Showing results by publisher "Orion" in Literature & Fiction

Josephine was a Wren who drew maps for D-Day, while Penny was an officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry. In their late 90s, they're in huge demand - rolled out at every memorial service and WW2 anniversary, and popping up on red sofas and at literary festivals all over the country. Journalists and producers love them, as does the Great British Public. Despite their age, they're still in great nick - sprightly and sparky, and always up for whatever the next excitement might be. And now they're off to Paris to receive the Légion D'Honneur for their part in liberating France.

When 63-year-old Sylvia finds her husband in bed with another woman, she's shocked and furious...at first. But by the time her head stops spinning, Sylvia realises she hates the retirement community she's living in - it's for old people. And she certainly doesn't feel old! So, she enlists the help of her best friend, glamorous 70-year-old widow Evie, and the pair flee to Manhattan to start a new life in the city that never sleeps. Sylvia's husband may have spent her life savings, but they're scrappy and determined - and they weren't born yesterday.

After a kid's party faux-pas, mother Janine anonymously vents about her father-in-law's behaviour on internet forum Am I The Villain Here? When the community is invited to take sides the post goes viral, with mild-mannered Roy ending up in the national newspapers and sparking protests at his local library. REASONABLE PEOPLE explores how judging others reveals our deepest, most unreasonable selves - with Hulse's trademark heart, humour and humanity.

Eleanor Flood knows she's a mess. But today will be different. Today she will shower and put on real clothes. She will attend her yoga class after dropping her son, Timby, off at school. She'll see an old friend for lunch. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action - life happens. For today is the day Timby has decided to pretend to be ill to weasel his way into his mother's company.

Super thief Riley Wolfe can do it all. He is a master of disguise, can scale a wall, and can vanish into thin air (thick air, too). He uses these unique talents to rob the richest. But this time, it's the most powerful who have him in their grips. It's not just that the high-up, rogue government agent has abducted the only two people Riley loves: it's the fact that Riley has to do the man's dirty work to set them free.

What do you get if you cross a dozen drunk hens with one shiny Butler in the Buff? Meet Lilah Fox. She's on the hen do from hell. Then she gets a message (44 of them, actually) from her best friend with big news: she's getting married in six months. Oh, and Lilah's her maid of honour. Which means she just got signed up for a military schedule of wedding fairs and weekly planning meetings, Excel spreadsheets and endless hen emails, and all the enforced, expensive fun you can imagine....

Riley Wolfe, the master thief and master of disguise is back with Fool Me Twice, with a bigger take and much higher stakes. Can he steal a fresco in Rome, an actual painted wall, for the arms dealer who has captured him and threatened him in the most personal way? If anyone can get away with it, it's Riley Wolfe. He's always liked a challenge, and there is nothing more satisfying than robbing and perhaps even double-crossing the rich!

Hannah and Si are in love and on the same track - that is, until their train divides on the way to a wedding. The next morning, Hannah wakes up in Paris and realises that her boyfriend (and her ticket) are 300 miles away in Amsterdam! But then Hannah meets Léo on the station platform, and he's everything Si isn't. Spending the day with him in Paris forces Hannah to question how well she really knows herself - and whether, sometimes, you need to go in the wrong direction to find everything you've been looking for....

It is opening night at the London Palladium, and tensions are running high amongst the feuding cast of "Leopard Spots". When an on-stage accident forces an unexpected intermission, it is clear to dresser Jayne that the drama has turned deadly. Will she step out of the wings and discover who was behind the final curtain call? Or will murder make an encore?

Theo has been living in his parents' shed, nursing a broken heart and a wounded ego, convinced life can't get any worse. Then he gets evicted on his 30th birthday. Theo thinks he's done with the real world—until it shows up on his doorstep. Joel is a successful TV scriptwriter, still in love with his teenage sweetheart. A proper grown-up—and yet he's falling apart at the seams. He's headed home to reconnect with best friend Theo—except they haven't spoken since the summer they turned 16.

Clare's life is perfect...steady job, loving husband, two kids and lovely townhouse. Except her husband Toby's barely listened to a thing she's said since he landed his new TV gig, her daughter can't stand the sight of her and her boss barely even knows her name. It seems that with middle age she's become more invisible than a grey power suit and no matter what she does no one seems to notice her. Not the mad haircut, crazy outfits or brilliant job performance.

A funny, warm debut novel bringing Westernised Indian culture to the fore - perfect for fans of Bridget Jones's Diary and Bend It Like Beckham. Twenty-nine-year-old Raina is still unmarried and battling her family's expectations for her future - they think that by now she should have been married in a dream Indian wedding. The pressure reaches new heights when her grandmother, Nani, decides to play matchmaker in order to find her the perfect arranged marriage.

Eighty-two-year-old Nettie still hears the occasional gossiping, but most have forgotten what she did. Now, living alone in a run-down farmhouse, she surrounds herself with memories of her late husband and estranged daughter, Catherine. When Catherine's friend James appears out of the blue, Nettie is grateful for the company and keen to learn more about her daughter. But soon James starts asking Nettie questions she doesn't want to answer, about some things she can't remember and others she's tried to forget.

Hannah is 28 when the worst happens. Her first instinct? To call her mum. The problem is, her mum having an accident, being rushed to hospital and never waking up was the worst thing. Realising that she is now the woman of the family, Hannah has to be the rock for her emotionally repressed father and chaotic younger sister, all while trying to muddle her way through the crucial life lessons her mother never taught her. 

The fair is the only good thing that happens every year. And Fiona Larson is the only kid in town who's never been. She's pretended to go—but she's never been allowed. Because, before Flora was even born, her sister died there. This year everything will be different. And Fiona Larson will find out what really happened.

The three Cadogan children, Jessica, Kirsty and Patrick, haven't spoken to each other for three years. An argument after their mother's death was the latest excuse to blame one another for their family's troubles in a long, unhappy series that's lasted almost a decade. When their father, Gerry, dies, they are given instructions as to where he wants his ashes to be scattered. But first they must together drive his old camper van up the country to the Scottish Isle of Islay.

Marguerite had been living a comfortable but dull existence in a suburban town with her straitlaced lawyer husband. When he dies, she realises that life has passed her by. Marcel had been in a loving relationship with Nora since they left Algeria 60 years before. Now that he has lost her, he has lost his way. Marguerite and Marcel live in two very different worlds - one rich, one poor. They never should have met. And yet their paths cross at a retreat, and a connection forms....

'Are you waiting for Monsieur Bellivier, madame?' Helena Folasadu should of course say no. She doesn't know the man talking to her, she doesn't know Monsieur Bellivier, and she certainly isn't waiting for him. But, bored of life, and sparked by a whim, she says yes. The go-between leads her to a deserted floor in an office building and offers her a large sum of money to sit at a computer and forward emails to Monsieur Bellivier.

'We looked like the perfect young family, something out of a magazine, in shades of marshmallow pink....' A photograph. The father smiling beside his new car, the mother pregnant and radiant, the little girl placing cuddly toys in the cot for her new baby brother. All we see is the happiness. 'We don't see my mother. We don't see the lies.' But behind every picture there is a story. And behind that story, there are others. Every family has its secrets.

His life in the crumbling seaside town of Bingham-on-Sea never seemed that bad, but since the loss of his father, the highlights of Ronnie's solitary days include manning the lost property office at the bus station where he works, and plaguing his local GP with increasingly outlandish ailments. Forgotten or underestimated by all those around him, Ronnie is lost, and he's not expecting to be found. But when a chance encounter leads Ronnie to reluctantly foster Hamlet, an unwanted stray dog, his empty days begin to fill with all manner of new responsibilities and experiences.