Showing titles in City Life

With the Blitz over and London reeling from war, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for help. Fresh off the Empire Windrush, he’s taken a tiny room in south London lodgings, and has fallen in love with the girl next door. Touring Soho’s music halls by night, pacing the streets as a postman by day, Lawrie has poured his heart into his new home - and it’s alive with possibility. Until, one morning, he makes a terrible discovery.

Eve, Justin, Susie and Ed have been friends since they were 18. Now in their 30s, the four are still as close as ever, Thursday pub quiz night is still sacred and Eve is still secretly in love with Ed. Maybe Eve should have moved on by now, but she can’t stop thinking about what could have been. And she knows Ed sometimes thinks about it, too. Then one night, in an instant, all their lives change forever. And, as Eve learns she didn’t know her friends as well as she thought, she also discovers she isn’t the only person keeping secrets.

The girls of Dressmaker’s Alley are busier than ever and Lady Diane’s business continues to thrive. New recruit Janice Williams is one of the new seamstresses Miss Susie hires to cope with the work but on the day of her interview, Janice is injured in a roadside accident that will change her life forever. Poor Winnie Collins’ pregnancy is beset with problems and under Doctor’s strict orders she is confined to bed rest. How will she cope when there is so much to do?

Raymond Jaffe feels like he doesn’t belong. Not with his mother’s new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father’s wife. Not at school, where he’s an outcast. After his best friend moves away, Raymond has only two real connections: to the feral cat he’s tamed and to a blind ninety-two-year-old woman in his building who’s introduced herself with a curious question: Have you seen Luis Velez?

When Grace Carter's boys are arrested for murder, she's forced to call on her most trusted and loyal connections to keep the boys out of prison. She'll even ask for help from those she would usually avoid like the plague. DI Leigh Moss has the power to save Grace's boys, but she's determined to bring Grace and the Carter clan down once and for all. Leigh might owe Grace her life, but her loyalty now lies with her job and protecting the streets of Liverpool. Until Leigh needs Grace's help, too. 

Grace can’t believe it when her husband of 25 years announces he doesn’t want to join her on their anniversary trip to Paris - instead, he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock, Grace makes the bold decision to go on this holiday of a lifetime alone. Audrey leaves behind heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. A job in a bookshop is her ticket to freedom, but with no money and no knowledge of the French language, her summer adventure seems doomed to fail. Until she meets Grace, and everything changes....

Old Michael Snowdon returns to London with an inheritance that he determines should go towards helping the poor—but goodness and charity are not to play a part here. Everyone has an agenda, and scheming spreads through the story like a disease. Gissing’s own experience of London as an outsider in a vast city that both fascinated and appalled him gave him the tools and the drive to create a visceral sense of place. Life is unremittingly grim for just about everyone, from the weak and well-intentioned Jane to the coarse, cunning Clem Peckover and her feckless rival Pennyloaf Candy.

Ever since the accident that changed Sophie’s life, she sees numbers everywhere. From the leaves on a tree to the volume of a puddle, everything has its number. And every person she meets? Their number is counting down the number of days they have left. Despite being lonely, Sophie has decided she’s not dating anyone with a number smaller than 20,000 days: 55 years together should be plenty. Which is fine, until Adam—her first love and most definitely the one that got away—suddenly reappears. And his number? Just 24 days…

'Razor-sharp and deliciously wry' COCO MELLORS 'Funny, tender, thrillingly dark' HEATHER DARWENT 'Exhilarating, beguiling, beautiful' OLIVIA PETTER An astonishing portrait of a city on the brink of a dizzying new era and a story about a young woman who will do anything to infiltrate the rarefied...

Twenty-five years ago, DCI Harry Rhimes arrested Andrew Streeter for the brutal murders of five young people. Streeter’s ‘kill list’ of victims was found in his home, and he was convicted of all five crimes. Now, Streeter’s convictions are being overturned, as new evidence implies the original investigation was corrupt. No one is more shocked that DI Henley. Because this case is personal; Rhimes was her old boss, and he’s no longer alive to defend himself. But when the killings start up again, Henley must face the truth: Rhimes got it wrong twenty-five years ago.

Als bei der Zwangsräumung der Wohnung seiner Mutter durch eine Verwechslung alles von Wert in die Müllverbrennungsanlage wandert, bleibt dem Erzähler wortwörtlich nur der Abfall der eigenen Familiengeschichte. Wie hat es so weit kommen können? Der Erzähler blickt auf die Biografie seiner Familie: ein Stammbaum des Wahnsinns. Die Großmutter bipolar, zwölf Suizidversuche, der Großvater Stammkunde in Steinhof, die Mutter Alkoholikerin, der Vater depressiv.

There is nothing as powerful as a mother’s love. But will Ellen’s put her whole family in danger? From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Other Passenger and Our House – now a major ITV series – comes a nail-biting story about a mother’s obsession with revenge. ‘I didn’t...

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* Random House presents the audiobook edition of Dead Men's Trousers by Irvine Welsh, read by Tam Dean Burn. Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless...

1979. In the vast and often unforgiving city of London, two Irish outsiders seeking refuge find one another: Milly, a teenage runaway, and Pip, a young boxer full of anger and potential who is beginning to drink it all away. Over the decades their lives follow different paths, interweaving from time to time, often in one another's sight, always on one another's mind, yet rarely together.

Kitty Wilson, who, after losing her father, rejects the unsuitable suitor her mother has chosen. Abandoned by her mother, Kitty faces the challenges of navigating life alone. Amidst the turmoil, Kitty finds solace and support from friends, securing a promotion at Harpers Emporium. However, tragedy looms, threatening to shatter her newfound stability. Sally and Ben Harper face their own challenges. A decision by Ben regarding the restaurant, made without consulting his partner Jack Burrows, jeopardizes not only their friendship but also the stability of Harpers itself.

She’s no damsel in distress, and he’s certainly not wearing shining armour. But one knight can change everything… Daisy Hastings has always thought she was born in the wrong era. So when she bags a summer job at the Tower of London helping to run their Knight school, it feels like a...

Brought to you by Penguin. The last thing Jack Baxi expected when a detective rang his doorbell in the middle of the night was that he'd be tortured and left for dead, with a young woman he's never met before. Now, running for their lives, Jack and Aisha frantically try to discover why the...

Everything is changing for Gabe. His writing career is seeing some traction, his relationships are blossoming, and the time has come to move to a new, bigger house. Krystal and Liz are ready to commit to a new life living with and dating him. But Gabe was never under the impression that loving five women simultaneously was ever going to be easy.

'I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN' SHON FAYE 'A MASTERPIECE. THIS SEARING TALE OF LOVE, SEX AND CLASS WILL RESONATE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME' OWEN JONES 'I WAS DEEPLY MOVED BY ITS BEAUTY AND HUMANITY' COCO MELLORS 'Electric and intimate' Guardian 'Impossibly, ineffably beautiful’ Russell T Davies...

'An enthrallingly intricate novel . . . impressive' GUARDIAN 'There's something of F. Scott Fitzgerald about the way Cahill writes about the very rich' DAILY MAIL 'A biting satire of the art world's glamour, pomp and greed . . . lucid and evocative' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A highbrow whodunnit, and...