Showing results by publisher "Hodder & Stoughton" in Literature & Fiction

Cressida Collins is the queen of makeovers. With a well-placed stitch, button or seam, she can transform any frock in The Vintage Dress Shop and give customers their Cinderella moment. Like her beautifully organised workroom under the eaves, Cress's life away from the shop is just as orderly and mapped out. But when her boyfriend of fifteen years drops a bombshell, it explodes all the carefully laid plans Cress had for her future. It's going to take more than needle and thread to put Cress's own life back together. Will she ever be brave enough to say goodbye to her old dreams and start over?

London, 1940: Farmer John Cook would rather avoid the city at the best of times. But as he watches Nazi bombers passing overhead in the moonlight, he knows he is exactly where he needs to be. A young woman has disappeared during an air raid and Cook links her to a network of spies. As his search continues, he realises more is at stake than he could have imagined. Occupied France: Lady Margaret is playing a dangerous game. To the German high-command she is a valuable prize. To the British, she has become the enemy, unless she can do the impossible...

After decades of dereliction and inner-city neglect, Barrack Street, Cork is finally being excavated. The work uncovers the skeletal remains of six men, scattered around the site, their hands and feet all bound, all clearly killed violently, but many decades, even centuries, ago. When a seventh body is found, Detective Garda Alice McCann knows immediately this one is different. It's female, for a start, and considerably more recent. Who was she? And who killed her?

Popular kids Rachel, Penny, Tom and Jake love it when the fun fair comes to their seaside town every year. This year is extra special: it's the last fun fair before the high-flying group leaves for university and they plan to make it a fun fair to remember. Rachel still lives in town, caring for her mother, avoiding everyone. There are rumours about her: how she was supposed to go places, how she never accepted her prestigious scholarship. Before long, the memories from that last carnival come back to haunt them... and Rachel is right back in the House of Horrors once again.

Britain's favourite gardener and TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh takes us to the scenic highlands of Scotland for his new tale of betrayal, mystery and romance. The author of eight bestselling novels including The Haunting and Folly, Titchmarsh's new multi-generational novel makes the perfect gift this Mother's Day. It seems a perfect afternoon in the Highlands. Standing at the door of the lochside castle that has been his family's home for generations, Charlie Stuart welcomes his guests to the annual summer drinks party.

When Ruth Miller returns a dropped scarf to Elena Shilkov, she is whisked from a dreary shared house to a world of unimagined luxury. The super-rich Russian wants a new personal assistant and won't take no for an answer. Ruth gets accommodation, a credit card and a complete wardrobe makeover. And she's good at the job; distributing gifts, attending galas, dealing with the high-society movers and shakers fighting for Elena's attention. Then the sinister truth begins to reveal itself, that nothing is quite what it seems in Elena's dangerous, deceptive world.

It's the 1930s, and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland. But the noble and ancient family of Inverkillen, residents of Loch Down Abbey, are much more concerned with dwindling toilet roll supplies and who will look after the children now that Nanny has regretfully (and most inconveniently) departed this life. Then Lord Inverkillen, earl and head of the family, is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The inspector declares it an accident but Mrs MacBain, the head housekeeper, isn't so convinced.

Bedtime Stories for Stressed Out Adults: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! Introduced by Lucy Mangan * * * Tales to soothe tired souls. A night time companion for frazzled adults, including calming stories and poems for a good night's...

The first novel in a provocative romance series that will captivate, exhilarate and intoxicate you like no other, perfect for those who loved the bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey but were left wanting more...It started with a spark...Everything changed when I met Dominic. My heart had just been broken, split into jagged fragments that can jigsaw together to make me look enough like a normal, happy person. Dominic has shown me a kind of abandonment I've never known before. He takes me down a path of pure pleasure, but of pain, too - his love offers me both lightness and dark.

1913.Captain Scott and his four companions reach the South Pole to find their Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen has won the race. Defeated, they set out on the 850-mile journey to their ship. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the explorer sent out to meet them at One Ton depot, peering South through thick spectacles, sees only an infinity of white, and turns back. A year later Scott's pitched tent is found, just ten miles from the depot, and the bodies within speak of hunger, the unbearable strain of hauling the sledge, and the brutal winter cold. They lie in a tomb of ice.

Can she finally put herself first, in order to find love? Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need...

"This book was utterly gripping - I couldn't put it down! Just when you think you've got it figured it out - bam, the story hits you with something you didn't see coming!" Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A deliciously dark story of secrets!! Wow! What a wild ride!" Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I...

Readers can't get enough of this cosy festive love story... 'This book is so moreish - I kept reading and reading and the book only got better as I read on!' ❄️🎄 'I was desperate to read this and it did not disappoint. I loved it!' ❄️🎄 'The premise of this book had me chuckling...

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available for the first time in 40 years and perfect for fans of Anya Seton, Daphne du Maurier and Santa Montefiore. 'Now she would spell love her own way...' In 1879, a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her...

Dora Wildwood is escaping a most unsuitable marriage. She's on the first train to London, having smuggled herself out of the house at dead of night, like all the best books. She plans to go straight to her godmother Lady Dreda Uglow, the only woman she knows who seems to live life on her own terms, and ask to stay. Dora ducks into the London Library to hide, asking the quizzical but kind Ben Stark and the clever Miss Amani for help. And it is there, surrounded by books, where she should feel most safe, that Dora Wildwood most unfortunately stumbles across her first dead body.

AD 273. Obsessed by the solar religions of the east, the emperor Aurelian sets out to obtain every sacred object within his realm. But one - a mysterious rock said to channel the power of the sun god - lies beyond his reach. Warrior-priest Ilaha has captured the legendary stone and is using it to raise an army against Rome. For imperial agent Cassius Corbulo and ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara, stopping him constitutes their greatest challenge yet.

Rebecca hasn't seen her father, Leo, since she was six. Her family never talk about him, and she has long since pushed him firmly to the back of her mind. All she knows is that once upon a time, he was a well-loved children's TV star. But when a journalist turns up uninvited at her office, asking questions about her once-famous father, Rebecca starts to wonder whether there is more to Leo's absence than she realised. Then, looking for answers, she unearths a book of fairy tales written by Leo and dedicated to her - but what use are children's stories to her now, all these years later.

Still recovering from his previous assignment in Arabia, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo has been spending most of his time and money on women and wine. Unfortunately for him, word of his achievements has reached Emperor Aurelian's deputy, and he is sent north, tasked with smashing a counterfeiting gang.

May 1940. With Nazi forces sweeping across France, invasion seems imminent. The English Channel has never felt so narrow. In rural Sussex, war veteran John Cook has been tasked with preparing the resistance effort, should the worst happen. But even as the foreign threat looms, it's rumours of a missing child that are troubling Cook. A 12-year-old girl was evacuated from London and never seen again, and she's just the tip of the iceberg - countless evacuees haven't made it to their host families. As Cook investigates, he uncovers a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest ranks of society.

Mike Gayle: emotions you'll never forget, stories you'll want to share. Helen and Ben parted as heartbroken 18-year-olds and went their very separate ways. Twenty years later, mother-of-two-teenagers Helen is still in Manchester, a part-time primary teacher, stunned by the behaviour of her...