Showing results for "hilary" in Literature & Fiction

She is going to be murdered on stage every night. All Ian has to do is make sure she is safe off stage. No one would want to murder the leading lady, would they? Don’t be too sure. After a few days at the Dundas Farm opera camp, Ian is beginning to think that everyone the diva meets would be more than pleased to see the back of her. Two weeks listening to music on a Scottish alpaca farm is twisting and turning in a distinctly sinister direction. And if she continues to treat him like a servant, refusing to tell him anything about her fears, how on earth is Ian going to prevent a tragedy?

One of the 21st century's most celebrated authors, Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize twice: for 2009's Wolf Hall, the first in her phenomenally successful Thomas Cromwell trilogy, and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The third novel in the series, 2020's The Mirror and the Light, won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. This collection includes three of her best works of contemporary fiction, ranging from the Gothic to the blackly comic.

Caroline, Fiona and Ruth are lifelong friends, who've grown up together, laughed and cried together, and stood by each other through thick and thin. They may not always see eye to eye, and they might drive each other crazy, but they can't do without each other. But life's got a lot more complicated since they were 22, when the only things they carried around were handbags. Now, in midlife, they've got more baggage than the average airport carousel.

Arty free spirit Trisha returns to her native city of Edinburgh after years of living in London. Although she is coping with the loss of her job and a bruised heart, she arrives at Waverley Station enthusiastic and eager for the next chapter of her life to begin. Meanwhile, Trisha's big sister Clare could not be more different. A non-practising qualified accountant, she has been married for years, has two spoiled teenage children and has probably spent too much time on the school PTA. Together, they decide to open a new café in leafy Bruntsfield

It's no secret - to survive in a superficial town like Forest River, New York, where perfection is a requirement - a mom must follow the rules. For the past five years, Donna has worked hard to exceed social expectations. She held the prestigious role of PTA treasurer, and her best friend, Jackie, is the most powerful woman at the elementary school.

PTA President Jackie Martin is the envy of the mothers. She has a loyal and handsome husband, she hosts elaborate parties, and her eldest daughter, Hayley, is the most popular child in the fifth grade. Her life appears flawless, but is life ever what it seems to be? After receiving a painful blow, when Hayley was in kindergarten, Jackie clawed her way into PTA power. She lived her life by the adage "Proper planning prevents poor performance". Her attention to detail (okay, fine - her control-freak nature) served her well until she experiences the ultimate betrayal.

Mrs Tim goes to the Highlands of Scotland and is involved in a plot to rescue a naval officer from the toils of a siren; but, alas, the best laid plans "gang aft agley". The characters are skilfully drawn, from the fierce Mrs London, with her heart of gold, to the garrulous Mrs Falconer, whose muddled stories of her girlhood make excruciatingly funny reading.

The play is: an evocation of 21st Century Los Angeles. We begin just before dawn and drift across sleeping and dreaming Los Angeles, picking up the dreams and imaginings of its citizens and catching them as they awaken into a new day. From Keith the Homeless to Dr. Filpot, Physicist at UCLA, to a porn queen in the "Valley," we see an original, poetic and somewhat skewered panorama of a place and a time called now.