'The morning I left home Mother was recovering from being poorly and she'd been sick in the vegetable basket.' Sisters Victoria and Blanche grow up in their grandfather's house in Warwickshire. It's a secluded existence: their mother is a war widow with a thirst for port and sherry and their last governess leaves never to be replaced. When their grandfather dies, their mother replaces drink with housework and the girls plan their escape. Blanche heads off to train as a model at a dubious i...

I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was . . . Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else' Maggie O'FarrellPretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s, where poverty, babies (however much loved) and husband conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia tak...

'Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else.' – Maggie O'Farrell, author of Hamnet That evening the baker's wife ran down the village street in a tattered pink nightgown. She screamed as she ran. Strange things are afoot in the English village where the Willoweed family live. First, the river floods in June. The family wakes to find ducks sailing around the drawing room and dead peacocks bobbing in the garden. But the flood is only the beginning of their troubles. All of a sudden the mil...

A feminist reimagining of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a single mother and an enchanted friendship—from one of most bewitching British writers of the 20th century.“Comyns’s world is weird and wonderful . . . Tragic , comic and completely bonkers all in one, I’d go as far as to call her something of a neglected genius.” —The ObserverBella Winter has hit a low. Homeless and jobless, she is the mother of a toddler by a man whos...

Strange things are afoot in the English village where the Willoweed family live.Unnatural floods usher in dead peacocks and ducks, soon followed by an ominous wave of self-inflicted deaths and a peculiar illness.From their humble Willoweed cottage, sisters Emma and Hattie are helpless spectators to this unfolding chaos, their childhood idyll disintegrating as fear infects their once-familiar world.But as the virus spreads and hysteria grips everyone around them, the...

'A small Gothic masterpiece… I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities - its darkness, its strangeness, its humour, its sadness, its startling images and twists of phrase' - Sarah Waters.Growing up in Edwardian south London, Alice Rowlands longs for romance and excitement, for a release from a life that is dreary and lonely. Her father, a vet, is harsh and oppressive; his new girlfriend, brash and lascivious.Alice seeks refuge in...

´I defy anyone to read the opening pages and not to be drawn in, as I was... Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else.´ - Maggie O'Farrell, author of "Hamnet".Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s, where poverty, babies (however much loved) and her husband conspire to torment her.Hopin...

The gaudy years of the Restoration are long gone. Robert Merivel, physician and courtier to Charles II, loved for his ability to turn sorrow into laughter, now faces the agitations and anxieties of middle age. Questions crowd his mind: has he been a good father? Is he a fair master? Is he the King's friend or the King's slave?In search of answers, Merivel sets off for the French court. But Versailles - all glitter in front and squalor behind - leaves Merivel in despair, until a cha...

Over one million copies soldToo many broken hearts to count‘A book unlike any other’ – The Guardian‘This novel challenged everything I thought I knew about love and friendship’ – Dua LipaThe million-copy bestseller, Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel of brotherly love and the limits of human endurance.JB, Jude, Malcolm and Willem....

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE**'It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon...'This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that summer's day in 1959. The whole family on the porch, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.From that porch we spool back through the generations, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded...

A novel in the bestselling quartet about two very different women and their complex friendship: "Everyone should read anything with Ferrante's name on it" ( The Boston Globe).The follow-up to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the epic New York Times–bestselling literary quartet that has inspired an HBO series, and returns us to the world of Lila and Elena, who grew up together in post-WWII N...

Us: a brilliant, bittersweet novel about love and family, husbands and wives, parents and children | Longlisted for the Booker Prize'Perfect'INDEPENDENT'I honestly can't imagine loving a novel much more'SUNDAY TIMES'I loved this book. Funny, sad, tender: for anyone who wants to know what happens after the Happy Ever After'JOJO MOYESDouglas and Connie - scient...