettable tale of love, loss, and human nature is brought to life by Joan Aiken’s vivid story-telling and gripping plot. If you love Virginia Andrews or Nicola Cornick, Joan Aiken should certainly be your next read.
Emma Watson: Jane Austen's Unfinished Novel Completed by Joan Aiken
by Joan AikenJane Austen gave life to the fictional Watson family in 1803, but sadly abandoned them five chapters in – now Joan Aiken completes their story in her ingenious novel, Emma Watson.Emma Watson has been brought up by her aunt in a wealthy and refined household, an educated lifestyle far removed from her widowed father and five siblings. So when her aunt enters into an imprudent second marriage, nineteen-year-old Emma is sent back home and must join her sisters in their pursuit of a husband . . .Aiken takes on the fate of Austen’s characters with confidence and skill, flawlessly entwining themes of loss and love together in this stunning regency pastiche.
The Youngest Miss Ward: A Jane Austen Sequel (A\jane Austen Entertainment Ser.)
by Joan AikenJane Austen’s Mansfield Park famously narrates the story of poor little Fanny Price sent to live with her mother's grander sisters - the Ward family. Written almost two centuries later, Joan Aiken’s powerful sequel reverses the story and introduces us to The Youngest Miss Ward, Hatty, sent to fend for herself with the poor relations.Although creative, charismatic and witty, Hatty Ward lacks the beauty that her older sisters inherited and is left without a dowry to care for their ill mother once her sisters are married off. Sent to Portsmouth to live with her rumbustious uncle and cousins, Hatty turns her creative flair to poetry and believes she must become a governess, that is until handsome Lord Camber passes through town . . .With imagination and authenticity Joan Aiken captures the customs and language of Austen’s England in this one of a kind sequel, revealing a subversive and unique heroine.
Deception
by Joan Aiken'A winner. The narrative is crisp, the characterisation revealing, the ending quite modern in its ambiguity.' The LadyTwo very different – yet physically identical – young ladies meet at a boarding school once attended by Jane Austen in Joan Aiken’s engrossing historical novel, Deception.Self-righteous Louisa wants to escape her grand family life in Northumberland and become a missionary in India. Imaginative and quiet Alvey has no family and only longs for peaceful independence to complete her novel.So when Louisa suggests swapping identities it seems like the perfect plan: Alvey will have a peaceful country manor in which to write her book and Louisa will be free to voyage across the globe. But when Alvey becomes a beloved and indispensible member of her extraordinary new family, how will they view the return of the horrible Louisa?Joan Aiken weaves a complicated plot of deception and identity, peopled with strong female characters, in this unique historical romance.
The Last Brother
by Andrew GrossFrom International Number One Bestseller Andrew Gross, The Last Brother is the thrilling historical novel about three brothers and the Mafia in 1930s New York. Published in the USA as Button Man.United by blood1930s New York City. Three brothers grow up poor on the Lower East Side, until the death of their father forces them to find work to support their family. Each brother takes a different path.Divided by ambitionTwelve-year-old Morris Rabishevsky apprentices himself to a garment manufacturer with the aim of running the business. Sol, six years older, heads to accounting school but is forced to drop out. Scarred by a family tragedy, Harry falls under the spell of the charismatic Louis Buchalter, who in a few short years becomes the most ruthless mobster in town.Torn apart by conflictMorris convinces Sol to go into business with him, but Harry can’t be lured away from the glamour, power and money of the mob. As their business grows, Buchalter sets his sights on the unions that control the garment maker’s factories, setting up a fatal showdown that could bring them together or shatter their family forever.
The Embroidered Sunset
by Joan Aiken'Miss Aiken’s book is immensely enjoyable – her gift for gothic romantic charm is as effectively deployed as ever' TLSLucy Culpepper doesn’t take no for an answer. An aspiring pianist she dreams of being taught by the renowned Max Benovek and will defy all odds – life threatening illness, a missing great aunt, and a disgruntled uncle – to achieve it.After finding out her Uncle Wilbie has used up her college fund, Lucy discovers a selection of enchantingly beautiful paintings in the attic. Being the miserly man he is, Wilbie wants to keep any possible profits for these paintings and bargains on sending Lucy to England to find the artist – Great-aunt Fennel. Knowing Benovek lives in London she snaps up the opportunity and undertakes the adventure of a lifetime. But though Benovek proves easy to find and immediately takes Lucy to heart, she sets off to Yorkshire only to find that her old aunt Fennel has vanished. Lucy’s search entangles her in a mystery of murder and deceit . . . can they discover who is the real aunt Fennel?Awardwinning author Joan Aiken brings a shocking finale to a witty and entertaining plot full of unexpected twists and turns in modern suspense novel, The Embroidered Sunset.
The Butterfly Picnic
by Joan Aiken'For sheer enjoyability this tops almost anything' The TimesIntelligent and spirited Georgia March flies to the beautiful Greek island of Dendros to meet her cousin Sweden, but upon arrival finds her cousin Sweden’s body lying in a pool blood . . .Georgia has come to the paradise island of Dendros in search of a new life, a new job, and a way to forget about her lost lover. Instead, her adventure begins with tragedy and takes her to a mountain-top fortress – home to a powerful multi-millionaire, his jet set friends and a school for unusual children. In this stunning Greek hideaway Georgia is hired as a teacher, but as she gets to know the children and their unconventional parents she becomes ensnared in a deadly international mystery. Our not-so hapless heroine must survive a series of bizarre brushes with death, but also deal with the attentions of a strangely charming man – is he really the wickedest man on the island? Somebody certainly wants her gone as she inches closer and closer to uncovering the truth about Sweden’s death . . . Joan Aiken reveals a strong heroine, a breathtaking backdrop and shocking plot twists – The Butterfly Picnic has all the elements of a holiday romance with a dark underside of suspense.
Voices in an Empty House
by Joan Aiken“Gabriel!” But calling was pointless, and he stopped at once, embarrassed by the sound of his voice . . . Nobody was here in the small apartment, nobody but himself.Lonely sixteen-year-old Gabriel, son of a Nobel Prize winner, has gone missing, and with a life-threatening heart condition his family are desperate to find him before it’s too late. Amnesia-stricken stepdad Thomas, spiteful mother Bella, and her sardonic twin brother Bo, all have their own selfish reasons to pursue him to Greenwich Village, New York where he was last seen.But Gabriel doesn’t want to be found . . . Jumping between each character’s perspective over the course of seven years, awardwinning author Joan Aiken expertly pieces together a complex and dynamic family history that leads to every parent’s nightmare in her modern suspense novel, Voices in an Empty House.
Last Movement
by Joan Aiken'Joan Aiken has produced a beauty . . . enjoyment rises up from every one of its 250 pages. Here is a pleasure of a book' The TimesHelikon is a unique spa on the Greek island of Drendos, run by the enigmatic Dr. Adnan from Aiken’s earlier novel, The Embroidered Sunset. In this tranquil setting outstanding musical performances combine with soothing medical treatments offer to treat a myriad of ailments, but can they heal the past?Stage manager ‘Mike’ Meiklejohn accompanied by her ailing mother and playwright Lady Julia Saint with her amnesic partner arrive at the luxury spa centre in the hope that their troubles will be healed – but their stay in this Greek idyll is soon shattered by two horrifying murders. As the women’s paths intertwine they plan to stage an opera performance of Hamlet, but the longer they spend at Helikon the more they learn about the secrets their loved ones are hiding from them . . . Full of suspense and surprise Last Movement is a holiday romance with a dark edge from awardwinning author Joan Aiken.
Foul Matter
by Joan AikenI have been on nodding terms with death since age nineteen. Death holds precious little mystery for me. During the last sixteen years I have eaten death for breakfast . . .For accomplished writer and chef Clytie Churchill suffering and love come hand in hand. The life of each person she loves seems to come to a desperate end – sickness, suicide, death by drowning, orphan and widower Clytie has grieved through it all. During a long night reminiscing in a remote French Chateau she resolves to throw out all this Foul Matter – like the old proofs of a finished book.But there is still one mystery to solve – when she learns there is a chance that little Finn, her dead husband’s son, could have survived the sinking of his father’s boat Clytie seeks out lawyer and ex-lover Anthony to help her track him down.Awardwinning author Joan Aiken touches upon love and death with a thoughtfulness and courage that makes Foul Matter a romantic suspense novel like no other.
Blackground
by Joan Aiken'Blackground deals with guilty secrets, greed, betrayal and murder. Joan Aiken knows her trade.' London Review of Books.Cat Conwil is an actress on the brink of fame – will love be her saviour of her downfall?Cat lands a starring role in a TV adaptation of Middlemarch shooting on location at the splendid Knoyle Court. There, she’s pursued by the estate’s owner millionaire James Tybold – they fall for eachother hard and fast, marry and embark on the honeymoon of a lifetime. But only in romantic Venice as they start getting to really know each other do they uncover the shocking truth – that they met before, many years ago . . .From this moment everything changes – they both have dark histories, complicated families, and one of them has some devastating secrets in their past . . .Between a film set, a Venetian honeymoon and a section of the Dorset coast remodelled to resemble a Greek fishing village, award winning author Joan Aiken entwines mortal danger with quirky characters in her captivating romantic suspense novel, Blackground.
Morningquest
by Joan Aiken'Eccentric and poignant with inevitable echoes of Austen as she goes for heightened emotion and rarefied beauty . . . suspend disbelief and you’ll fly through this world of sense and sensibility' Time OutAspiring young artist sixteen-year-old Pandora Crumbe, lonely and bored in her rural village, has been unwillingly taken for lunch with her eccentric neighbours The Morningquest family . . . when her mother dies suddenly at the table. The Morninquests take Pandora under their wing – Sir Gilbert is a world famous conductor with an elegant wife and seven eccentric children, all highly talented in their own way. Pandora flourishes in their rambling country home and relishes the cultured and bohemian company. As her life moves with theirs to 60’s London, a Northern University, and finally to communist Prague, she uncovers scandals, tragedy, her own mother’s secrets, and finally the way to realise her own dreams.From award winning author Joan Aiken, romantic suspense novel Morningquest is an intense and kaleidoscopic read, an epic rite of passage with a vast cast of exuberant characters who sweep you into their world.