A brutal and touching account of the life of Bridget ’Tipperary Mary’ Larkin. She faced poverty, bereavement, cruelty and abandonment many times over - yet never lost the heart to pursue true love. Returning to rural Ireland in 1938 and a young girl full of hope and expectation, A Song for Bridget recounts a series of tragic events that eventually bring her to Manchester and Birmingham - and a desperate daily struggle to survive. Bridget’s haunting story, told in the words of her daughter, is a perfect example of both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit.

Mikey's family were Gypsies. They live in a closed community and little is known about their way of life. As he didn't go to school, the caravan became his world. But although Mikey inherited a vibrant culture, his family had a dark hidden history. Eventually Mikey was forced to make a decision – to stay and keep secrets, or escape and find somewhere to belong.

Damian Le Bas grew up surrounded by Gypsy history. His great-grandmother would tell him stories of her childhood in the ancient Romani language: the places her family stopped and worked, the ways they lived, the superstitions and lore of their people. But his own experience of life on the road was limited to Ford Transit journeys from West Sussex to Hampshire to sell flowers. In a bid to better understand his Gypsy heritage, the history of Britain's Romanies and the rhythms of their life today, Damian sets out on a journey to discover the atchin tans, or stopping places - the old encampment sites known only to Travellers.

Born out of wedlock in Dublin in 1937, Phyllis grew up in a tough, church-run orphanage. She thought by fulfilling her dream to become a nurse in England, her life might change, but her loveless childhood predisposed a loveless marriage and things began to spiral out of control for her and for her daughter, Sally. Looking for the answers to why both their lives went so spectacularly wrong led Sally to ask questions about the real identity of her mother: 'who was she? Why was she abandoned...I needed to find answers before it was too late.'

It’s a freezing winter’s night in 1954. A baby boy, a few hours old, is left by his mother, wrapped in nothing but two sheets of newspaper and hidden amongst the undergrowth by a canal bank. An hour later, a late-shift postman is walking wearily home when he hears a faint cry. He finds the newspaper parcel and discovers the newborn, white-cold and whimpering, inside. After being rushed to hospital and against all odds, the baby survives. He’s baptised by the hospital chaplain as Richard.

As the leading churchmen and women gather at the Synod of Whitby in AD 664 to debate the rival merits of the Celtic and Roman Churches, tempers begin to fray. Conspirators plot an assassination, while mysterious, violent death stalks the shadowy cloisters of the Abbey of St Hilda. When the Abbess Etain, a leading speaker for the Celtic Church, is found murdered, suspicion inevitably rests on the Roman faction. Attending the Synod is Fidelma, of the community of St Brigid of Kildare.

When her husband dies, Lu Si-yan's mother is encouraged to sell her young daughter into domestic service. Lu Si-yan is just eleven when sold by her Uncle. Nearly two years will pass before she can get back home to her mother and brother.

Julia Kelly met charismatic and successful artist Charlie Whisker while she was working on her first novel. He was 20 years older than her. Their relationship was passionate and extraordinary; each of them inspired the other. Their friends were writers, artists and rock stars; they lived a glamorous life of exhibitions, parties and concerts. They became parents to a daughter they adored. But Charlie suddenly changed, becoming hopelessly forgetful, angry and confused. 

In 1875, 18-year-old would-be poet Jack Brennan runs away from home to avoid being pushed into the priesthood. Life soon looks rosy for Jack when he lands the teaching job he's always dreamed of and meets the love of his life, Eliza Hewlett. But his world is shattered when Mary Ellen, his landlord's daughter, falsely accuses him of fathering the child she is expecting. Jack and Eliza decide to escape to America. As they are about to sail, Jack is arrested and dragged from the ship, leaving Eliza alone en route to New York with only a few shillings in her pocket. 

Cult supernatural writer and investigator of the paranormal Tom Slemen brings you 25 strange and spooky stories about the creepy side of Christmas in The Angel of Twelfth Night. As the title suggests, those enigmatic but awe-inspiring beings known down the ages as "angels" are featured in this book, but you will also meet the fallen angel, Lucifer.

When Cara Flowers' beloved grandmother dies she leaves not only an enormous fortune, but also a huge responsibility - to find their estranged family. Cara's quest leads her to the doors of the imposing Bilston workhouse. Shocked by the appalling conditions, Cara vows to find a way to close the workhouse and rescue its residents. Fraught by countless hurdles, her mission becomes personal; what has her missing mother got to do with the looming workhouse?

Writing this memoir has to be one of the hardest things I have ever achieved. Out of respect for the dead, this story has been told exactly how it happened. I was born in 1985 in Lancashire, England, to two alcoholic parents. Having selfish parents left me exposed to abuse, poverty, and crime. My loving grandparents helped me the best they could at the weekends, but life was barely survivable.

This is an almost true Irish story. Murphy was a child of the newly emerging 1950's Irish middle class. He was raised in the environment of a conflicted marriage that never should have happened. While his privileged upbringing seemed idyllic to the outside world, his reality was starkly different. Life at home was always turbulent; he never knew what daily chaos would erupt.

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early 40s, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty facade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils.... Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.

1950s Liverpool. In the tight-knit community of the Four Streets, two girls are growing up. One is motherless and hated by the cold woman determined to take her dead mother's place. The other is hiding a dreadful secret which she dare not tell to anyone. The people of Four Streets laugh, grieve and hope together. But what can they do when a betrayal at the heart of their world comes to light?