Showing titles in Literature & Fiction

Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved. As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.

Linda Smith lives in her East London home, where her daily routine involves dozing through Thought for the Day, filing and cross-referencing the pizza leaflets that come through her door, and updating her limited edition 'Songbirds of Great Britain' porcelain collection. That is, when she's not managing the chaos caused by her flamboyant, sugar-loving live-in builder Chris; dealing with the demands of her morbid, crumbly boned Welsh neighbour Betty; or taking regular jaunts chauffeured by Worra, the philosophical Nigerian cabby.

The perfect seasonal tale of how laughter, friends and wacky Christmas jumpers can mend a broken heart. For fans of Trisha Ashley and Jenny Colgan. Heartbroken after being jilted at the altar, Sybil has been saved from despair by her knitting obsession and now her home is filled to bursting with tea cosies, bobble hats, and jumpers.

It is opening night at the London Palladium, and tensions are running high amongst the feuding cast of "Leopard Spots". When an on-stage accident forces an unexpected intermission, it is clear to dresser Jayne that the drama has turned deadly. Will she step out of the wings and discover who was behind the final curtain call? Or will murder make an encore?

Left hand down a bit! The clueless crew of HMS Troutbridge have returned to port after months at sea, and are soon getting into more hilarious scrapes... Included here are the complete Series Ten and Eleven of the fondly remembered show, remastered and restored for your listening pleasure. In these 34 vintage episodes, Troutbridge is assigned a new Captain, the seasick Commander Trotter; Povey prepares for a visit from Prime Minister Harold Wilson; the ship is hijacked by Forbodian spies; and Murray is promoted - and gets hitched to the Admiral's daughter...

Bo is running out of time. Yet time is one of the few things he’s got left; his body is failing him and his quiet existence is only broken up by the daily visits from his home care team. His hands soon too weak to open the precious jar housing the scarf of his Alzheimer-stricken wife Frederika, which still bears her scent. Fortunately he still has his beloved dog Sixten for company, only now his son insists upon taking the dog away. The very same son that Bo is wanting to mend his relationship with before his time is up.

At 66 Star Street in Dublin, someone is watching over the lives of the people living in its flats. But no one is aware of it - yet... One of them is ready to take the plunge and fall in love; another is torn between two very different lovers. For some, secrets they want to stay buried will come to light and for others, the unveiling of those secrets will have tragic consequences.

Austin Rogers's dreams of domestic bliss involved watching Netflix and eating hot dogs with the love of her life. But then he cheated on her. And dumped her - as if the whole thing was her fault. To maintain her pride and restore her sanity, she decides to get revenge. It feels immensely satisfying to plot her ex's downfall - but so does kissing him.

Twenty years ago, Carly Cooper went on an epic quest to track down all the men she’d ever loved and lost in the hope that one of them was her Mr Right. Now, two decades and two teenage sons later, she thinks she might have got it all wrong. As the years have passed, lots of things have changed, leaving Carly asking, ‘What now?’ With a divorce and an empty nest on the horizon, Carly sets off once more to Los Angeles with her band of trusty girlfriends, to find the carefree, wild and adventurous Carly Cooper that she used to be.

Georgia and Lydia are so close they're practically sisters. So when Lydia starts an online business that struggles, Georgia wants to help her - but she also understands Lydia's not the kind to accept a handout. Setting up a fake Twitter account, Georgia hopes to give her friend some anonymous moral support by posing as a potential customer. But then Lydia starts confiding in her new internet buddy, and Georgia discovers she doesn't know her quite as well as she thought. Georgia knows she should reveal herself, but she's fascinated by this insight into her friend's true feelings.

Dulcie Mainwaring is always helping others, but never looks out for herself—especially in the realm of love. Her friend Viola is besotted by the alluring Dr Aylwin Forbes, so surely it isn't prying if Dulcie helps things along? Aylwin, however, is smitten with Dulcie's pretty young niece. And perhaps Dulcie herself, however ridiculous it might be, is falling, just a little, for Aylwin. Once life's little humiliations are played out, maybe love will be returned, and fondly, after all.

It's not that single mum Charlotte Newman is completely and utterly obsessed with crafting, necessarily. Sure, she has balls of wool stashed everywhere like a squirrel stores nuts and more needles than a tattoo parlour. But that doesn't mean she has a problem, right? Finding herself between jobs, Charlotte fills her time teaching crafting skills at the local nursing home. Encouraged by how positively the residents respond, the possibility of a career doing what she adores fills her mind.

Evelyn and Muriel Axon, mother and daughter, lead a haunted existence. Objects of horror to their neighbours, they evade or terrorise any social worker who crosses their path. Inside their house, they pursue a covert persecution of each other, shrinking from the unseen occupants of their spare room. But change is in the air… Every Day is Mother's Day is a merciless comedy of colliding lives: of sex, death, madness, adultery and the social services.

When Chet the dog, "the most lovable narrator in all of crime fiction" (Boston Globe), and his partner, PI Bernie Little of the desert-based Little Detective Agency, arrive to a meeting with hydrologist Wendell Nero, they are in for a shocking sight - Wendell has come to a violent and mysterious end. What did the hydrologist want to see them about? Is his death a random robbery, or something more? Chet and Bernie, working for nothing more than an eight-pack of Slim Jims, are on the case.

Here, we have a glorious ensemble of Woodhousian characters knocking elbows to foreheads in the elegant and grand Blandings Castle. Meet Freddy Threepwood, the vagrant son of doddering old Lord Emsworth of Blandings Castle. Freddy has recently become engaged to Aline Peters, the American heiress of an irascible father. The snag is that Freddy seems to have at one point become enamored of a struggling actress, Joan Valentine, and written some impetuous and imprudent letters to her.

Charlotte feels shell-shocked as she takes in the scene before her. To the left is her (ex?) fiancé’s retreating figure as he hotfoots it back to civilization; in front, the crumbling Greek island farmhouse she thought was their shared dream; and just below, a goat munching merrily on her sunhat….

Bel’s joined the Manchester office of a big national paper from her award-winning podcast. There’s only three of them – Bel, her relentlessly ambitious colleague Aaron, and the new intern. And when the intern turns out to be a thirty-something man called Connor, she gets off on totally the wrong foot. She’s patronising, he’s hostile. It’s a terrible start. Then Bel gets a sniff at a really big story, Connor gets caught in the crossfire, and before they know it, they have to convince people they’re a couple – and a couple in love at that.

Sarah Yates is a thirty-something history teacher, divorced, disillusioned and desperate to have more excitement in her life. Then one evening the doorbell rings and the handsome and mysterious John Needler brings more excitement than Sarah could ever have imagined. John wants Sarah to go back in time trying to make sure people find their happy endings. The question is, will she ever be able to find hers?

It's hard being that woman, the one whose husband disappeared. He went out five years ago for a pint of milk and never came back. So here I am with a daughter who blames me for everything, a son trying his best to pick up the pieces and a gaggle of neighbours who are incredibly nosy. Then I find a left luggage ticket in the pocket of one of his old coats and suddenly I'm thinking... What if he's not dead? What if he's still out there somewhere?

Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny have been despatched to assist a group of scientists who are investigating a mysterious black hole which has appeared on a Somerset hillside. Could it really be a doorway to another dimension, an opening into another world? When one of the scientists disappears into the hole - with fatal consequences - Ishmael must prove whether it was an accident - or murder. But with no clues, no witnesses, and no apparent motive, he has little to go on. Is there an alien predator at large, or is an all-too-human killer responsible?