The brand new series, perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY, from the author of the hugely successful MORLAND DYNASTY novels Behind the doors of the magnificent Ashmore Castle, secrets are waiting to be uncovered . . . 1901. When the Earl of Stainton dies in a tragic hunting accident, Giles, the eldest son of the noble Tallant family, must step forward to replace him as the head of the family. But Giles has avoided the Castle and his stifling relatives for years, deciding instead to forge his own path away from the spotlight. Now, he must put aside his ambitions and honour his duty to the family. With their world upended, the Tallants and their servants struggle to find their place in the house - and society - once again. And Giles realises that, along with the title and the castle, he's also inherited his father's significant financial troubles that threaten the security of his entire family. In Kensington, Kitty Bayfield, the painfully shy but moneyed daughter of a Baronet, has just left school with her penniless companion Nina. Nina captures the new Earl's heart, but only Kitty can save his family from their debts, and soon Giles must choose between his duty and his heart . . . The Secrets of Ashmore Castle is the first in a brand new historical family drama series, filled with heartbreak, romance and intriguing secrets waiting to be uncovered. The perfect read for fans of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton and rich period dramas

The second novel in the Ashmore Castle series, perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY, from the author of the hugely successful MORLAND DYNASTY novels Behind the doors of the magnificent Ashmore Castle, secrets are waiting to be uncovered . . . England, 1903. Giles, the new Earl of Stainton, is struggling to bring his family's estate back to order after the death of his father, and he has little time to spare for his young pregnant wife, Kitty. She lives in fear of her mother-in-law, who won't give up the reins of the household. Will she ever truly be mistress of Ashmore Castle? Perhaps if her coming child is a boy, that will change the balance of power... Meanwhile, the Earl's younger sisters are having their first taste of romance, but not necessarily with the right people. Richard is pursuing his forbidden relationship with Molly, while Nina makes a lively new friend who leads her straight into trouble and pushes her relationship with her husband to the limit. And below stairs, ambition, jealousy and revenge stalk the corridors, while a tragic suicide, a tender romance, and finally a mysterious disappearance challenge the castle's residents, both high and low . . . The second novel in the Ashmore Castle historical family drama series, filled with heartbreak, romance and intriguing secrets waiting to be uncovered. The perfect read for fans of Downton Abbey, Bridgerton and rich period dramas.

A Bill Slider mystery - When Melanie Hunter goes missing, the men in her life come under suspicion. And there's plenty to suspect: lies, half-truths, deceptions. When you pull one thread, the whole fabric of family life can come apart. There are secrets in Melanie's past, and pain she tried to hide from the world. Slider and his team need to answer two questions: who loved Melanie . . . and who loved her too much?

A cloth bag containing ten copies of the title.

In one of those rare books that allows us to see the world not as we've never seen it before, but as we see it daily without knowing, Victoria Nelson illuminates the deep but hidden attraction the supernatural still holds for a secular mainstream culture that forced the transcendental underground and firmly displaced wonder and awe with the forces of reason, materialism, and science. In a backward look at an era now drawing to a close, The Secret Life of Puppets describes a curious reversal in the roles of art and religion: where art and literature once took their content from religion, we came increasingly to seek religion, covertly, through art and entertainment. In a tour of Western culture that is at once exhilarating and alarming, Nelson shows us the distorted forms in which the spiritual resurfaced in high art but also, strikingly, in the mass culture of puppets, horror-fantasy literature, and cyborgs: from the works of Kleist, Poe, Musil, and Lovecraft to Philip K. Dick and virtual reality simulations. At the end of the millennium, discarding a convention of the demonized grotesque that endured three hundred years, a Demiurgic consciousness shaped in Late Antiquity is emerging anew to re-divinize the human as artists like Lars von Trier and Will Self reinvent Expressionism in forms familiar to our pre-Reformation ancestors. Here as never before, we see how pervasively but unwittingly, consuming art forms of the fantastic, we allow ourselves to believe.

In her most gripping mystery yet, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles returns readers to the streets of London and the ever-struggling Detective Inspector Bill Slider. When the body of Phoebe Agnew, radical left-wing journalist, champion of the underdog, and prominent critic of the police force, is discovered, Inspector Slider must put aside any personal feelings for the victim and find her killer. One of the first clues Slider finds is that on the day of her death the horribly undomesticated Agnew cooked an elaborate meal for someone. Was it her old friend and reputed lover, Josh Prentiss? Slider tries to pursue that angle, but since Prentiss is a Government advisor, the pressure is on Slider to look elsewhere. There are plenty anomalies for him to chase: unidentified fingerprints, the object used to strangle Agnew is missing, alibis offered where none are required, the downstairs tenant lying about his whereabouts, and papers missing from Agnew's file. As Slider struggles to untangle the web of lies and hidden relationships, his task is made harder by the strange behavior of his friend and colleague, Atherton, who seems to be on the verge of a breakdown. Tightly plotted and full of fascinating characters, Slider searches to find the key to Agnew's chillingly lonely life, but will he find it in time to prevent further tragedy?

The brand new series, perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY, from the author of the hugely successful MORLAND DYNASTY novels . . . 1919: The war is over, but peace is yet to come. As men are demobbed, women must give up positions that gave them freedom. Edward is given an important job at the Peace Conference in Paris, but it means more lonely months away from Beattie and his hoped-for reconciliation. Fred's unit is sent to the Rhine, and Cook feels a guilty relief that her uprooting has been postponed. Laura's friend Ransley volunteers for a further six months, and rather than go home, Laura finds a new outlet: conducting guided tours of the battlefields. In England there are strikes and unrest, hardship and widespread unemployment, and everywhere the sight of the wounded to remind the nation of what it has paid for peace. But as the first, difficult year post-war comes to an end, there are great changes afoot for the Hunter household, wonderful surprises, and the promise of a new start. Pack Up Your Troubles is the sixth and final book in the War at Home series by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, author of the much-loved Morland Dynasty novels. Set against the real events of 1919, at home and on the front, this concludes the vivid and rich family drama featuring the Hunter family and their servants.