Maggie: 1933 books

The Van Meters have gathered at their family retreat on the island of Waskeke to celebrate the marriage of daughter Daphne to the impeccably appropriate Greyson Duff. The weekend is full of champagne, salt air and practiced bonhomie, but long-buried discontent and simmering lust stir beneath the surface. Winn...

She's no more than an unpaid servant... Lorinda is only a child when tragedy deprives her of her true family and, sent to live with her aunt in her boarding house, she grows up desperately craving affection. And although she finds friendship – and even love – in the boarding house,...

All she wants is a family of her own... Lottie is just three years old when her Mammy dies and she is sent to the workhouse. A childhood spent in poverty, skivvying for other people, leaves her with no prospects, no family... Yet Lottie is bright and has ambitions for a better life....

Torn between love and duty... After the birth of their son, Eliza naively hopes her husband Jack will put his gambling habit behind him and become more responsible. But then he loses their home and abandons her, leaving Eliza with no choice but to return to her parents’ house. She...

Writers of the modern essay can trace their chosen genre all the way back to Michel de Montaigne (1533–92). But save for the recent notable best seller How to Live: A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell, Montaigne is largely ignored. After Montaigne—a collection of twenty-four new personal essays...

On the Sofa with Jane Austen is a collection of essays that first appeared in the Regency World magazine. They celebrate the quirkiest corners and cleverest contrivances of Jane Austen's art. The twenty-one topics range from coiffure to crime, from gossip to grandmothers. The title comes from the...

Bloody Mary... Bloody Mary... Bloody...maybe we shouldn't test that just yet.  Urban legends, fact or fiction, at the end of the day they're all stories. We know not to spin around the room in the dark whispering her name. We've heard about the man with the hook and the terror...

J. B. Priestley is the first book to provide a detailed and up to date analysis of the enormous contribution made by this playwright, novelist, journalist and critic to twentieth century British theatre. Priestley was often criticised for being either too populist or too experimental and this...

Movies are often examined for subtext and dramatizations of social and psychological issues as well as current movements. Studies of well-known Catholic directors, such as Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford, have made the search for Catholic themes a reputable field of examination. Through a Catholic...

Can she escape the hardships of her past? Growing up in London’s tough East End, young Sara Porter has had to learn to take care of herself. Her mother resents her maternal responsibilities and has never shown her daughter the slightest bit of love. Starved of affection, Sara vows...

From rags to riches... With the Armistice only a few months passed, times are hard for eighteen-year-old Geraldine Glover. A machinist at Rubins clothing factory in the East End, she dreams of a more glamorous life. When she meets Tony Hanford, the young and handsome proprietor of a...

In his absence, she will find her strength… After a childhood in poverty and leaving school to work at the age of thirteen, life is beginning to look up for Brenda Wilson. Freshly married to her handsome soldier husband, she finds her true vocation in hairdressing. However, Brenda...

Will she ever be her soldier’s sweetheart? Jenny has been in love with the handsome and successful Matthew Ward since she was sixteen. Only she was too shy to make her feelings known. When Matthew joins the army Jenny is also determined to do her bit for the war effort and becomes...

All she wanted was a loving family . . . When young Rose Sharpe is forced to leave school at the age of fourteen, her dreams of independence are left in tatters. With little help from her ailing mother, it’s up to Rose to protect her young sister from their domineering father and run the...