In this gentle prequel to the Saint Maggie Series, widow Maggie Blaine has scant joy in Christmas of 1852. Having lost her husband nearly three years earlier and her much-loved Aunt Letty that year, she struggles to maintain the boarding house and feed and care for those who live in it. Finally, she hires a woman named Emily Johnson to help her. Even though Maggie is white and Emily is black, the two women become friends. When Emily and her husband Nate suffer a disaster, the financially-challenged Maggie decides help them at the expense of Christmas dinner and her beloved Dundee cake.

Sometimes miracles happen when you expect them least but need them most. It is Christmas Eve of 1863. As a snow storm howls out-side, Maggie and her family care for their three youngest members, all of whom are seriously ill. A knock at the door brings an unanticipated interruption in the form of an odd little peddler. Despite her anxiety over the children, Maggie invites the stranger in and feeds him supper, an act of kindness that has an impact on her entire family.

Romance is in the air for Maggie Blaine Smith's daughters when Sergeant Patrick McCoy (daughter Frankie Blaine's beau) and Captain Philip Frost (daughter Lydia Blaine Lape's friend) make a surprise visit to Blaineton, New Jersey on their way to their new posts at Mower General Hospital, Philadelphia. Maggie struggles as she realizes that her daughters are becoming women. Eighteen-year-old Frankie will marry Patrick eventually. That much is obvious. But when? Maggie hopes and prays it will not for a while yet. Meanwhile, her husband Eli Smith is on a campaign to protect his stepdaughter's chastity, something both Frankie and Patrick find annoying. Neither parent, though, has any concerns about Lydia. She is the sensible one, the one who never does anything impulsively. In addition, she is an adult - nearly twenty-two years of age - and still in mourning for her late husband, Edgar Lape. Nothing to see here. Or is there?A visit Philadelphia and its Great Central Fair of 1864 just might change things for everyone.

Maggie Beatty Blaine Smith is a woman with a big heart. She used to run a rooming house and happily welcomed "down on their luck" boarders. Maggie also is a white woman who lives and works with her friends Nate and Emily Johnson, who are black. Because the boarding house had been located next to Blaineton's town square, the people living in Maggie's house were clearly visible, meaning that the town folk wrinkled their noses at her establishment and labeled her as an eccentric do-gooder.But now it is 1864. The members of her household have become more prosperous and they all have moved to the edge of Blaineton and into the spacious confines of Greybeal House. And Maggie is free to pursue her loving, welcoming lifestyle without having to face the town's disapproval. So, when Mary and Addie, two orphaned girls of color, show up, Maggie and Emily take them in without a thought. Upon learning that the girls need an education, the two women decide to enroll them in the Blaineton School, only to discover there's a problem: the school no longer takes black pupils. Worse yet, the one educational option open for children of color has been closed down.Maggie and Emily quickly come up with a solution: start a privately funded school not just for Mary and Addie, but for all of Blaineton's black children, one that will be far away from prying eyes. But word soon begins to spread about the school, talk morphs into resentment and anger, and things rapidly spin out of control. When controversy finally threatens to blow Blaineton apart, Maggie is called upon to unite the town.

It is August of 1862 and sixteen-year-old Frances "Frankie" Blaine learns that her beau, Patrick, will be enlisting in the Army. In the flush of first love, Frankie wants to be by his side. She also wonders why she can't enlist and fight in the war too. Since no one seems able to give her a rational explanation other than that she can't because she is a girl, Frankie comes up with a plan. But it backfires and thrusts her into a world that she didn't expect and from which she learns some large lessons.

2020 IBPA Awards Winner! The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook presents over 100 recipes that showcase the cookery and customs of the Crawley household—from upstairs dinner party centerpieces to downstairs puddings and pies—and bring an authentic slice of Downton Abbey to modern kitchens and Downton fans. Whether adapted from original recipes of the period, replicated as seen or alluded to on screen, or typical of the time, all the recipes reflect the influences found on the Downton Abbey tables. Food historian Annie Gray gives a rich and fascinating insight into the background of the dishes that were popular between 1912 and 1926, when Downton Abbey is set —a period of tremendous change and conflict, as well as culinary development. With a foreword by Gareth Neame, executive producer and co-creator of Downton Abbey, and featuring over 100 stunning color photographs, The Downton Abbey Cookbook also includes a special section on hosting Downton-themed dinner parties and presents stills from across the TV series as well as the latest film. Notes on the etiquette and customs of the times, quotes from the characters, and descriptions of the scenes in which the foods appear provide vivid context for the dishes. The recipes are grouped by occasion, which include breakfast; luncheons and suppers; afternoon tea and garden parties; picnics, shoots and race meets; festivities; upstairs dinner; downstairs dinner; downstairs supper and tea; and the still room. From the upstairs menu: Cornish Pasties Sausage Rolls Oysters au Gratin Chicken Vol-au-Vents Cucumber Soup Soul a la Florentine Salmon Mousse Quail and Watercress Charlotte Russe From the downstairs menu: Toad-in-the-Hole Beef Stew with Dumplings Steak and Kidney Pie Cauliflower Cheese Rice Pudding Jam and Custard Tarts Gingerbread Cake Summer Pudding With these and more historic recipes—compelling to a contemporary palate and easy to replicate in today’s kitchens—savor the rich traditions and flavors of Downton Abbey without end.

"It's just the real inexplicable gorgeous brilliant thing this book. I love it in a way I usually reserve for people." --Max Porter A dazzling, prizewinning short story collection that showcases a bold new talent Eley Williams has been a literary sensation ever since this collection of experimental short fiction was published in the UK. Lauded as "elegant" (The Guardian) and "exhilarating" (Vanity Fair), Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Black Prize, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and was named a best book of the year by The Guardian. Attrib. presents a cast of unforgettable characters standing at the precipice of emotional events (a disastrous breakup, a successful date, an unexpected arrival) and finding it fiendishly impossible to express themselves. With intimate, irreverent, and playful prose, Eley Williams rejoices in both the possibilities and limitations of language, as well as the very human need to be known and understood--despite our own best efforts. Original and inventive in the vein of Lydia Davis, Deborah Eisenberg, and Amy Hempel, these stories are "emotionally delicate and tenderly introspective" (New Statesman) and "an absolute must-read" (The London Magazine).