Showing results by author "A. A. Gill" in All Categories

Alice Lee, middle-aged and unmarried, is the only volunteer when the minister asks his congregation to help young Zebediah Bailey. Zeb is in prison for a ghastly crime, and the townspeople would rather forget than forgive this local lad who lost his way. But Alice dutifully writes to him every week, sending him sweets from the little shop that is her livelihood: Alice Lee's Confectionary. She won't admit she's lonely, but since her parents' deaths, making and selling sweets has become her whole world.

When Inspector James Hardy learns the body of a young woman discovered in the River Thames is that of a friend, his life goes into a tail-spin. The victim’s flatmate is on the run for her life. She could be the key to catching the killer. In a race against time, Hardy must track her down before the killer does. As the truth behind the investigation unfolds, Hardy’s own family come under threat. With two young daughters to protect and an investigation that twists and turns, Hardy finds himself pushed to the limit.

In 1920s England, private detective Henry Fleming is visiting his friend, retired author Lily Riley, in the quintessentially English village of Fulbridge. Tragedy strikes when a resident is murdered, stabbed through the heart, in the historic local church. When an inexperienced Scotland Yard detective arrives to investigate the case, Lily is accused of the terrible crime. With no sign of a murder weapon, and no obvious motive, Fleming realises it will fall to him to prove his friend's innocence and solve the baffling case.

A modern topology of nonmonogamy’s many possibilities—and consequences.

After Ruth Dixon's mother deserts her on Christmas Eve, her father comes home drunk and commits an unthinkable act. Without money or friends she has nowhere to go, but when he hurts her a second time, she knows what she must do. She is rescued by Jay, a businessman, who takes her to the convent where she meets Sister Madeline. Along with the rest of the nuns, Maddy provides food, shelter and education for orphans. Ruth comes to see her new friends as family, and things are finally looking up.

The small town of Bridgeford is in crisis. The high street is half empty, businesses are closing, and the idea of civic pride seems old-fashioned to the commuters rushing home from work. Somehow it seems to have lost its heart. But there is one thing that might just bring the town together: music. The Bridgeford Community Choir has a chance of winning the county championship. First, though, the small band of singers must find a lot of new members and a whole new sound.

Why Mummy Swears is the much anticipated new novel from Gill Sims, author of the hilarious Why Mummy Drinks and online sensation Peter and Jane. It’s every parents’ nightmare - the start of the school holidays - and instead of sitting in the sun, reading a book over a cold, crisp glass of Pinot Grigio, Mummy has two bored moppets to attend to. After frantically booking sports camps, child minder slots, not to mention time off work, Mummy is exhausted. But this is only the beginning....

All Mary wants to do is protect her family. But how can she, when their father keeps tearing it apart? Grieving for their mother and abandoned by their father, Mary and her siblings seek refuge at the foundling school. But the school has its own struggles, short-staffed since Hilary married. When the nuns hire Mary's father, and he arrives with the pregnant 16-year-old he left their mother for, Mary's newfound world is shaken. Can she make a new life for her siblings when their father is set on disrupting it?

1840: 23 years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family’s friends, the Fowles. She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets she is desperate should not be revealed. As Cassandra recalls her youth and her relationship with her brilliant yet complex sister, she pieces together buried truths about Jane’s history and her own.

This book, the second posthumous collection of his journalism, brings together pieces from near and far. He was ferociously well travelled, and once wrote that for all our ability to cross the world at will, 'abroad is as foreign and funny and strange and shocking as it ever was, and our need to know our neighbours every bit as great'. This is a book about meeting those neighbours.

Claire’s family has gone nuclear. Her precious moppets keep calling Childline when she feeds them broccoli, she’s utterly Ottolenghied out at weekends and her darling husband is having an affair with her best friend. The question isn’t whether she needs a glass of wine, but is there one big enough? Enter the Sauvignon Sisterhood, a new set of friends brought together by a shared love of liquid therapy. Together they might just be able to convince Claire that, like a good bottle of red, life really can get better with age.

A heart-wrenching family saga for fans of Dilly Court and Val Wood. Kath walked for so long that she wanted to lie down in the snow and sleep, but she thought of her sister and knew she must go on. Soon the snow was so deep that she couldn't move. She could feel her shoes disintegrating, and her feet were numb. The sky cleared, and a great big moon came out, and there were so many stars. She remembered what her mother had said before she died, that each star was one of her people.

It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere is a new podcast from authors, bloggers and great friends, Jo Middleton and Gill Sims. In it, Gill and Jo kick back with a cocktail and have a bit of fun discussing random topics including but not limited to, parenting, hormones, menopause, weird nineties sex tips, and relationships. Oh, and we also proffer advice we are in no way qualified to give in our regular problem page slot. Jo Middleton is the creator of the award winning Slummy Single Mummy blog, and the author of Playgroups and Prosecco, and Gill Sims is the author of the bestselling Why Mummy series ...

We all know that walking is good for us. It strengthens our muscles and bones, improves our general health and relaxes the mind. But how do we keep the joy in walking and stop it becoming a chore? Gill Stewart is a walking expert and fitness professional who has developed a unique holistic approach to help us reap the myriad benefits of walking – for our mind and our body. Designed for all levels of walker, from beginners to the more seasoned hiker, Walk This Way is packed with gentle and practical inspiration to ensure you gain something from every walk you take.

In a Yorkshire Dales village in the 1970s, best mates Michael, a boy with a strong sense of tradition and family loyalty, and Jack, a boy drawn to new horizons, are there for each other through traumatic childhoods.

Emma Appleby's arrival in the County Durham village of Tow Law is sudden and mysterious, provoking deep suspicion in the locals. And because she has a child with her, seemingly out of marriage, they want nothing to do with her - except for pub landlord Mick Castle. When Emma opens an academy and sets herself up in competition with the local school, she provokes a savage response from the community.

Get a completely new look at guitar legend Eddie Van Halen with this groundbreaking oral history, composed of more than 50 hours of interviews with Eddie himself as well as his family, friends, and colleagues.

It’s almost Mummy’s 50th birthday. The hot flushes have just started, and nowadays she barely recognises herself. She’s been a wife and mother for so long that she can’t quite remember what life was like pre-moppets (although they’re more like giants now). Speaking of, Jane is constantly partying and naturally more interested in passing her driving test than her A-Levels. In fact, trying to get the kids through their exams at all is almost as excruciating as waiting for their results.

Sisters Alice and Jenny are in their early 20s when the Germans occupy their home of Jersey. Alice, a nurse, is called to work in the German hospital, unaware that she will find a great love but that she will make an even greater sacrifice and be sent to a place across the seas where she will witness unbearable suffering. Meanwhile her sister, Jenny, is drawn into a circle of islanders who decide to rise up and resist the occupiers. For both sisters, the war will cause them to make extraordinary choices, experience unimaginable heartbreak and emerge forever changed....

Why Mummy Drinks is the brilliant novel from Gill Sims, the author of the online sensation Peter and Jane. It is Mummy's 39th birthday. She is staring down the barrel of a future of people asking if she wants to come to their advanced yoga classes and polite book clubs where everyone claims to be tiddly after a glass of Pinot Grigio and says things like 'oooh gosh, are you having another glass?'