Five short stories by the novelist and short story writer Polly Samson.A Rose for Paul: A story giving hope to anyone who has to move on from a difficult relationship.The Morning After: A romantic tryst turns sour after an animal rights activist discovers the murderous taste of his lover in the form of her exotic Shatoosh shawl.The Itch: Playing on the idea of 'The Seven Year Itch', this is an unusual story about regeneration and recovery, set to the tale of a coupl...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Delicious' Nigella Lawson'Clever and beguiling' Guardian'Sublime and immersive' Jojo MoyesErica is eighteen and ready for freedom. It's the summer of 1960 when she lands on the sun-baked Greek island of Hydra where she is swept up in a circle of bohemian poets, painters, musicians, writers and artists, living tangled lives. Life on their island paradise is ...

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A THEATRE FOR DREAMERSLONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2017An Observer Book of the Year'Brilliant, tender and beautiful' ANDREW O'HAGAN**'A dark, sexy little masterpiece' JOJO MOYES'An addictive, cleverly structured and intriguing relationship story of lies and flawed communication' SUND...

With a new introduction by Polly Samson, Sunday Times bestselling author of A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS'Gorgeous... the written equivalent of lying in the sun eating figs' India Knight, Sunday Times'That summer we bought big straw hats. Maria's had cherries around the rim, Infanta's had forget-me-nots, and mine had poppies as red as fire. . .'Three Summers is a warm and tender tale of three sisters growing up i...

**FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA.'She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense' GUARDIAN'One of the last century's most original literary talents' DAILY TELEGRAPH**'Du Maurier employs well the assured balancing of uncanny possibilities ... and the bitterly wry sense of absurdity that were to characterise her finest fiction' HELEN TAYLOR, INDEPENDENT'I want to know if me...

Quite unlike her fair stepsisters, Lizzie is dark and secretive: 'Just like your father' says her mother. But what was her father like? Photos of him are hidden away; snatches of overheard conversation between her mother and her stepfather deepen the mystery. Only her best friend Savannah - also abandoned by her father when she was a baby - knows what it feels like to wonder, to try and piece together an earlier story. But when events propel Lizzie alone to London she stops wondering and s...

In an English seaside town, lovers and children, young men and middle-aged women weave in and out of each other's lives and stories.A mother is tormented by her daughter's tattoo; another only pretends to love her baby. A wife stalks her husband and his new lover; a broken egg through a letterbox tells a story that will not go away; the cat thinks he knows best. Threaded throughout are longings for love and poignant disappointments, surprising pleasures and temptations. Some will f...

Do you cover up or reveal it all; seek revenge or just reassurance; let the truth be naked as the day or cloaked in a night-time story? The men and women of Polly Samson's debut fiction all have stories to tell, pasts to forget, futures to forge. Manipulative or meek, used or using, all are aware of the power of truth, deception and little white lies to get what they want or sometimes what they deserve. Some are concerned with the economies of speech, those little 'kindnesses' which protec...

Julia is married and eight years Julian’s senior; he is a gifted English student, a life of academia ahead. Ignoring warnings, they each give up all they have to be together. When Julian hears that his boyhood home is for sale, he sets out to recreate a paradise for his new family. It is only when their daughter Mira becomes terrifyingly ill that it is impossible for Julia to conceal the explosive secret that she has been keeping from him.

By the acclaimed author of WAKE:Where love is your only escape ....1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors,where men and women are kept apartby high walls and barred windows,there is a ballroom vast and beautiful.For one bright evening every weekthey come togetherand dance.When John and Ella meetIt is a dance that will changetwo lives forever.Set over the heatw...

‘An emotional debut written straight from the heart’ – Julie Cohen, author of Dear ThingWaiting for You is an emotional and gripping debut novel you won’t be able to put down…You’d never guess that Fliss Chapron doesn’t have it allAll Fliss wants is to see two blue lines telling her she is pregnant with her much longed for second baby. But as the negative tests stack up, dreams of completing her perfect family feel...

Annabel Kantaria's 2025 thriller YOU LIED FIRST is available now! In a family built on lies, who can you trust?‘Utterly compelling.’ – Judy FinniganAudrey Bailey will never forget the moment she met Ralph Templeton in the sweltering heat of a Bombay café. Her lonely life over, she was soon married with two small children. But things in the Templeton household were never quite what they seemed.Now approaching 70, and increasingly a burden on the chil...