Frances Paige

In a crumbling mansion, two sisters hide from the world, afraid for their lives The Birches was one of the grand mansions of the 1920s, with a ballroom, tennis courts, and, of course, a swimming pool. But after the crash of ’29, when Lois and Judith’s father killed himself to escape his debts, the family turned the summer home into a fulltime retreat from the world. Decades later, Judith is the queen of New York society, a fast-living beauty whose nerves are beginning to fray, while Lois still lives in the dilapidated old mansion, writing mystery novels to pay the bills. She is about to encounter a mystery of her own. To stave off a nervous breakdown, Judith moves in with her kid sister. Terrified of an unnamed threat, she nails her windows shut and locks the door. Soon, a woman is found dead in the pool—a stranger who bears a shocking resemblance to Judith. In a family with a history of tragedy, a chilling new chapter is about to be written. Judith Chandler has always been the spoiled beauty of the family, but something has gone terribly wrong. With a deadline to meet on her latest detective novel, Lois has no patience to deal with her sister's fears. Until a real-life mystery begins to unfold. For one night, Judith disappears from her locked bedroom, and in the morning, a woman's body is found floating in the swimming pool.

When fifty-year-old Kate Armitage is made redundant after thirty years with a London publishing company, she decides, perhaps rashly, to spend her nest egg on the country cottage of her dreams. Leaving friends and former lovers behind, she embarks on a new life in a small village, planning to write a novel. Despite the (mostly) well-intentioned interventions of her new neighbours, Kate puts pen to paper, and as she retraces the history of her parents' marriage, she uncovers some truths about herself, and her lifelong search for love...

When Jenny, with youthful enthusiasm, was considering Clare’s chances of marriage, she offered her a generous selection of men to choose from: “There’s Jim Foster, the grocer’s son, and Peter Andrews who has a farm on the other side of the village and Paul Mallinson who lives at the Hall. He’s absolutely smashing and very rich. He has two cars and a butler and a gold cigarette case.” It never occurred to Jenny to add her uncle David, Clare’s employer, to the list. For Uncle David, though handsome and eligible and not so old, disliked and distrusted women and had no intention of getting married. But in spite of the attractions of Mr Mallinson and his cigarette case, it was with David, by a perverse trick of fate, that Clare fell in love.

Erdas is a land of balance. A rare link, the spirit animal bond, bridges the human and animal worlds. Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan each have this gift-and the grave responsibility that comes with it. But the Conquerors are trying to destroy this balance. They're swallowing whole cities in their rush for power-including Meilin's home. Fed up with waiting and ready to fight, Meilin has set off into enemy territory with her spirit animal, a panda named Jhi. Her friends aren't far behind . . . but they're not the only ones. The enemy is everywhere.

1853, and into the happy and affluent Winter family comes handsome and mysterious Conway Graham. Conway is in love with Mia, the eldest daughter of Joseph and Marie-Helene Winter. She reciprocates his love, but recognises in his unhappy sister, Sarah, a woman who regards her as an interloper. Mia and Conway are married, but her suspicions are confirmed when Conway cuts short their honeymoon in Paris after being summoned home by his sister. Sadness and mischief combine to drive them apart, and Mia leaves Conway for Brian Moore, a Hussar whom she meets on the eve of his departure for the Crimean War. Conway refuses to lose her, but Mia has to unlock the dark secret behind Sarah's malevolence and uncover the truth of her husband's close connection with his sister. This is a powerful novel set in the heart of the great pottery region of England, where Joseph is regarded as a master in the art. So Long At The Fair evokes the tragedy and suffering of the Crimean War, and is a complex portrait of family relationships evolves at a time of great social change both at home and abroad, while the author with her customary skill interweaves a bittersweet love story two people driven apart by malice and misunderstanding.

Three sisters face the joys and trials of marriage and children in the fast changing world of the 1950s and 1960s. Anna's marriage to the talented Ritchie Laidlaw seems doomed and she has to face the reality of her own approaching middle-age.

"They stormed the beaches of Normandy and the islands of the South Pacific, but the exceptional generation of Americans that won World War II also produced the greatest group of business leaders of the post-war era. Harvard Business School's class of 1949 consisted mostly of military veterans who came to Cambridge thanks to the GI Bill. Molded by the hardships of depression and war, few 49ers sought fabulous wealth as an end in itself. Their conscientious leadership would forever change the course of American business." "By the standards of the go-go '80s and '90s, and today's corporate scandals, the values that defined the 49ers seem quaint; that wealth is created patiently, without cutting corners; that successful companies are those that make real things of real value; that integrity is an end in itself; and that greed is not good." "Those values guided the 49ers to the pinnacle of business success. Leading 49ers helped orchestrate a profound transformation of business in the decades after World War II: The rise of consumer products and services as a key engine of growth; the growing role of technology in spurring innovation and profits; and creative changes on Wall Street that leveraged wealth in extraordinary ways. From the heights of power - 28 percent of the class retired as CEO or president of his company - the 49ers shaped trends in nearly every sector of American business." "Among the legendary figures of the Class of '49 are Marvin Traub, who turned Bloomingdale's into a fashion trendsetter; James Burke, who built Johnson & Johnson into a household name; Peter McColough, whose Xerox Corporation spearheaded the personal computer revolution; and William Ruane, who helped bring "value investing" to Wall Street, creating one of the most successful mutual funds of all time."--Jacket.

This is the concluding volume of the McGrath saga. Ginny McGrath has come from the US to run her aunt Lizzie's hotel in the former Sholton Hall. World War I is over and the roaring 1920s are in full swing, but Ginny finds that there is not enough freedom to give her the man she loves.

The tender story of talented sisters and their passion--for art and for life... A family saga, which chronicles the lives and loves of the talented Mackintosh sisters in Glasgow in the years leading up to World War II. The three sisters study at the Glasgow School of Art. Happy and talented, they cannot foresee that their decisions in love will change their lives forever.

A obsessional love, set in a small village in South-west France during a hot summer. Simone San Cerre leaves home to work at the Hotel Delouche and soon finds herself falling in love with the owner's son Francois. For a time life is wonderful until the arrival of an English beauty with whom Francois becomes obsessed. Simone can do nothing when the young girl takes away the man she loves.