Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Contemporary Fiction

On the eve of his 36th birthday, author Mike Gayle picked up a pen and contemplated his life. He is nowhere near being an adult - even though his tenth wedding anniversary is looming and his second child due shortly. Appalled by this lack of maturity, Mike draws up a to-do list containing every item he's been meaning to do but keeps putting off.

Orphaned and alone, Rachel is taken under the wing of her strict African-American grandmother and moved to a mostly black community where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and astonishing beauty start to attract a troubling level of attention. As the terrible secrets begin to emerge, Rachel learns to swallow her grief and construct her own self-image in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

In the '70s he was a huge pop star, with number-one hits like 'Rock On' and 'Hold Me Close'. In the '80s and '90s, he became a star of the stage with lead roles in Godspell and Mutiny! Now comes a wonderful collection of David Essex’s poetry and lyrics. Here are nostalgic poems recalling his family's traveller roots, verses filled with memories of his warm and loving boyhood and poetry reliving the highs and lows of fame.

Newly married and having recently taken over the management of a hotel in Honolulu, a former writer is drawn into the lives of his guests and the distinctive customs and rhythms of the distant island. As witness to the many contrasting chronicles of the hotel's characters, he ultimately returns to writing once again. The result is this novel in 80 distinct episodes, a Chaucerian sequence of strange pilgrims and islanders confronting each other and their fates in the rooms of the seedy hotel.

Coventry Dakin's tale begins with her accidental killing of her neighbour. Forced to flee the law, she deserts her council estate, her boring husband and two demanding children for the anonymity of London's cardboard city. Originally published in 1988, Rebuilding Coventry is a brilliantly observed satire of Eighties Britain and the hypocrisy of the middle and upper classes.

Ellis Hock runs a menswear store in Massachusetts but still dreams of the four years he spent in Malawi. When his wife leaves him, he realises that there is only one place for him to go: back to Malawi, where he can be happy again.

The town of Little Woodford seems peaceful and picture-postcard beautiful, with its marketplace, ancient church and immaculate allotments. But behind the tranquil facade, troubles are brewing. Olivia Lewthwaite, former town councillor, pillar of the WI and all-round busybody, has been forced by her husband's gambling debts to sell their house - her pride and joy. She hates the new estate they've moved to and knows she needs to humble herself to apply for a job.

Little Woodford has a sleepy high street, a weekly market, a weathered old stone church and lovingly tended allotments. A peaceful, unexciting place, the very heart of middle England. In Little Woodford no one has fingers in more pies than Olivia Laithwaite, parish councillor, chair of the local WI, wife, mother and all-round queen bee. So of course it's Olivia who is first to spot that The Beeches has been sold at last. Soon rumours begin to swirl around the young widow who has bought this lovely house. Why exactly did she leave London with her beautiful stepdaughter and young sons?

Jessica has just had the wedding of her dreams, and now she's setting up a new home with her lawyer husband, Matthew. Even better - they are expecting a child. But as they paint the nursery and shop for the baby, Jessica keeps waiting for the excitement to kick in. Why isn't she transformed by maternal feelings? Where is the all-consuming love she's supposed to feel for her child?

Rose Pritchard and her seven-year-old daughter Maddie have left everything behind to come to the village of Millthwaite, Cumbria, in search of the person who once offered Rose hope. Almost immediately Rose wonders if she's chasing a dream - but she knows in her heart that she cannot go back. She's been given a second chance - at life, and love - but will she have the courage to take it?

Prinkipo Island, Turkey, 2017. In the glow of a late summer morning, family gather for the 100th birthday of the famous artist Sirin Saka. It ought to be a time of fond reminiscence, looking back on a long and fruitful artistic career, on memories spanning almost a century, but also of an era when imperial forces fought over her homeland. But the deep past is something Sirin has spent a lifetime trying to conceal. Her grandchildren, Nur and Fikret, and great grandchild do not know what Sirin is hiding, though they are intimately aware of the secret's psychological consequences.

When her ten-year marriage to Alistair ends with his infidelity, Kate Easton vows she will not make the same mistake twice. She will never put herself - or her two children - through a relationship again. Then Alistair announces that his new wife is pregnant and he intends to cut his financial support to Kate. To keep her home she must divide it up and make way for a lodger. Enter Davis Calder, a glamorous and charismatic tutor with a failed marriage of his own behind him.

Their oldest female primate, the wise and gentle Rue, is found murdered in a corner of the compound. And a big, panther-like cat, preys around the park. It evades capture, lurking in the shadows and in the back of Patrick's mind. With Patrick's son, Charlie, having left Monkeyland in disgrace and his wife on a field trip in Zaire, Patrick is left alone with his black cat and his fears. Until one night something happens that is so shocking, so deplorable, that it rips apart everything Patrick has ever held to be true.

Jas overhears his wife in bed with an Italian. Now his plan to retire early and spend their winters in Italy is out the window. He tries to confront Linda, but it all goes wrong. Is she toying with him?

She's toying with lots of other things - Italians, sexy underwear, massage oil. Jas tries to end it all, but that goes wrong too. Is his life over? Or has he got the wrong end of the stick? And just when things can't get worse, worse is what they get.

Mia is a successful child psychologist, hoping to be made a partner in her company. But then she accepts a case that will change her life forever. Gemma is a teenage girl whose father is on the run for embezzlement. The police think Gemma knows where he is, and they want Mia to talk to her. Both women are hiding devastating secrets, and both women need the other to survive. The question is, can they trust each other?

In this prize-winning poetry collection, we watch as the cartographer, used to assuming control over a place by mapping it, is gradually compelled to recognise a wholly different understanding of place as he tries to map his way to the rastaman’s eternal city of Zion. As the book unfolds the cartographer learns that every place name comes freighted with history, and not every place that can be named can be found.

As darkness falls on the M25, the flow of traffic comes to a halt. Time passes. More time padded. Then more. Drivers switch off their engines, then get out of their cars. And so the story begins… In this bold, state-of-the-nation novel, Jake Wallis Simons brings together characters from all walks of life and explores what happens when lives collide on the M25.

Perilously ill, Jasper Scriven spends his days roaming the wards of a derelict psychiatric hospital. Meanwhile his daughter Cleo is watched by Roland, a hulking, silent figure. These solitary characters are connected by an event that defies understanding, even as it continues to define them. In this brilliantly imagined and disturbing novel, James Scudamore explores the fallibility of memory and notions of madness.

Ginnie Holmes has found something she never intended to find - an overwhelming passion for a man she should not be with. At an abandoned boathouse hidden on the riverbank of the Thames, Ginnie steps into a world that’s just a little bit brighter than her ordinary life. Then, in a single terrifying event, the lovers' secret becomes a deadly catastrophe, and Ginnie finds herself in the path of extraordinary danger.

Once upon a time, Ellie had her 'happily ever after' moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband's tragic death leaves her alone with their son and facing with a mountain of debt. On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie decides to rent out some rooms. And all too soon the indomitable Allegra, estranged Sabine on secondment from Berlin and lads' mag aficionado Matt enter her ordered but fragile existence - each with their own messy life in tow.