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Stately Pursuits
Stately Pursuits
Sep 22, 2024 3:48 AM

Author:Katie Fforde,Jilly Bond

Stately Pursuits

Brought to you by Penguin.

Just the thing for a broken heart. A wonderfully romantic novel from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Recipe for Love, A French Affair and The Perfect Match.

'I don't suppose you'd care to house-sit for a while...'

Hetty Longden's mother thinks that looking after Great Uncle Samuel's crumbling stately home will be just the thing for Hetty's broken heart. Hetty doesn't mind; at least she can be miserable in private. But 'private' is a relative term in a village which revolves around the big house. Particularly when you are expected to thwart Great Uncle Samuel's awful heir, and his nefarious plans for his inheritance.

Pitchforked into the community's fight to save the manor, Hetty has no time to wallow. And once she has shared her troubles with one neighbour (Caroline: a very understanding shoulder, despite her glamorous appearance and impossibly long legs), and cast an appreciative eye over another (Peter: equally long-legged, but offering rather more practical help), she wonders if her heart is irretrievably broken after all...

Reviews

Fforde's appeal is her ability to reproduce the eccentricities of daily life

—— The Times

Smart, compelling and different.

—— Daily Mail

The very definition of feel-good

—— Red Magazine

A beautiful, uplifting book full of humour and humanity, and sprinkled with enough magic that I finished it hoping that we are all, even if only a little bit, at the mercy of the stars.

—— Cressida McLaughlin, bestselling author of The House of Birds and Butterflies

If you loved David Nicholls’ One Day, go out and buy this now

—— Herald Sun

The funny, clever, big-hearted love story of the year. Brilliant!

—— Heather Rose, bestselling author of The Museum of Modern Love

You don’t need to care a thing about astrology to find Star-Crossed a five-star delight. A sharp, funny and irresistible rom com.

—— Lisa Gabriele, bestselling author of The Winters

This playful, big-hearted and witty debut will not only keep readers engaged, but make them wonder about the interplay of destiny, decisions and pure luck (with a little stardust thrown in).

—— Shelf Awareness

[A] romantic and warmly humorous novel

—— Courier Mail

This fresh, romantic comedy by Minnie Darke has been described as Marian Keyes meets Love Actually, and is a perfect Sunday afternoon read.

—— Family Circle

A delightfully easy read . . . charming

—— Evening Standard

Lovely

—— Daily Telegraph

Moving and intelligent

—— Independent

Magnetic, unpretentious and bursting with one-liners

—— Cosmopolitan

Jewell's readability and emotional intelligence make her the cream of pop fiction

—— Glamour

Fans of chick-lit will understand when I say that this is a book you simply disappear into

—— Sunday Telegraph

Will have you shedding a tear as well as laughing your socks off

—— Fabulous

Humour, warmth and quintessential Irishness. Much hilarity, many tears and an ending that is incredibly uplifting

—— Woman & Home, Books of the Year

Winterson’s bold novel asks old questions about the body’s possibilities in a provocative new way.

—— Sharmaine Lovegrove , Sunday Times

Playfully allusive and relentlessly readable, it’s a book so wild and fizzing with ideas you feel it might actually pop.

—— Anthony Cummins , Metro

Playful and inventive… There is a merged ocean of thought with [Frankisstein]; ideas slip between characters and time frames. Frankisstein reincarnates as it evolves, each part deepening the part before it.

—— Rozalind Dineen , Times Literary Supplement

A weird and engaging and extremely funny take on Shelley’s classic… The book seeks to shift our perspective on humanity, I think, and the purpose of being… Technology today is allowing us to shape our notions of sex and gender; tomorrow, it will shape our end.

—— Judie Bindel , UnHerd

I'm awestruck, as always, by Jeanette Winterson…. Frankissstein…is a dazzlingly bonkers reworking of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, featuring artificial intelligence, sex robots and sci-fi experiments.

—— Laura Bailey , Vogue

Frankisstein leaps from the Peterloo Massacre to contemporary bioethical speculation to nineteenth-century Bedlam to early computers, its eager, passionately clever narrator always plunging enthusiastically ahead, like the mysterious giant figure Mary Shelley glimpsed racing across that icy glacier.

—— Michèle Roberts , Tablet, *Book of the Week*

An oft-moving, oft-hilarious retelling of Shelley’s much-retold classic.

—— Maria Crawford , Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2019*

Winterson teases away at…boundaries – between genders, life and death, fact and fiction, human and machine – to great, and hugely entertaining effect.

—— Daily Mail, *Summer reads of 2019*

Jeanette Winterson’s latest book is a shape-shifting, time-hopping gem of a novel… Reading one of Winterson’s books is like going on a magic carpet ride through her subconscious… her stories are creative, overflowing with ideas, and shot through with her wicked sense of humour.

—— James Lloyd , Science Focus

Rich, thoughtful, and entertaining… [a] heady combination of literary history, futurology, and romance.

—— Dougal Jeffries , BJGP

An utterly brilliant book from one of the most talented writers of the moment

—— Handbook

Frankissstein not only draws on the stories of real contemporary research around artificial intelligence and cryogenics, but also features historical figures and their compelling stories of scientific insight and discovery… I've read much of Winterson's work over the years and it seems to me she re-awakened the literary playfulness of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry with this offering.

—— Chemistry World

Beautiful, life-affirming stories that whisk you away and make you fall in love

—— Miranda Dickinson

Tender. A beautiful festive tale of a girl in search of a family for Christmas

—— My Weekly

A sweeping historical novel that opens in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire… The Parisian calls to mind a 19th-century novel.

—— New York Times

Complex, subtle and challenging… [The Parisian is] excelling––with a powerful ending that is moving in the way it knits together the themes of self-betrayal and social and political treachery.

—— Gareth Jenkins , Socialist Worker

Reconciling oneself with the pain and pleasure of the ties that bind one to certain people and places is something that lies at the heart of Hammad’s novel… the world Hammad paints is a rich one.

—— Lucy Scholes , i

Hammad… convincingly weaves the conversations and arguments around the Palestinian table, inviting the reader to join the friends and family who are full of complexity and humanity, and refuse to be defined by the tragedy that is befalling them… To read The Parisian is to gradually get to know a friend, like drinking tea with a favourite uncle and hearing about family stories, gossip and politics.

—— Tanushka Marah , Middle East Eye

Escapism in the form of adventure and sisterhood. This is a novel with real depth and feeling and touches on worker's rights, racism, environmentalism and education

—— i

This tribute to female friendship and the joy of books is a compelling read

—— Woman's Weekly

A captivating tale of love, friendship and self-actualisation

—— People

Escapism in the form of adventure and sisterhood. A novel with real depth and feeling. Empowering

—— Press Association

An exploration of people's cruelty and also their kindness

—— Ruth Junes , Good Housekeeping

The author of Me Before You pulls off a cracker with this stirring, exciting adventure story inspired by true events, in depression-era Kentucky, women find freedom and friendship by joining a brigade of horseback librarians

—— Best

Jojo Moyes is back with another page turner. Inspired by a remarkable true story, The Giver of Stars features five incredible women who will prove to be every bit as beloved as Lou Clark, the unforgettable heroine of Me Before You

—— Stellar

Joyous. Pucky female characters and wonderful writing. This is her best

—— Good Housekeeping

About five extraordinary women in 1920s Kentucky, who worked on horseback as travelling librarians

—— Woman & Home

An enthralling read based on a true story

—— My Weekly Special Series

One to get lost in. Escape with this book and follow the story of five women who are embarking on a powerful journey - and refuse to obey any man's commands!

—— No. 1 Magazine, Books to cosy up with this winter

A brand-new page-turner . . . based on a true story and tracks five feisty women living in America during the Great Depression

—— That's Life

Jojo Moyes is back with this tale based on the real-life horseback librarians of Kentucky

—— Hello!

Took me to the mountains of depression-era Kentucky where brave women librarians risked all to deliver books on horseback

—— Damian Barr, Big Issue Books of the Year

Celebrates the world of books . . . A fictional yarn about a quintet of extraordinary intrepid women from disparate backgrounds

—— RTE Guide

From the very first page, I was drawn into the world and the characters that Jojo Moyes has so carefully created

—— Health & Wellbeing

A fabulous adventure story

—— Best

Praise for Jojo Moyes

—— -

Moyes somehow manages to break your heart before restoring your faith in love

—— Sunday Express

Raw, funny, real and sad, this is storytelling at its best

—— Marie Claire

Immensely readable and enjoyable

—— Sunday Times

This truly beautiful story made us laugh, smile and sob like a baby - you simply have to read it

—— Closer

Wonderfully written and completely engrossing, with exquisitely drawn characters in a brilliantly plotted narrative

—— Daily Mail

A heart-stopping read. Destined to be the novel that friends press upon each other

—— Independent on Sunday

Britain's best contemporary female author

—— Sun on Sunday

The storytelling treads the delicate balance between heartbreak and hope perfectly

—— Good Housekeeping

A triumph

—— Heat

A tender, funny and hopeful look at love, grief and life. Bumper box of tissues required

—— Stylist

Joyful, with a pitch-perfect ending

—— Daily Express

Julia Whelan is perfect as Alice Wright

—— The Times, Pick of the Audiobooks

Concentrates on sisterhood and friendship

—— Scotsman, Best books to give this Christmas

A sweeping story of female friendship with a dash of romance, set in 1930s Kentucky

—— Daily Express

Her writing is beautiful and whimsical with unique storylines

—— Liv Arnold, author of Etched in Stone

This most recent book of Jojo's is her best . . . I loved this adventure story for girls for its plucky female characters and wonderful writing

—— Good Housekeeping
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