The Chaperone

Soon to be a feature film from the creators of Downton Abbey 
 
On a summer's day in 1922, Cora Carlisle boards a train from Wichita, Kansas, to New York City, charged with the care of a stunningly beautiful young girl with a jet-black bob and wisdom way beyond her fifteen years. 
 
The girl is Louise Brooks and, for her, New York offers a chance of stardom beneath the bright lights of Broadway. For Cora, whose formative years were spent at The New York Home for Friendless Girls, the trip offers the opportunity to discover the truth about her past. It will also, although she doesn't realize it yet, offer her the chance for a very different future. 
 
Set in a time of illicit thrills and daring glamour, a time when prohibition reigns and speakeasies thrive behind closed doors, The Chaperone tells Cora's story as she finally discovers who she is and - more importantly - who she wants to be. 
 
'What a beautiful book. I loved every page' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife 
 
'This is that rare, precious and fabulous thing - a proper story, with characters you care about desperately and root for right to the end . . . I can't recommend this novel highly enough' Daily Mail 
 
'A lovely novel, full of humanity' Sunday Times

This is that rare, precious and fabulous thing - a proper story, with characters you care about desperately and root for right to the end . . . I can't recommend this novel highly enough. Moving, shocking, dramatic, clever, atmospheric, glamorous and satisfying. You'll adore it

It's impossible not to be drawn in by The Chaperone. Laura Moriarty has delivered the richest and realest possible heroine in Cora Carlisle . . . What a beautiful book. I loved every page

Enthralling . . . In this layered and inventive story, Moriarty raises profound questions about family, sexuality, history and whether it is luck or will - or a combination of the two - that makes for a wonderful life

An evocative look at the early life of silent-film icon Louise Brooks . . . Mesmerizing

First-rate fiction . . . sharp, with great empathy

Laura Moriarty earned a degree in social work before returning for her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She lives with her daughter in Lawrence, Kansas.

On a summer's day in 1922 Cora Carlisle boards a train from Wichita, Kansas, to New York City, leaving behind a marriage that's not as perfect as it seems and a past that she buried long ago. She is charged with the care of a stunning young girl with a jet-black fringe and eyes wild and wise beyond her fifteen years. This girl is hungry for stardom and Cora for something she doesn't yet know. Cora will be many things in her lifetime - an orphan, a mother, a wife, a mistress - but in New York she is a chaperone and her life is about to change. 
 
It is here under the bright lights of Broadway, in a time when prohibition reigns and speakeasies with their forbidden whispers behind closed doors thrive, that Cora finds what she has been searching for. It is here, in a time when illicit thrills and daring glamour sizzle beneath the laws of propriety that her life truly begins. It is here that Cora and her charge, Louise Brooks, take their first steps towards their dreams.

While I'm Falling

Laura Moriarty earned a degree is social work before returning for her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She currenly lives with her daughter in Lawrence, Kansas.

What makes a family? That's what nineteen year old Veronica is wondering. Her family have always made her feel safe and protected but that's all been snatched away from her and she's beginning to wonder if she really knows her family at all . . . 
 
With a homeless mother and a missing father Veronica has to grow up fast. Real life is a frightening wake-up call and as truths and tensions percolate and bubble to the surface there are devastating consequences. Can Veronica save those she thought she loved? Will her best intentions lead to her worst transgressions? And who will be left to catch Veronica when she falls?

Laura Moriarty

A mother can&rsquo;t protect her daughter from everything &hellip; 
 
 
 
&ldquo;She killed someone&quot;, Leigh thought. She might think this from now on, every time she saw her daughter. She would hide it, but it would be there in her mind. It would be in everyone&rsquo;s mind. 
 
When Leigh was growing up she had always known she would be a mother, and not just any mother, but a good one. She would be the kind of mother a daughter could come to for advice or understanding. She'd had it all planned out ... 
 
 
 
Then one summer&rsquo;s day, when driving home from school, eighteen year-old Kara Churchill tragically knocks down a classmate and kills her. The accident shatters the already fragile relationship that she and her mother Leigh share &ndash; testing it to the very limit. 
 
As the Churchills try and come to terms with the devastation of what has happened under the judgmental eye of the small-town Hazelton community, Kara begins to face up to the terrifying reality that she has killed someone. But will Leigh be able to protect her fiercely independent daughter, or will the damage prove to be too far-reaching? 
 
The Rest of Her Life is the story of a family plunged into a crisis that will irrevocably change their lives forever. It&rsquo;s about the true nature of mother-daughter relationships, and about how far you would go to protect everything you hold dear.

Laura Moriarty

Books by Laura Moriarty

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