Author surnames U-Z

Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation. (read more)

Richard Yates was acclaimed as one of the most powerful, compassionate and accomplished writers of America's post-war generation. Whether addressing the smothered desire of suburban housewives, the white-collar despair of Manhattan office workers or the heartbreak of a single mother with artistic pretensions, Yates ruthlessly examines the hopes and disappointments of ordinary people with empathy and humour. (hide)

Just imagine. A matchbox with a special gift. A matchbox that has stored up tales, witnessed from the pockets of several previous (read more)

Just imagine. A matchbox with a special gift. A matchbox that has stored up tales, witnessed from the pockets of several previous owners.

The final owner and friend of the matchbox has tuned in and received the stories of varying experiences of different people. This idiosyncratic debut novel meanders through a series of apparently unrelated tales about people and situations encountered over a number of years. But are they really unrelated? In both the light and dark moments revealed in the tales, readers will delve into their memories to explore where their experience 'matches' what is being related.
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Two women separated by time are linked by the most famous murder mystery in history, the Princes in the Tower. Lady Katherine Grey (read more)

Two women separated by time are linked by the most famous murder mystery in history, the Princes in the Tower. Lady Katherine Grey has already suffered more than her fair share of tragedy. Newly pregnant, she has incurred the wrath of her formidable cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, who sees her as a rival to her insecure throne.

Alone in her chamber in the Tower, she finds old papers belonging to a kinswoman of hers, Kate Plantagenet, who forty years previously had embarked on a dangerous quest to find what really happened to her cousins, the two young Princes who had last been seen as captives in the Tower. But time is not on Kate's side - nor on Katherine's either... (hide)

A rags to riches story chronicled initially through the eyes of a child born into war-torn Britain who refused to accept that the (read more)

A rags to riches story chronicled initially through the eyes of a child born into war-torn Britain who refused to accept that the lackluster life she knew would be all she could possibly expect. The escape route was via Canada, where the impossible seemed possible and her hopes were nourished and thrived. These were the transitional years, so different from the England into which she had been born, and preparing her for what was to come - a life well lived in the United States.

A page turning journey with strong characters strewn with joy, sorrow, laughter and tears; a compelling first novel. Inspirational: when you don't know where to turn and difficult challenges are blown in by a fickle wind, hold on for dear life and you will weather the storm. You will awaken one morning to an azure, cloudless sky, and a zephyr will gently stir the leaves and open your heart to a new beginning. (hide)

1/4/2013- The government has legalised assisted dying, and one man is staging the ultimate reality TV show - where the audience get (read more)

1/4/2013- The government has legalised assisted dying, and one man is staging the ultimate reality TV show - where the audience get to help him on his way. As the clock ticks down, and those for and against the impending broadcast argue their case, we travel back in time to discover what lead Peter to this terrible point in his life. A list of unsolved murders, suicides and destroyed friendships have been left scattered wherever Peter has set foot.

As we discover a family torn apart by his brief presence in their lives so many years ago, we also see the effect he's had on one impressionable young man who sticks by him the whole time: Neville. Peter's biggest fan, and wholehearted believer in the book Peter wrote, Neville treats his idol as a messianic figure. The two are their own worst enemies, finding themselves embarking on a murderous journey to the depths of depravity together with a host of other damaged souls. (hide)

For ten years, Delia has had to fend for herself and her son Jack, and as a young unmarried mother, life has never been easy. Every (read more)

For ten years, Delia has had to fend for herself and her son Jack, and as a young unmarried mother, life has never been easy. Every new coat and pair of shoes was bought with what little money she could scrape together as a singer on the stage. But when the theatre work dries up, Delia faces a dilemma: continue the search for employment with no knowing whether she'll find the stability and security her son needs, or return to the place that should be home .

. . where only spite and hatred await them.
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The action of the novel takes place at the fictional 'Beckford College', a private school for boys; the title alludes to the arrival (read more)

The action of the novel takes place at the fictional 'Beckford College', a private school for boys; the title alludes to the arrival at the school of a mischievous young boy called Farnie, who turns out to be the uncle of the older 'Bishop' Gethryn, a prefect, cricketer and popular figure in the school. His arrival, along with that of another youngster who becomes fag to Gethryn, leads to much excitement and scandal in the school, and the disruption of some important cricket matches. (hide)

It takes a bad man to hunt evil If the assassin known only as Victor once had a moral compass, it is long since buried, along with (read more)

It takes a bad man to hunt evil If the assassin known only as Victor once had a moral compass, it is long since buried, along with his many victims. Yet some men are so evil even Victor accepts they must die for reasons other than just money. One such is Milan Rados, a former commander in the Serbian army who has escaped trial at The Hague to become a formidable criminal power.

Tracking down and killing this brutal man will win Victor a reprieve for his own recent crimes on British soil. But Victor isn't the only one who wants Rados dead. Ana, whose family was butchered on the tyrant's orders, will do anything to see Rados' blood spilled on the snow of Eastern Europe.

Pub Date:14/04/2016 (hide)

On 18 April 1941, twenty-two days after Virginia Woolf went for a walk near her weekend house in Sussex and never returned, her body (read more)

On 18 April 1941, twenty-two days after Virginia Woolf went for a walk near her weekend house in Sussex and never returned, her body was reclaimed from the River Ouse. Norah Vincent's Adeline reimagines the events that brought Woolf to the riverbank, offering us a denouement worthy of its protagonist. With poetic precision and psychological acuity, Vincent channels Virginia and Leonard Woolf, T.S. and Vivienne Eliot, Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, laying bare their genius and their blind spots, their achievements and their failings, from the inside out. And haunting every page is Adeline, the name given to Virginia Stephen at birth, which becomes the source of Virginia's greatest consolation, and her greatest torment.

Intellectually and emotionally disarming, Adeline - a vibrant portrait of Woolf and her social circle, the infamous Bloomsbury Group, and a window into the darkness that both inspired and doomed them all - is a masterpiece in its own right by one of our most brilliant and daring writers. (hide)

"It's quite simple Mr Ellington. When you find Fowler, just ask where we can find the truth." With these words, private detective (read more)

"It's quite simple Mr Ellington. When you find Fowler, just ask where we can find the truth." With these words, private detective JT Ellington embarks on a seemingly simple case of tracking down a local GP with a dubious reputation and retrieving a set of stolen documents from him. For Ellington, however, things are rarely straightforward.

Dr Fowler is hiding a terrible secret and when he is gunned down outside a Bristol pub, his dying words send JT in pursuit of a truth more disturbing and deadly than he could possibly have imagined. M.P. Wright's debut novel Heartman was long listed for the Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. (hide)