Showing titles in Friendship

When Lewis Harley has a health scare in his early 40s, he takes it as a wake-up call. So he and his wife, Charlotte, leave behind life in the fast lane, and Lewis opens the antiques shop he has dreamed of. Bonnie Brookland was brought up in the antiques trade and now works for the man who bought out her father's business, but she isn't happy there. So when she walks into Lew's shop, she knows this is the place for her.

Since his beloved wife Helen passed, Luke and six-year-old Amy are just about keeping the show on the road, but he’d do anything to have Helen near him again. Connie’s much-missed mum was everything to her daughter. A friend, a cheer-leader, a comfort, and the best housemate Connie ever had. What she wouldn’t give to speak to her one more time… Teenage twins Alex and Lucy both miss their dad desperately but neither have the words to put it right. In the heart of Dublin, a quiet community is forming, drawn together by the loved ones they have lost, but kept together by friendship and laughter.

Both grande dames think they know what's best, but with equal amounts of stubbornness on both sides, peace looks unlikely. Then a relationship between Alice's rebellious great-niece and a teenage acrobat sets the two communities on a collision course. But when the bakery starts making patisseries over lamingtons, the battle lines are truly drawn....

The inhabitants of the Inventor's Housing Estate keep themselves to themselves. There are the friendly 'Hellos' when commutes coincide and the odd cheeky eye roll when the wine bottles clank in number seven's wheelie bin, but it's not exactly Ramsay Street. The dilapidated community centre is no longer the beating heart of the estate that Becky remembers from her childhood. So the new pottery class she's helped set up feels like a fresh start. And not just for her.

25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences. When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy. In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.

Teenager Sally has just run away from a clinic where she to be treated for anorexia. She's furious with everything and everyone, and wants to be left in peace. Liss is in her 40s, living alone on a large farm that she runs single-handedly. She has little contact with the outside world, and no need for other people. From their first meeting, Sally realises that Liss isn't like other adults: she expects nothing of Sally and simply accepts who she is, offering her a bed for the night with no questions asked.

Justine is 21 years old, and has lived with her grandparents and her cousin Jules since the death of her parents. As a nursing assistant at a retirement home, she spends much of her days listening to her residents’ stories. After bonding with Hélène, an almost 100-year-old resident, the two women slowly reveal their stories to one another. Whilst Justine helps Hélène to relive her memories of love and war, Hélène encourages Justine to confront the secrets of her own past and the loss she keeps buried deep within.

Howard and Elsie Manning were born on the same day, met at kindergarten, and have been married for 59 years. They have lived sensible, productive lives, and raised two self-sufficient daughters. Now, at 78, they are bored with the predictability of life, fed up with contemporary society, have aching joints and dwindling finances, and—funeral by funeral—their circle of friends is shrinking. Worst of all, they are grieving for their beloved, recently deceased dog Maisie.

For forty-two years, Sally Harrison has been building a library. Each year, on her daughter’s birthday, she adds a new book to her shelves – with a note in the front dedicated to her own greatest work. But Ella – Sally’s only child – fled to Australia twenty-two years ago after a heated exchange, and never looked back. And though Sally still dutifully adds a new paperback to the shelves every time the clock strikes midnight on July 11th, her hopes of her daughter ever thumbing through the pages are starting to dwindle.

While very pretty, the tiny town of Melrose isn't where Erica thought she'd be at almost fifty. And working in a funeral home and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, while navigating her grief as a recent widow, is not how she thought her life would look either. But she's committed to her lovely new boss, Walter, who gave her a chance when she so desperately needed it.

Millie is in her final year at a Catholic girls' school, subdued by the conformity of her life and her parents' quiet pain. But when her schoolmate Olive moves in next door, it marks the beginning of an intoxicating friendship that changes everything. In all the ways Millie feels unsure and half-formed, Olive, an aspiring actor from a devoutly Catholic family, seems at ease with her place in the world. On the precipice of freedom, the two young women seize nights out and a school retreat as opportunities to further their own increasingly uncertain ends

Judy Goodman and Beverly Caldwell have different reasons for putting continents and oceans between themselves and their disparate pasts, but they have the same desire—to earn a coveted position on an elite team of stewardesses for Pan American Airlines. For Judy, running away from an oppressive marriage in small-town Pennsylvania is a risk she must take. And for Beverly, leaving behind the gilded cage of New York society will allow her to pursue a future of her own making.

Tara is a famous movie star, known for her leading roles in beloved rom-coms. When her husband shows up on set one day to tell her he’s leaving her for his much younger action movie co-star, her life is turned upside down. Alex is a powerhouse podcast host and writer, covering all things celebrity and pop culture. But she’s less of a girlboss when it comes to her love life, which has never quite recovered after an old flame left her heartbroken.

From Margaret Atwood, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, comes a dazzling collection of fifteen stories. These stories explore the full warp and weft of experience, from two best friends disagreeing about their shared past, to the right way to stop someone from choking; from a daughter determining if her mother really is a witch, to what to do with inherited relics such as World War II parade swords.

Eddie Winston is 90 years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed. A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love along the way. And it is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, at twenty-four years old, has just lost the love of her life. When Bella learns that Eddie is yet to have his first kiss, she resolves to help him finally find love.

After the death of her beloved mill-owner father, thirteen-year-old Darcy Earnshaw is left in the care of her lascivious uncle Abe. Not only is he determined to steal her inheritance, but as she blossoms into a captivating young woman, he longs to steal her innocence too. Desperate to avoid his advances, Darcy decides to flee. Alone and homeless, she is soon taken under the wing of John Carver, a kind-hearted beloved street performer and his family who is captivated by Darcy’s beautiful voice.

The war continues to rage, but for now, Harbour House continues to keep the Roby family safe from harm. Not so for new lodger Richard Stoneleigh. As one of the few men who can captain a ship, Richard is called to help with the dangerous evacuation of troops from Dunkirk – it’s a perilous voyage that almost costs Richard his life…

Serena and Beth are best friends who couldn’t be more different—Beth is an avowed demisexual, who lacks confidence in her career and in her chances at a happy relationship due to her sexual orientation. Serena is a free spirit who oozes with confidence, both in her job and her sexual proclivities. And yet, since the moment they met, they knew they were platonic soulmates. So, when Beth decides that she officially wants to take charge of her sex life and explore the things that scare her the most, Serena is more than happy to help.

Nate and Layla, Jude and Sophie. They've been a four for as long as they can remember: fancy dinners, dancing 'til dawn . . . Even living and working together. So when Nate and Layla suddenly quit their lives and move to Bali, with its white sands and exotic beach clubs, Jude and Sophie are their first visitors. Anything to escape their life in London. But as the two couples reunite, cracks begin to show. Which is hardly surprising; they've been lying to each other for years.

A woman visits a friend who is dying of cancer. Brilliant and stubborn, her friend makes a momentous request. She wishes to end her life on her own terms - and she wants the narrator's help. Stricken, she agrees. 'I promise,' says the friend, 'to make it as much fun as possible.' What follows is an extraordinary tale of a friendship put to the greatest test: to witness, unflinching, its end. It is also a portrait of the way we live now, in a world endlessly troubled by crises and the dramatically changing nature of human relationships in our time.