Juliet Stevenson
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Language
English
Appears on list
Description
When ten-year-old orphan Peter Augustus Duchene encounters a fortune teller in the marketplace one day and she tells him that his sister, who is presumed dead, is in fact alive, he embarks on a remarkable series of adventures as he desperately tries to find her.
Author
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English
Description
On a dark midwinter's night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, a wounded stranger carries in the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later the girl stirs, and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Magic? As the days pass the child remains mute and unable to answer questions. Three families are keen to claim her: the wealthy mother of a kidnapped daughter missing for two years; a farming family sure it is their son's secret daughter; a parson's housekeeper,...
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English
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"Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker--a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father's money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable...
5) Persuasion
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Language
English
Description
Austen's last novel is the crowning achievement of her matchless career. Her heroine, Anne Elliot, a woman of integrity, breeding and great depth of emotion, stands in stark contrast to the brutality and hypocrisy of Regency England. Includes a new Introduction by Margaret Drabble, famed novelist and editor of The Oxford Companion to the English Language.
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English
Description
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
7) Belgravia
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English
Description
"On the evening 15 June 1815, the great and the good of British society have gathered in Brussels at what is to become one of the most tragic parties in history -- the Duchess of Richmond's ball. For this is the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, and many of the handsome young men attending the ball will find themselves, the very next day, on the battlefield. For Sophia Trenchard, the young and beautiful daughter of Wellington's chief supplier, this night...
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English
Description
Ten years on from her last novel, Edna O'Brien reminds us why she is thought to be one of the great Irish writers of this and any generation. When a wanted war criminal from the Balkans, masquerading as a faith healer, settles in a small west coast Irish village, the community are in thrall. One woman, Fidelma McBride, falls under his spell and in this astonishing novel, Edna O'Brien charts the consequences of that fatal attraction. The Little Red...
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English
Description
Recruited into MI5 against a backdrop of the Cold War in 1972, Cambridge student Serena Frome, a compulsive reader, is assigned to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer whose politics align with those of the government, a situation that is compromised when she falls in love with him.
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English
Description
From the thrilling imagination of bestselling, award-winning Colm Toibin comes a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra -- spectacularly audacious, violent, vengeful, lustful, and instantly compelling -- and her children. In House of Names, Colm Toibin brings a modern sensibility and language to an ancient classic, and gives this extraordinary character new life, so that we not only believe Clytemnestra's thirst for revenge, but applaud it. He brilliantly...
12) Emma
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English
Description
Emma Woodhouse is a young woman who, having engineered the marriage of her companion, turns her attention toward making a match for the local vicar and her new protegée, Harriet Smith. Her one voice of reason and restraint is Mr. Knightley, who has known her since she was a child and who watches her behaviour with wry amusement and sometimes with real anger. Emma presides over the small provincial world of Highbury with enthusiasm, but she will find...
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English
Appears on list
Description
Eighteen year-old Jesminder's parents want her to be a nice, conventional Indian girl. But she just wants to play soccer like her hero, David Beckham. For Jess, that means kicking a ball around the local park with the lads until she's spotted by Jules, who invites her to join the local women's team.
14) Being Julia
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English
Description
Julia is a true diva: beautiful, talented, wealthy and famous. She has a devoted husband who has masterminded her brillant career - but after years of the spotlight she begins to suffer from a severe case of boredom and longs for something new and exciting to put the twinkle back in her eye. She finds what she is looking for in a handsome young American fan, who adds a few more sparks than Julia was hoping for.
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English
Description
Delighted to be invited to the wedding of Gwenda, her former housemaid, Miss Marple travels to the isolated island where Gwenda lives with her fiancé, Leo Argyle, and his grown children. Though they are happy for their father, the Argyles are still reeling from the murder of their mother and the execution of their brother Jacko for the crime. Then a stranger arrives who exonerates Jacko, leading all to realize that the real murderer is still in their...
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English
Description
When Julia Reynolds talks her husband into a family vacation on the beautiful island of Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years ago with her first love. But when the sexy Frenchman shows up, insisting she's his true love, she discovers a side of her husband she never expected. The flat-footed insurance man sets out in search of his own Malta romance, and is soon dancing the salsa with an ex-chorus girl. A movie for anyone who...
17) The Snow Queen
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English
Description
When Gerda and her mother take in the penniless street urchin, Kay, powerful forces emerge that will take both children on a magical journey and test their friendship to the extreme. One cold winter night, a splinter of ice pierces Kay's heart and makes him angry and unhappy. He soon becomes enchanted by the Snow Queen and is taken to her palace in the frozen North. Gerda decides that she must do whatever she can to rescue her friend.
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English
Description
Three generations of women, all with the same name, rid themselves of their unwanted husbands one by one and each in the same way: they drown them. The local coroner agrees to declare each of the deaths accidental in return for sexual favors. But when things don't go exactly as planned, he devises a final game that could result in the undoing of them all.
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English
Description
"The "wickedly offbeat" (Parade), contemporary mystery series follows the adventures of newly promoted Detective Sergeant Matilda Stone and her three crime-writing aunts as they solve murders in the picturesque English region of Wildemarsh. Though Matilda's strict boss warns her that homicides are police-only matters, her aunts can't help but offer their expertise, as well as unsolicited dating advice. As Matilda contends with a novelist killed during...
20) Diana
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English
Description
A look into the private realm of one the world's most iconic and inescapably public women in the last two years of her meteoric life, and explores the Princess of Wales' final rite of passage: a secret love affair with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.