Life is finally looking up for the poor relations. The Prince of Wales's coat of arms gleams over the hotel entrance. All but one of the rooms are filled by the open-handed Prince Hugo Panic and...

In the rainswept summer of 1968, Rose sets off for the United States from Kentish Town to meet a man she knows as Washington Harold, in her suitcase a polka-dot dress and a one-way ticket. In a...

In 1890 the rough Western town of Whiskey Bend, Colorado, is no place for single women. The final straw for widow Pearl Parsons and young schoolteacher Hallie Wolcott is the assault on their...

Beatrice and Miriam are sisters. Their lives fall short of what they would have wished for themselves: love, acknowledgement in the eyes of the world, even a measure of respect. Each discovers to...

Roly Carradine has found refuge in Cornwall, in the mellow stone house of his childhood. A broken marriage made Roly remove himself from his busy London life, and here in Cornwall he welcomes...

Gemma Garvey’s marriage has been over for ages. And it was Gemma’s choice to end it; her decision to go it alone with two kids rather than pretend the marriage to career-obsessed David was...

To the Lighthouse is at once a vivid impressionist depiction of a family holiday, and a meditation on a marriage, on parenthood and childhood, on grief, tyranny and bitterness. Its use of stream...

It is 1919, and for Ruby Jenkins and her family, life isn’t easy. Ever since Ruby’s father returned from the war, shell-shocked and incapable of working, Ruby and her mother have had to...

Neggers (The Whisper) spins a tale of stolen jewels, long-lost love, and other secrets in this engaging contemporary romance. Olivia Frost has returned to Knights Bridge, Mass., to turn a historic...

Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to L.A. so her husband can follow his dream of writing TV comedy. With Paul working all hours and Claire left with a baby, William, whom she adores but...

Four Maeve Binchy short stories, specially commissioned for BBC Radio 4.Maeve Binchy is one of Britain’s most popular and bestselling authors, and this collection of four stories from the BBC...

Abi has spent her life in the shadow of her stunningly beautiful, glamorous older sister Cleo. Headhunted as model when she was 16, Cleo has been all but lost to Abi for the last 20 years, with...

For some time I have been planning to murder Helen. It will be a traceless crime, that is the beauty of it. There will be absolutely nothing to link her to me. My name does not appear in her diary...

Mira Levenson is bursting with excitement as she flies to India to stay with her aunt and cousin for the first time. As soon as she lands Mira is hurled into the sweltering heat and a place full...

Hattie has a difficult if loving partner, Martyn; an absentee mother, Lallie; and a cynical if attentive grandmother, Frances. She tries to do the right and moral thing in a tricky world, and...