Showing results by author "Wendy Holden" in All Categories

Practical, timely, relevant, and inspiring, 10 Mindful Minutes is Goldie Hawn's gift to parents who want to help their children learn better and live happier lives. 

Marion Crawford was 22 when she became governess to the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1933. A working-class girl with progressive ideas, she had intended to teach children in the Edinburgh slums. Instead, she had a ringside seat at some of the most seismic events of the 20th century. The castles and palaces housed a family frozen in time. But outside the royal gates, poverty and unemployment were breeding unrest in 1930s Britain. Hitler was on the rise in Europe. If royalty was to survive, it must draw closer to the people. 

Among millions of Holocaust victims sent to Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944, Priska, Rachel and Anka each passed through its infamous gates with a secret. Strangers to each other, they were newly pregnant and facing an uncertain fate without their husbands. Alone, scared and with so many loved ones already lost to the Nazis, these young women were privately determined to hold on to all they had left: their lives and those of their unborn babies.

On a bitterly cold night in January 2012, Haatchi the dog was hit over the head, and abandoned on a railway line to be hit by a train. A Facebook appeal brought him to the attention of a couple of kind-hearted dog lovers, Colleen Drummond and Will Howkins, who are also the dad and stepmum of Owen. Owen has a rare genetic disorder which causes his muscles to tense permanently. This audiobook tells their inspiring true story - one astonishing little boy and the very special dog who has changed his life forever.

Best-selling author Goldie Hawn offers parents a practical guide for helping their children to learn better and live more happily. Based on the MindUP programme, supported by the Hawn Foundation, 10 Mindful Minutes outlines short, practical exercises for parents and children - taking less than 10 minutes - to help young children and teenagers reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration and academic performance, effectively manage emotions and behaviour, develop greater empathy for others and the world, and be more optimistic and happy.  

Post Edna Adan Ismail endured it all – for the women of Africa. Edna saw first-hand how poor healthcare, lack of education and ancient superstitions had devastating effects on Somaliland’s people, especially its women. When she suffered the trauma of FGM herself as a young girl at the bidding of her mother, Edna’s determination was set. The first midwife to practise in Somaliland, Edna became a formidable teacher and campaigner for women’s health.

Laura Lake longs to be a journalist. Instead she's an unpaid intern at a glossy magazine, sleeping in the fashion cupboard and living on canapés. But she's just got her first big break: infiltrate three society weddings and write a juicy exposé. Security will be tighter than a bodycon dress, but how hard can it be? Cue disappearing brides, demanding socialites and a jealous colleague determined to bring her down.

Laura Lake, editor of glossy magazine Society, is always on the hunt for scandalous scoops to fill her pages. Now she's discovered a top-secret village in the English countryside where the rich and famous own weekend retreats. Where film stars, Turner-prize winners and billionaires park their helicopters outside the gastropub and buy £100 sourdough loaves from the deli. Outsiders are strictly forbidden. But luckily Laura's best friend Lulu, a logo-obsessed socialite with a heart as huge as her sunglasses, suddenly fancies a quiet life in the country....

London's most glamorous glossy magazine is in trouble. Advertising revenues are nonexistent, and if editor Laura Lake can't pick them up, she's out of a job. According to those in the know, Scotland is having a fashion moment. Haggis tempura is on Michelin-starred menus, smart spas are offering porridge facials and a chain of eco-hotels is offering celebrity bagpipe lessons. 

Wild and Free is the festival du jour. Everyone piles through its gates - and Cupid lies in wait. Teacher Ginnie is desperate to forget her crush on headmaster Mark and hopes glamping might do the trick. But Mark is also heading for Wild and Free to reform his college band...desperate not to be recognised. Mark's bandmate, James, dreams of a festival blowout with his son, Guy...until his wife, Victoria, kills the dream.

Ambitions clash when the village launches an allotment project. Morag wants to plough hers with a horse; Beth buys a gleaming mini-tractor; Alexandra arrives with a Chanel spade & film crew, while Mary endures the advice of a champion vegetable-grower.

Kate, a journalist in a small northern town, is fed up with covering black-pudding championships for the Slackmucklethwaite Mercury and living with Mum, Dad, and Gran in a semi called Wits End. When evil tycoon Peter Hardstone takes over the paper, slashes budgets, and sacks staff, Kate's career hits an all-time low. However, gloom turns to glamour once Hardstone's sexy son arrives to work on the Mercury.

Scheming social climber Alexa may be humbly born. But only a title, mansion and family tiara will do. Befriending feckless aristo Florrie (three surnames plus black hole where her brain should be) means the grandest doors swing open and the prince of her dreams is in sight. But has Florrie’s mother, the formidable Lady Annabel, rumbled what Alexa is up to? Beautiful but penniless student Polly, meanwhile, is in love.

It's the new university term among the dreaming spires. The start of a whole new life. Meet Isabel, beautiful, clever, shy - and leaving home for the first time. Meet Olly, recently graduated, idealistic and a little hopeless, a man whose heart leads his brain and for whom opportunity just hasn't come knocking - yet. Meet Amber, the It girl who is soon partying with the fast set - and no-one is faster than Jasper de Borchy, glamorous leader of the notorious Bullinger club.

It's the new university term among the dreaming spires. The start of a whole new life. Meet Isabel, beautiful, clever, shy - and leaving home for the first time. Meet Olly, recently graduated, idealistic and a little hopeless, a man whose heart leads his brain and for whom opportunity just hasn't come knocking - yet. Meet Amber, the It girl who is soon partying with the fast set - and no-one is faster than Jasper de Borchy, glamorous leader of the notorious Bullinger club.

Two couples meet in an antenatal class and loathe each other on sight. Flashy Hugo and Amanda plan a five-star birthing experience with private hospitals and maternity nurses. Right-on Alice and Jack want a home delivery with whale music. But baby Theo has barely arrived before Hugo and Amanda hit problems: Hugo fails miserably to bond with his son and Amanda decides motherhood is boring.

Sophie seems to have a perfect marriage. She, her author husband, Mark, and their daughter live in a big house full of antiques. But as Mark's best-selling star rises, his best husband status is sliding out of the chart, and Sophie feels neglected.

She stopped at nothing. To get everything. Scheming social climber Alexa may be humbly born. But she's a class-hopping cruise missile aimed at the very top of the gold-digging tree. Only a title, mansion and family tiara will do. Befriending feckless aristo Florrie (three surnames plus black hole where her brain should be) means the grandest doors swing open and the prince of her dreams is in sight. But

Alice wants her own art gallery. But at the moment. she’s running her nightmare boss Angelica’s, which is full of gold-sprayed wheelchairs, hairy pebbles, and heads made of frozen wee. Her love life’s just hit a major Blue Period as well. Worse, she has to cope with Zeb, a bad-boy artist whose works go for bazillions. But along comes Dan, a handsome, brilliant young portrait painter for whom life is far from easel.