How far would a grandmother go to stay close to her grandson? When Sylvia Garland returns to England, after the death of her husband and half a lifetime lived abroad, the last thing she expects is to find love again. But when her daughter-in-law Smita announces she is pregnant, despite her own poor track record as a mother, she finds herself caught up in the excitement. Before Sylvia knows it, she is 65 years old and head over heels in love - with her grandson. Sylvia Garland's Broken Heart is a touching, witty look at family ties across the generations and the plight of grandparents when their children's relationships break down. 'This passionate, yet perfectly-controlled novel...is beneath the surface a smouldering furnace...It is a book with depth and resonance and pace.' Jane Gardam

Six women and one man gather in a community centre in North London for a life writing class run by Dorothy, their uniquely unqualified teacher. They have urgent stories to tell and, as they recount them, they discover they are connected in unexpected ways. Illustrated with sharp line drawings by illustrator Beatrice Baumgartner-Cohen, The Brondesbury Tapestry is a quirky, perceptive look at a group of people who feel the modern world has left them behind but who have decided that they will still have the last word.

'My old lady turned out to be an absolute fright. Serves me right, I suppose. She wears bold theatrical make-up on a shrivelled face; bright scarlet lipstick which bleeds into the deep folds of her crinkled lips and orangey pink powder which wobbles on the hairs of her chin... She wouldn't let me in at first.' Alicia Queripel, a retired actress, lives alone with her memories in Shepard's Bush. Until the day Alison Woodgate appears on her doorstep to visit the old lady she has been 'allocated' by Age Concern. Alicia, suspicious, is at first reluctant to be patronized by a mousy do-gooder. They seem to enjoy little in common. How could Alison's boyfriend Rob compare with Alicia's dear departed Leonard, a paragon among men? As the weeks pass, however, an unlikely friendship develops over tea and cakes and slowly, through the mingled layers of memory and imagination, an unsuspected pattern starts to emerge. By the author of Playing Fields in Winter, winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award.

'I prefer autumn. In autumn, I am at my best. It will be one of my lasting regrets, when you are gone, that we won't have known each other in autumn...' Edward had hoped for Latin America, but the newsdesk sent him to Paris. In Paris there were no machine-gun-toting revolutionaries with faces like icons. Instead there was Irina, exotically Russian, desirably statuesque, and ten years older than Edward. In an icy Paris winter, Edward and Irina are drawn together. The Steppes of Paris is an elegant and bittersweet story of unpredictable love in the City of Light - from the highly acclaimed author of Angel Cake and Playing Fields in Winter. 'I have never read a novel that describes so well the plight of the ex-pat in Paris ... the fraught progress of the affair is described with sharply wry observation' Sunday Express 'A breath of spring, although with two acclaimed novels already to her credit Helen Harris's talents are well past the budding stage ... wry, beautifully exact and bubbling with life' Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian 'The couple's story is colourful, often funny and absorbing' Eastern Daily Express 'An attractive, well written portrait of a young man and elderly Russian family ... well worth reading' The Bookseller 'Excellent ... an intriguing tale, ultimately leaving the reader with the slow, cringing sense of horror as the book reaches its climax' Jane Yelland, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner