Leonora Brito's literary career, though cut tragically short, produced some of the most unique, culturally diverse and fresh fiction the Welsh writing scene has encountered. Though Cardiff-born, Brito's work was frequently shaped by her Afro-Carribean roots, and her stories are characterised by an abundance of freethought and a striking singularity of perspective. Full of wry humor and startling originality, this collection features some of Brito's most acclaimed stories, including 'Mama's...

A snowball fight between rival schools, divided by language, melts into a genuine offer of support for a family of newcomers...A homeless man recalls how he inherited his grandmother’s ability to smell lies, only to tell his biggest fib right in front of her...An embattled sweetshop owner plots revenge on a mischievous schoolboy – one who might be familiar to us all…As the stories in this anthology demonstrate, the small but mighty capital...

A secret heard in confession forces a Scottish, small-town, Catholic priest to investigate a murder in this series opener by the author of Troubled Waters.In the house of a Roman Catholic bishop, a man lies in a pool of blood. Out in the bishop's diocese, the quiet life of parish priest Father Vincent Ross is about to be thrown into turmoil by a terrifying revelation. There are ugly scandals hidden by the church he has served for so long, and a murderer is ...

One of five sisters, Margaret Rose Astbury grew up in Wednesbury during the first half of the twentieth century. Despite the constant struggle to make ends meet, and the hardship and worry of wartime, life in the Black Country was not all doom and gloom. In the crowded terraced houses and teeming communal yards, there was love and laughter aplenty.Meg was no angel, and was often up to her armpits in mischief. But she knew she could rely on her sisters to stick up for her and her mo...

Winifred Foley grew up in the 1920s, a bright, determined miner's daughter - in a world of unspoilt beauty and desperate hardship, in which women were widowed at thirty and children died of starvation. Living hand-to-mouth in a tumbledown cottage in the Forest of Dean, Foley - 'our Poll' - had a loving family and the woods and streams of a forest 'better than heaven' as a playground. But a brother and sister were dead in infancy, bread had to be begged from kindly neighbours and she never ...

A delightful short story from Jane Gardam, revisting that Titan of the Hong Kong law courts, Edward Feathers (known to many as Old Filth) in the days after he loses his beloved wife, Betty.

122 fantastic stories from Britain's best crime writersFor ten years the Mammoth Best British Crime series has been publishing an annual volume of the most outstanding crime and mystery short fiction published in the UK. Over 400 stories by the very best writers in the field have been published. Contributors have included, among many others, Mark Billingham, Liza Cody, Roger Jon Ellory, Reginald Hill, Peter James, Simon Kernick, Alexander McCall Smith, Val McDermid...

After her years in domestic service, Winifred Foley married and started a family. But, while scraping a living as a charwoman in a rundown north London tenement, she continued to long for her home in the Forest of Dean and the cherished relatives she had left behind. Determined to give their children the rural upbringing she had enjoyed, the young couple moved to an isolated, crumbling cottage not far from the Forest. But even in the 1950s they lacked heating or running water, and money wa...

William Woodruff had the sort of childhood satirised in the famous Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch. The son of a weaver, he was born on a pallet of straw at the back of the mill and two days later his mother was back at work. Life was extrememly tough for the family in 1920's Blackburn -- a treat was sheep's head or cow heel soup -- and got worse when his father lost his job when the cotton industry started its terminal decline. Woodruff had to find his childhood fun in the little free ti...

‘Give me the boy and I will show you the man’ the saying goes. In this warm, tender, wonderfully evocative and often hilarious memoir one of the best-loved men in Britain, Alan Titchmarsh, brilliantly recalls his childhood in 1950s Yorkshire.Growing up in the beautiful landscape that surrounds Ilkley in Wharfedale inspired Alan’s early passion for nature.In a time of post-war austerity, hard work and ‘making do’ was not just the lot of the grown-ups; for the young Alan it was...

A two-book bundle of national treasure Phyllida Law’s charming and funny memoirs of family life and motherhood – ‘Notes to my Mother-in-Law’ and ‘How Many Camels Are There in Holland?’.This ebook bundle is published in paperback as ‘Three Mothers (and a camel)’.Phyllida Law’s treasured mother-in-law Annie was the lynchpin of the entire family, so when they realised she was growing ever more deaf the only solution was for Phyllida to note down all the day’s goss...

The first-ever joke book from one of the UK's best-loved comedians, Les Dawson's Joke Book is a must for any fan of this perennially popular comedian. Collecting together the highlights of his 26-year career across radio and television, from his early days on Opportunity Knocks to Cissie and Ada. A lover of language, Les was a secret poet and was fond of high culture, often undercutting his own admiration of the art forms for comic effect. The book includes examples of al...