Adrian Gilbert

Adrian Henri

Adrian House

Adrian Houston is a tree photographer and passionate conservationist. His work has seen him travel to some of the world's most unexplored and inhospitable terrains, with his powerful photographs subsequently gracing everything from advertising campaigns to magazine covers. In 2021 he published A Portrait of the Tree, a photography book that illustrated how trees connect us all on a universal level. Adrian's work has been exhibited both at The National Gallery and The Royal Academy of Arts. When he is not travelling, he is based at his studio in Soho, central London.

Adrian Houston

Adrian J Walker was born in the bush suburbs of Sydney, Australia in the mid '70s. After his father found a camper van in a ditch, he renovated it and moved his family back to the UK, where Adrian was raised. 
 
Ever since he can remember, Adrian has been interested in three things: words, music and technology, and when he graduated from the University of Leeds, he found a career in software. His novel The End of the World Running Club, a post-apocalyptic running fable about hope, love and endurance, was a Simon Mayo Radio 2 book club choice. 
 
He lives in Aberdeen with his wife and two children. To find out more visit: http://www.adrianjwalker.com/

Adrian J. Walker

Adrian Levy

Adrian Mourby

Adrian Orchard

Adrian Penketh

Adrian Raine

Adrian Reynolds was born in South Wales, and after studying at Swansea College of Art and later at Cambridgeshire College of Art and Technology, Adrian worked at Heffers Children's Book Shop before beginning to write and illustrate his own picture books. 
 
Adrian's very first books were published in 1997 and since then he has published more than forty titles, including the hugely popular Harry And The Bucketful Of Dinosaurs series, written by Ian Whybrow. He has won the Red House Picture Book Award and the Sheffield Children's Book Award.

Adrian Reynolds

Adrian Reynolds is a hugely talented illustrator who has worked on many picture books,including the wonderful Harry stories and four adventures featuring Pete and Polo. Adrian lives in Cambridge

Adrian Smith was born in Hackney, East London, on 27th February 1957. He joined Iron Maiden at the end of 1980. Adrian is the band member who has collaborated on the most side projects outside of Iron Maiden, as well as writing and recording a series of albums in the early '90s, before rejoining the band. Iron Maiden have sold 90 million albums, and tour the world playing to millions of fans. Onstage, Adrian uses Jackson and Gibson guitars. Offstage, he is an avid tennis player, however his main hobby is fishing. He takes his rod and gear out on tour with him wherever he goes. This is his first book.

Adrian Smith

Adrian Sykes

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the acclaimed ten-book Shadows of the Apt series starting with Empire in Black and Gold, published by Tor UK. His other works for Tor UK include novels Guns of the Dawn, Children of Time, Children of Ruin and the Echoes of the Fall series starting with The Tiger and the Wolf. He has won the Arthur C Clarke and Robert Holdstock awards.

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tinniswood is professorial research fellow in history at the University of Buckingham, adjunct professor of history at Maynooth University and the author of many books on British history, including the Sunday Times bestseller The Long Weekend. He was awarded an OBE for services to heritage, and lives in the west of Ireland.

Adrian Tinniswood

Adrian Webster

Adrian Wooldridge is the global business columnist at Bloomberg Opinion. Previously, he worked for the Economist for thirty-two years, including stints as its Lexington, Schumpeter and Bagehot columnist. He earned a doctorate in history from Oxford University, where he was a Fellow of All Souls College. He is the author or co-author of 11 other books, including The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy made the Modern World (2021).

Adrian Wooldridge

Adriana Arden

Adriana Hunter has translated more than one hundred books, and has won or been shortlisted for numerous translation prizes, most recently as the runner-up for the 2024 Scott Moncrieff Prize for her translation of Hervé Le Tellier’s The Anomaly. She lives in Kent, England.

Adriana Hunter

Adriana Mather is the author of the New York Times bestselling How to Hang a Witch series and the Killing November series. Adriana is also an actor and producer and co-owns Zombot Pictures, a production company that makes feature films.

Adriana Mather

Adriana Rabinovich spent her childhood in Colombia, then moved to the US before coming to Britain in 1984. Following a career in design and marketing, Adriana trained at Leith's School of Food and Wine, then set up her own catering business, followed by The Little Red Barn in 1996. When her daughter was diagnosed with Coeliac disease at the age of eighteen months, Adriana used her catering and cooking knowledge to create recipes that not only worked for Ruthie's needs but appealed to children. The result is The Gluten-Free Cookbook for Kids.

Adriana Rabinovich

Adriana Trigiani is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books of fiction and nonfiction published in thirty-eight languages. In 2023, President Sergio Mattarella of Italy named her Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker. Among her screen credits, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture adaptation of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap. Adriana grew up in Appalachia, in the mountains of southwest Virginia, where she cofounded the Origin Project, an in-school writing program. Trigiani is honored to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family. 
 
 Listen to Adriana and the luminaries of our times discuss the books that built their souls on the You Are What You Read podcast, available everywhere. https://linktr.ee/youarewhatyoureadpodcast

Adriana Trigiani

Adrienne Adhami is a leading well-being coach and keynote speaker, known for the motivational podcast Power Hour and the Modern Wellness Podcast. 
 
Adrienne is a sought-after brand advisor, specialising in well-being technology, strategy and innovation. She has delivered workshops and keynote speeches to brands including Apple, Spotify, Bupa and Range Rover. Her expertise ranges from achieving high performance to goal-setting and decision-making. 
 
Adrienne’s debut book, Power Hour, was published in 2020 and has since been translated into four languages. Listed as one of the ‘Top 25 Black Entrepreneurs to Watch’ by HSBC and UKBBS, Adrienne is a trailblazer inspiring individuals and organisations to reach their full potential. Decisions That Matter is her second book.

Adrienne Adhami

In 1995 Adrienne Brodeur co-founded, along with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the National Magazine Award-winning fiction magazine Zoetrope: All-Story. She then worked as a book editor in New York for several years, and is currently the Executive Director of the Aspen Words, a literary non-profit and part of the Aspen Institute in Colorado. She divides her time between New York City and Cape Cod.

Adrienne Brodeur

Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which is in development as a Netflix film. She founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story with Francis Ford Coppola, and currently serves as executive director of Aspen Words, a literary nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. She splits her time between Cambridge and Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and children.

As well as hosting the weekly Power Hour podcast, Adrienne Adhami is a leading wellness professional, TEDx speaker and a voice of inspiration, encouragement and motivation. Adrienne delivers talks and workshops to some of the world’s largest organisations and she regularly hosts live events and panel discussions. She has partnered with brands such as Adidas, Origins, Virgin Sport, Google and Apple and has been featured in ELLE magazine and the Telegraph, as well as being named a ‘New Face of Wellness’ by British VOGUE.

Adrienne Herbert

Adrienne Kennaway

Twenty-Four Books for Advent contains stories from Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, Louisa May Alcott, Washington Irving, L. M. Montgomery, O. Henry and Susan Coolidge, as well as many more beloved classic writers.

Advent Authors

ADELE GERAS was born in Jerusalem and travelled widely as a child. She started writing over twenty-five years ago and has published more than 80 titles. Ithaka was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Chirldren's Book Award. She lives in Manchester with her husband and has two grown-up daughters and two grandchildren.

Adèle Geras

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Catherine Cookson

Bridget Gether's parents had been killed in the wartime blitz and she had lived with the Overmeers at Balderstone, their sprawling property in the Northumbrian countryside, since she was a child. Unaware that she had been manipulated into agreeing to marry their son Laurence, only an encounter with Bruce Dickenson, the son of a neighbouring farmer, opened her eyes to the possibility that she might be making a mistake. 'Once you are married,' Bridget's future mother-in-law tried to reassure her, 'everything will fall into place'. But Bridget had her reservations, although she told herself she has loved Laurence Overmeer with a schoolgirl passion for years. But could she trust him, especially after the event that had caused this heart-searching? Had he been seeing someone else all the time he had been courting her? She decided that there were sufficient grounds for doubt, so she called off the marriage. However, she had reckoned without the formidable Overmeer family, whose desperate business straits compelled them to take whatever steps they felt were necessary to protect their interests. As for Laurence, he could not forgive Bridget for the humiliation of rejection, so he made his own plans for revenge. But he could not have known that someone else was planning a different kind of revenge, and that the outcome would shake the very foundations of the Overmeer family. 
 
The Blind Years, another of Catherine Cookson's part-mysteries, part-love stories, once again displays her consummate skill at portraying the nuances of family conflict.

The Blind Years

Mary Jane Staples

From autumn 1941 to the first months of 1942, the war continued to affect the lives of the Adams and Somers families. 
 
It was not so much the war, however, as a succession of tragic domestic events that brought a sad and lonely little girl called Phoebe into the care of Susie and Sammy Adams, reminding them of the entry of Rosie as a child into the lives of Boots and Emily. Much needed to be done to cure little Phoebe of her sadness, and it proved a difficult time for Susie and Sammy. 
 
Further shadows fell when news came that Tim was a prisoner of war, and that Japan had attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbour and British bases in the Far East. 
 
But Boots's French-born daughter Eloise had her dearest wish come true when she married Colonel Lucas of the Commandos in Alexandria.

Tomorrow Is Another Day

An Adams Family Saga Novel

ROONEY 
He was the only one of the dustbin gang who was as yet unmarried. He'd worked for the Corporation as a dustman for fifteen of his thirty-five years, and his mates all agreed he was too canny to be caught, having avoided four widows and two spinsters in ten years. Rooney liked life to follow a pattern - that and his independence was what made him tick. 
 
But it all went flying out of the window when he moved into Ma Howlett's place. And once the rug of his comfortable old habits had been yanked from under him, Rooney found that life was much more complicated than he had imagined! 
 
 
THE NICE BLOKE 
Harry Blenheim had always been known as 'the nice bloke' an inoffensive man whose existence many thought was as dull as ditchwater. But then, at the office Christmas party, he gave in to the demands of the vivacious Betty Ray, and the scandal that followed not only split up his family but ruined his career. 
 
Harry reasoned that, with luck, he could have avoided it all, but the roots of the problem lay much deeper. There was his rapidly cooling marriage, and his hatred of his unscrupulous father-in-law. Now Harry was in real trouble, and it would take all the efforts of his dearly-loved daughter Gail and his staunch friends Janet and Robbie Dunn to help him pick up the pieces and start to live again...

Rooney / The Nice Bloke

It is summer, 1941, and the country is still at war. In the Devon village of Ashleigh, however, evacuees from the London blitz are living in an atmosphere of rural peacefulness, although Daisy Ricketts of Bermondsey isn't sure if she'll ever get on with carping Mrs Mumford, the subject of whispers because of her husband's mysterious disappearance. 
 
David, the elder son of Tommy and Vi Adams, meets Kate Trimble, a cockney girl from Camberwell who has just arrived in Ashleigh with her aunt. Kate is imaginative and precocious, while David is happy-go-lucky , and as the war is directly affecting the lives of so many other members of the Adams family, Kate and David establish a friendship in the summer sunshine of Devon. But as their friendship develops some exciting undercurrents, an incident occurs which brings home to them the darker intrigues of wartime and provides a devastating shock to everyone.

Bright Day, Dark Night

A Novel of the Adams Family Saga

HERITAGE OF FOLLY 
The Batleys and the Cadwells owned neighbouring farms on the beautiful, wild Northumbrian coast. But there all similarity ended, and enmity began. For between the two families raged a violent and bitter feud - a feud so powerful that the very name of Cadwell made Ralph Batley seethe with uncontrollable fury. 
 
Into this stormy atmosphere came Linda Metcalfe, a young agricultural student, who innocently became involved in the tension between the two households on the day of her arrival. Employed by Ralph Batley, Linda soon found herself in a very difficult situation. For not only had she unwittingly become a part of the feud, but she began to feel a strange admiration for Ralph, who made it painfully clear that he had no use for her either on the farm or in his life. But then the past erupted into the present, forcing Ralph to change his attitude to Linda and resolving the whole Batley/Cadwell heritage of folly... 
 
THE FEN TIGER 
Deep in the wild fen country, Rosamund Morley lived a cloistered, poverty-stricken existence with her sister Jennifer and her alcoholic father. She was the prop and stay of the family - and it was she who ran for help the night her father set his bed alight after a drinking bout. That night was to change the course of Rosamund's life - for, fleeing through the woods, she met Michael Bradshaw, the man she christened the 'Fen Tiger'. 
 
When she knew more of Michael's past and the fate that had forced him to live in isolation, Rosamund's initial feelings of dislike changed to compassion...and then to something deeper....

Heritage Of Folly / The Fen Tiger

KATE HANNIGAN 
Dr Rodney Prince had never seen a girl who looked more out o place in the grime and squalor of the Fifteen Streets than did Kate Hannigan. He knew she had suffered at the hands of men: Tim Hannigan, her 'father' was a vicious bully; John Herrington, a smooth-talking seducer, had left her with his child. 
 
But Rodney Prince's desire for a family had been frozen out by a wife who'd wanted Harley Street, not a Tyneside slum. By contrast, Kate glowed with a warmth that far outshone the hard, brittle beauty of Stella, and exposed the emptiness in his heart. 
 
And so, between Rodney Prince, a wealthy man locked in an unhappy marriage, and Kate Hannigan, a bastard child of the slums, grew a love that opposed all the concepts of an Edwardian society... 
 
THE LONG CORRIDOR 
To outsiders, Dr Paul Higgin's life appeared to be happy and contented. Everyone had a good word for him, and his home life appeared to be ideal. At thirty-six, Bett Higgins could still pass for a much younger woman, not just in looks but in the way she loved the company of people half her age. A grand couple, some might say... 
 
But once the surgery was closed and the curtains drawn, the façade that Paul and Bett Higgins presented to the world concealed a welter of hate that had grown worse with the passing years. Between them stood the barrier of the past - of secrets that, were they known, could affect everyone around them. Unable to forgive each other, they led their separate lives - until Bett decided to allow her spite and resentment to culminate in revenge on the husband she did not love...

Kate Hannigan / The Long Corridor

Iris Gower

A sensational story of tragedy, riches, poverty and love from bestselling author Iris Gower. If you like Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin, you will love this..! 
 
READERS ARE LOVING FIREBIRD! 
"Her characters come to life and feel as if they're [your] neighbours..." - 5 STARS 
"Can't put it down..." - 5 STARS 
"Excellent" - 5 STARS 
"Brilliant" - 5 STARS 
 
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PASSIONS RUN HIGH AMIDST THE WELSH HILLS... 
 
When Llinos Savage's mother dies an untimely death, she finds herself in charge of the family pottery while still a young girl, attempting to keep the business afloat and dealing with the plotting of Philip Morton Edwards, the powerful and rich owner of the rival pottery in Swansea. Her father's return, badly wounded, from fighting Napoleon in France should be a joyous reunion, but instead his presence only adds to her difficulties. 
 
Two men make her world even more complicated: Eynon Morton Edwards, Philip's son - a gentle and sympathetic figure yet despised by his father; and Joe, an exotic outsider, born of an unlikely union between a cultured English businessman and a Native American squaw. 
 
How will Llinos cope with running the pottery, while suffering from the hatred of the Morton Edwards family and battling to suppress her own feelings for the man who seems her most unlikely suitor? 
 
Firebird is the first novel in Iris Gower's Firebird series. The saga continues in Dream Catcher.

Firebird

(Firebird:1) An enthralling, heart-wrenching and moving saga set amongst the Welsh hills

Only after returning from his well-attended funeral did Fiona Bailey realise just how much she would miss Davey Love. Despite her initial doubts and prejudices about this rough-hewn Irishman, towards the end of his life she had discovered qualities about him she had previously overlooked; and that she could talk to him and appreciate his considerable wit. Above all, though, it was his inherent kindness that she had failed to discern when she and her husband had first met Davey and his wayward son Sammy. 
 
The Baileys, Bill and Fiona, lived in the Tyneside town of Fellburn where Bill was a successful building contractor. Years before he had met and married Fiona, a young widow with her own lovable family, to which they had shortly added by adoption the orphaned Mamie. Then, when one of Fiona's children, Willie, acquired a new friend, Sammy, it was he and his father Davey who, by one means or another, were able to make a special contribution to the lives and fortunes of the Bailey family. 
 
Now with Davey gone, there would be new challenges to face. It had been agreed that Sammy would live with them but would this formidable lad with his colourful language fit in as a fully-fledged member of the Bailey family? As for Fiona, it was she who bore the brunt of the arguments and disagreements that were an inevitable part of life in the Bailey household. Whatever life had in store, however, she knew she could always rely on Bill, that rock of a man with a rough tongue but a heart of gold.

Bondage Of Love

It was 1940, and many of the younger members of the Adams family were caught up in the war in France. Boots, now a Major and on the staff of General Sir Henry Simms, was one of the thousands of British troops trying to escape in the armada of little boats from Dunkirk. His son Tim and nephew Bobby were also struggling to reach the coast and safety, while Eloise was with the ATS awaiting the homecoming soldiers at Portsmouth with a comforting cup of tea and a ticket home. Boots and Tim both made it safely back, but of Bobby there was no sign, and the family all feared the worst. 
 
In a farm some miles from Dunkirk, however, Bobby was alive but injured, and trapped by the advancing Germans. The farmer and his wife offered him refuge but Helene, the farmer's independent-minded daughter, was scathing about the retreating British army and gave the brave, joking young sergeant a hard time. Working in the fields, dodging the German soldiers, Bobby was desperately looking for a way to escape and Helene, despite her hostility, found herself increasingly anxious to help the Englishman to get back home. Their adventures were to thrill the Adams family when they came to hear about it.

The Family At War

For seventeen-year-old Brid Stevens, the day began with such promise. At four o'clock on a summer morning, her alarm clock roused her from a dream-filled sleep, for she had an appointment to keep with Joe Lloyd, whom she had met at the weekly dance, on the cliff-top at Stockwell Hill overlooking the sea. Joe was not the usual sort to frequent the dance-hall, she thought, and he had made the prospect of their watching the sun come up more exciting than anything she could previously recall. And so it proved to be. But upon her return home, where she lived with her parents and her brother, all hell was let loose. Harry Palmer was also there, fresh from telling his tale of the lovers' tryst he said he had witnessed. Brid and Joe, he claimed, had spent the night together, there on the cliff-top. 
 
In the afternoon, by previous arrangement, she made her way to the beach, from where she and Joe were to go swimming, but her arrival was to be in the aftermath of violence, for Joe, she discovered, had also suffered, this time at the hands of those who envied him. What was to occur after that would bring the day to a horrifying end, as family and friends of all concerned displayed their prejudices and made their own judgements. 
 
The events of this powerful novel, set on the Northumbrian coast in the 1960s, take place over one day, a day during which everyone involved discovers that the consequences of an innocent meeting between two young people are far more significant than the event itself. The Bonny Dawn is a remarkable tour-de-force by Britain's most popular novelist.

The Bonny Dawn

Fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson, youngest daughter of a prosperous Northumbrian family, had always run when she might have walked, and it was as she was running away from a sight she would rather not have witnessed that she stumbled and fell, injuring her ankle, to be discovered by a local man who, because of a disfigurement, was known thereabouts as 'the branded man'. Already fearful of him by reputation, his sudden appearance frightened her into unconsciousness. When she came to, she was back at The Manor and confined to bed for an indefinite period. Marie Anne's mother, with no love and little sympathy, awaited her recovery with impatience, for she had already planned to despatch her wayward daughter to London, where her Aunt Martha would supervise the development of her natural ability for the piano, the only talent Mrs Lawson believed her daughter possessed. As for Marie Anne, already resentful at the enforced exile, Aunt Martha's frosty reception caused her to wonder if one domination would now be replaced by another. Only the friendship of her aunt's companion, Sarah Foggerty, prevented her from plunging into despair - that and the encouragement she received from her music tutor on her daily visits to the Academy. Why, then, did his sudden disappearance make it necessary for her to return to Northumberland, this time into the care of her beloved grandfather? As the years went by many twists and turns of fate awaited Marie Anne, one of them concerned with the very man who had struck fear in her all those years before. Sarah Foggerty too had a part to play in her destiny - but neither she nor Marie Anne could have foreseen the consequences of their timely friendship. 
 
Set at the turn of the century in the wilds of Northumberland and in the slums of the East End of London, The Branded Man is the gripping story of Marie Anne, Sarah Foggerty - and the mysterious man who was to influence both their lives.

The Branded Man

Joan Hessayon

Joyce d'Avranche had always been the poor and ignored member of the d'Avranche family of Helmingham Hall. Her childhood had been one of hardship, and over her dead mother hung the disgrace of an old scandal. Then, when the legitimate heir went missing on an Amazon exploration, Joyce was brought to Helmingham and told she could well be the new owner of the beautiful old house and garden. 
 
Almost at once she fell in love with it and wanted, more than anything, to possess it. But her background had not prepared her for the running of a huge estate. Everything she did was wrong and her only friend was Rose, wife of the head gardener. Rose, too, had sorrows to bear. Barren, in spite of her longing for a child, she sublimated her sadness in the gardens of Helmingham, concentrating all her energy on the breeding of a new flower - the Helmingham Rose. 
 
As the two young women watched the gradual unfurling of the perfect flower, so their own lives moved towards maturity and unexpected happiness.

The Helmingham Rose

Job and Jemima Hardy weren't Londoners by birth. They had both lived in a Sussex village until lack of work had sent Job and the family to Walworth - to a house in Stead Street. They got it cheap because of the poltergiest but they were sensible folk and decided that eight shillings a week rent was a bargain and - well - if the floors and doors sometimes moved a bit, they could live with it. They settled quickly into London life - particularly Jonathan, the eldest. Jonathan got a job at Camberwell Green and it was there, in Lyons teashop, that he met Emma Somers, niece of Boots Adams. Over a long and hazy summer - the summer of 1939 - the two young people met, always at lunchtime, and never allowing their friendship to progress too far. 
 
Then, as the clouds of war gathered over Europe, Jonathan got his call-up papers. And the first alarms of conflict began to affect the Adams family in other ways. Boots, on the Officer's Reserve list, was called onto the staff of General Sir Henry Sims, and Polly Sims herself joined the Auxiliaries. Suddenly there was only a little time left for people to lead ordinary lives - and Jonathan Hardy and Emma Somers had to make decisions about their future.

The Last Summer

Elvi Rhodes

Perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin, Dilly Court and Catherine Cookson, a moving saga of courage, hardship and triumph set in Yorkshire by multi-million copy seller Elvi Rhodes. 
 
READERS ARE LOVING THE MOUNTAIN! 
"Really enjoyed this book. Right from the start, it gripped your interest. Couldn't wait for times to get back to reading it!" - 5 STARS 
"Couldn't put this book down." - 5 STARS 
"Excellent story enjoyed reading it the twists and turns of the main characters keeping you entertained and wanting more thank you " - 5 STARS 
"Another brilliant book by this author based in Yorkshire again. Family saga at its best. Will definitely read more by this author" - 5 STARS 
 
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PASSIONS IGNITE AMIDST THE HARSH AND RUGGED HILLS OF YORKSHIRE... 
 
When Jake Tempest hears of jobs going building the new railway lines, he is drawn to Whernside in the Yorkshire countryside, and the mountain through which a tunnel is being carved. 
 
Beth Seymour is the one thing that lightens his harsh new life - but she has a husband and is trapped in an increasingly loveless marriage. 
 
As the construction of the railway progresses in the shadow of the mountain, complex passions play out...

The Mountain

An emotional saga of fierce passions you won’t want to put down…

Even in the heat of battle, Geoff Fulton, a professional soldier, would always carry with him the memory of the night he was on leave, when his timely intervention rescued fourteen-year-old Lizzie from the oldest of perils for a young girl, and thereby began to change her life. Lizzie came from a desperately poor home, ruled by a slatternly stepmother only too ready to profit from setting the girl along the same sordid road as her elder sister had been made to take. 
 
The year was 1937 and the place a rural enclave of County Durham, where Geoff had been born and raised in the old farmhouse that remained the home of his parents, even though most of its land had been sold off to neighbouring Low Tarn Hall. There his father still worked as estate manager for the demanding Ernest Bradford-Brown, self-made owner of this and many another property. Anxious about his increasingly handicapped mother and seeing in Lizzie a girl of spirit, Geoff concluded that she might, with care and training, solve his problem and benefit herself. So, after a quick visit to outface the protesting Mrs Gillespie, he was soon back home with his willing protegée. 
 
Then, in 1943, when Geoff returned wounded from the desert war, it was to find a Lizzie he hardly recognised - mature and highly attractive. For her part, she soon came to realise that he too had changed. Embittered by his experiences at war and rejected by Ernest Bradford-Brown's daughter Janis after a lengthy relationship long opposed by her irascible father, to Lizzie he now showed a ruthless streak that was at considerable odds with the caring man who had, all those years ago, rescued her from poverty and deprivation.

A Ruthless Need

Once they had been called Orrice and Effel, two bedraggled, scruffy waifs who lived rough off the streets of Walworth. Now they were Horrace and Ethel Cooper, grown up - quite respectable really - and living with their adopted parents, Jim and Rebecca Cooper. 
 
When Horrace saw the pretty girl who worked as a shop assistant in Adams (Ladies Fashion Modes) he was quite bowled over and knew he had to meet her. From then on he was in and out of the shop, buying hats and stockings and ribbons, trying desperately to persuade Miss Sally Brown to come out with him. And while he was laying siege to Sally, his sister Ethel was listening to her poet boyfriend spouting forth his romantic verse. But Ethel's involvement with the poet was to end more dangerously and dramatically than either she or Horrace had imagined and several quite startling events were to happen before Horrace and Ethel's affairs were resolved.

The Young Ones

It was June 1916 when Sergeant Boots Adams of the Royal West Kents, together with his men, was billeted on the Descartes farm in Northern France. It was a short break from the turmoil and horror of the trenches, and Boots and his men, in return for their free billeting, were to help the farmer in his fields. It came as something of a surprise to discover that the land was being managed by a young French war widow, Cecile Lacoste and, to the distant sound of guns, a brief wartime friendship flared between Boots and Cecile. The friendship was cut brutally short when, once more, the West Kents were called back to the trenches and Boots suffered an injury that was to take him home to London, to Sammy and Chinese Lady, and all the valiant cockney friends of Walworth who were to help him through the darkest period of his life. It was to be many years before Boots' friend, Miss Polly Simms, visiting the old battle haunts of France, stumbled once more upon the Descartes farm, and the memories of the past were rekindled.

Echoes Of Yesterday

The day Joe Remington brought his new bride to Fell Rise, he had already sensed she might not settle easily into his home just outside the Tyneside town of Fellburn. Making plain her disapproval of Joe's familiarity with the servants, questioning the donation of food to striking miners' families - these objections and more soon rubbed Joe and the local people up the wrong way, a problem he could easily have done without. For this was 1926, the year of the General Strike, the effects of which would nowhere be felt more acutely than in this heartland of the North-East. 
 
Then when Elaine became pregnant, she saw it as a disaster and only the willingness of her unmarried sister Betty to come an see her through her confinement made it bearable. But in the long run, would Betty's presence only serve to widen the rift between husband and wife, or would she help to bring about a reconciliation?

Justice Is A Woman

There was a new family in Browning Street, Walworth - the Harrisons. Respectable and well-behaved, the only thing unusual about them was that Mr Harrison was never there. He was a sailor, said Ma Harrison, away fighting pirates in the China Seas. Actually, 'Knocker' Harrison was in Marsham Gaol - he had unfortunately burgled a lady's suite when she happened to be there. Pa wasn't really a very good burglar. When young Nick Harrison, eldest son and heir of Ma and Knocker, met Annabelle Somers he found himself in a very difficult situation. For seventeen-year-old Annabelle was a peach of a girl, was related to the highly respectable Adams family, and was really quite keen on Nick, very interested in him and in his family. What with keeping Annabelle at arm's length in case she found out about Pa, and with the problems of running the Browning Street Rovers football team (the ball was owned by Chrissie Evans who laid down her own rules about the team) Nick sometimes wondered if his life would ever be sorted out.

Pride Of Walworth

John Emmerson was a lonely man. He had a wife, a son, friends, but he was isolated from all the people and events about him by the tragedy of his past. Then he met Cissie, and for the first time his loneliness eased a little. 
 
Cissie was everything his wife Ann was not. She was warm, and compassionate, and generous. And she was quick to sense the needs of a desolate, unhappy man. 
 
But Cissie was also a young widow: poor, and with a young son to support. And John Emmerson was one of the town's leading solicitors - a man of importance whose every move was watched by the local dignitaries . . .

The Unbaited Trap

It had never been the best of marriages and over recent years it had become effectively a marriage in name and outward appearance only. Yet, in the autumn of 1960, Winifred and Daniel Coulson presented an acceptable facade to the outside world, for Daniel had prospered sufficiently to allow them to live at Wearcill House, a mansion situated in the most favoured outskirt of the Tyneside town of Fellburn. 
 
Of their children, it was Donald on whom Winifred doted to the point of obsession, and now he was to be married, Winifred's prime concern was whether Donald was entering wedlock with an unbesmirched purity of body and spirit, for amidst the strange workings of her mind much earlier conceptions of morality and the teachings of the Church held sway. 
 
There was something potentially explosive just below the surface of life at Wearcill House, but when that explosion came it was in a totally unforeseeable and devastating form, plunging the Coulsons into an excoriating series of crises out of which would come both good and evil, as well as the true significance of The Year of the Virgins . . .

The Year Of The Virgins

By Sunday Times bestseller Mary Jane Staples, this is the gripping next instalment in the Adams Family saga. Perfect for fans of Donna Douglas, Maggie Ford and Katie Flynn. 
 
PRAISE FOR THE ADAMS FAMILY SERIES! 
"Mary Jane Staples makes you care about her characters, which explains why her books have enjoyed so much popularity" -- Take a Break 
"Forget Eastenders, this it the London of old, when people knew each other's names and communities really pulled together." -- Woman's Realm 
"Mary Jane Staples completely capture the feel of the period and the essence of the people...has warmth, humour and charm. An ideal book for you holiday reading." Finesse 
"I get so engrossed in the stories I feel like one of the family." - ***** Reader review. 
"These books about the Adam's family are fantastic! These books are the kind you can read, leave a while and read again &amp; again!" - ***** Reader review 
 
********************************* 
 
CAN THE FAMILY KEEP SAFE FROM HARM? 
 
1926: A murderer is behind bars - thanks to Boots - but he is now plotting revenge on the entire Adams clan from his cell. 
 
When a dapper, quiet, but rather odd lodger turns up at Doreen Paterson's house, nobody thinks anything is amiss. Certainly not Doreen - who works for Boots in Adams Enterprises and thinks him just wonderful... 
 
Could the strange lodger be plotting the downfall of the irrepressible, outrageous, and larger-than-life Adams clan? 
 
A Family Affair is the fifth in Mary Jane Staples's Adams Family series. Their story continues in Missing Person. Have you read the first four Adams Family novels?

A Family Affair

(The Adams Family: 5): The perfect uplifting, funny and feel good Cockney saga to settle down with

Bill and Fiona Bailey are eagerly awaiting the arival of their first child... Catherine Cookson uses her unique gifts to splendid effect in this heartwarming story.

Bill Bailey's Daughter

Maggie Gallacher had all but read the print off the elegant, gold-trimmed card. An invitation from the Duke of Moorshire to an evening at Lea Hall? She could still scarcely believe her eyes, even if it was a long-overdue honour - after all her husband Rod had done for the town. 
 
There were a lot of Gallachers around Fellburn, and all were equally incredulous. Their Mam was a big-hearted woman, with a laugh to match, but was she really the type to go hob-nobbing with the aristocracy? It would be a night to remember, all right! 
 
And indeed it was. But had Maggie, or any of the Gallachers, foreseen how it would turn out, how irrevocably it would change the lives of all of them, she would have torn that invitation into tiny pieces and thrown them on the fire . . .

The Invitation

Fanny McBride was a large, cheerful, indomitable Tyneside widow with a large, cheerful family. When she reached her fifties, she began to feel, for the first time in her life, a little lonely. All but one of her sons and daughters had married and left home, leaving her with spare time on her hands. 
 
Being a woman of resource, Fanny took on a job at the local 'Ladies', which was to prove a surprisingly stimulating experience. 
 
Another new interest was the arrival of some rather odd neighbours at Malhattan's Hall, the tenement block which was Fanny's home. Then there was her long-standing feud with Mrs Flannagan, the problem of the favourite child's unsuitable marriage, and the puzzle of Fanny's one unmarried son, who was far from being a typical McBride . . .

Fanny McBride

Ward Gibson knew what was expected of him by the village folk, and especially by the Mason family, whose daughter Daisy he had known all his life. But then, ina single week, his whole world had been turned upside down by a dancer, Stephanie McQueen, who seemed to float across the stage of the Empire Music Hall where she was appearing as The Maltese Angel. To his amazement, the attraction was mutual, and after a whirlwind courtship she agreed to marry him. 
 
But a scorpion had already begun to emerge from beneath the stone of the local community, who considered that Ward had betrayed their expectations, and had led on and cruelly deserted Daisy. There followed a series of reprisals on his family, one of them serious enough to cause him to exact a terrible revenge; and these events would twist and turn the course of many lives through Ward's own and succeeding generations.

The Maltese Angel

A wonderfully humourous Cockney saga from multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples. Perfect for fans of Maggie Ford, Kitty Neale and Katie Flynn. Perfect to settle down with! 
 
READERS ARE LOVING THE TRAP! 
"Loved this book, a very easy read with a lovely story" - 5 STAR REVIEW 
"Loved the humour in this book; also a great story" - 5 STAR REVIEW 
"Brilliant book. Love all Mary Jane Staples books." - 5 STAR REVIEW 
"Captivating" - 5 STAR REVIEW 
 
********************************************************* 
THE MOMENT HE MET HER HE KNEW LIFE WAS NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME AGAIN... 
 
When Jamie Blair, twenty-four, unemployed, and back from the trenches, takes lodgings at Larcom Street in Walworth, he has no idea he is walking into a trap. The house is owned by Henry Mullins - a big, burly, hard drinker who makes life hell for his four stepchildren, all half-starved and frequently hit. 
 
It's Kitty, seventeen, who Jamie feels most sorry for. She takes the brunt of Mullins' bad temper, whilst trying to protect her sisters and brother. 
 
When Mullins suddenly dies - in somewhat suspicious circumstances - Kitty realises they could be in trouble. If she isn't careful the authorities could take the younger children away - split the family up... 
 
Too late Jamie finds himself with a ready-made family and a stubborn and fiery young lady called Kitty determined not to let him go.

The Trap

a brilliantly uplifting Cockney saga you won’t be able to put down

Some wonen are destined to arouse in men either fierce hatred or insatiable desire. Such a woman was Katie Mulholland. 
 
At fifteen, a scullery maid in the house of the Rosires, she had been raped by the master. Now, many years later, she had enough money to maintain three carriages if she wanted to and she was on her way to see Bernard Rosier under very different circumstances. 
 
There was no pride in Katie Mulholland's heart, however, only fear, for half of Tyneside still talked about the way she had flouted convention, and sniggered about the way she had made her money. So she had decided that her only hope was to climb above them, and that she would conquer her fear with power . . .

Katie Mulholland

William Blain

The first of the English family was Adam - born to a red-haired witch and one of Cromwell's conquering soldiers. The soldier vanished, and the witch was burned, but her last prophecy was that her bloodline would survive... 
 
And as the years unfolded, changing Dundee from superstitious village to a town of thriving jute mills, the generations of red-haired sons and daughters rose from obscurity to notoriety. All of them were talented, gifted, ambitious - and in all of them ran the blood of Elspet, the witch.

Witch's Blood

A heart-warming Cockney saga from multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples. Perfect for fans of Maggie Ford, Kitty Neale and Katie Flynn. You won't be able to put it down! 
 
READERS ARE LOVING SERGEANT JOE! 
"Another fun read with some surprising twists and turns" - 5 STARS 
"A lovely story, and so funny I couldn't help but burst out laughing at times" - 5 STARS 
"Excellent read" - 5 STARS 
"A brilliant book...Mary Jane Staples brings her characters to life! Excellent!" - 5 STARS 
"Awesome - a lovely fun read" - 5 STARS 
 
*********************************************************************** 
SHE'LL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO KEEP HER FAMILY SAFE FROM HARM... 
 
Everyone likes Sergeant Joe. From the family with whom he has lodgings to the bookseller who employs him in a little lucrative and harmless forgery. He is a universal favourite. 
 
When he bumps into Dolly Smith - quite literally - he meets a girl who makes quite an impression on him. Dolly is quick, lively, and full of cockney cheek. She is also a little frightened - running from a vicious-looking thug and a sinister foreigner who seem to think she has stolen something valuable. 
 
When Joe takes Dolly under his wing he thinks he is just helping her in a momentary predicament. Little does he know his life is going to change forever... For Dolly, bewitching and beguiling - is involved in something quite dangerous...

Sergeant Joe

a delightfully moving, amusing and uplifting Cockney saga that will warm the cockles of your heart

Clementine Rose

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Cold Case Quartet

Commissaire Adamsberg

Confessions

Confessions of a Working Girl

Conversations from a Long Marriage

Cosy Colouring

County Cup

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Crimson Lake Series

Crimson Sails

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Cross My Heart

The Crossfire series is a quintet that follows the emotional and romantic journey taken by Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell. A number one internationally bestselling series, the Crossfire books are available in forty territories . . . and counting.

Crossfire

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Cruel is the Light

D is for Death

Detective Harry Virdee should be at home with his wife, but he's been suspended from work just as the biggest case of the year lands on what would have been his desk. He can't keep himself away . . . 
 
Luther meets The Wire in this gritty crime series set in Bradford.

D.I. Harry Virdee

DC Icons

London has a new detective - DC Max Wolfe is on the hunt and he means to get his man, whatever the consequences…

DC Max Wolfe

DC Super Hero Girls

DCI Daley Thrillers

DI Callanach Thrillers

DI Eve Hunter

DI Fawley

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