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Glamorous, rich and rife with scandal, the clannish Macarthur family, rarely out of the glossy pages of every high-society magazine, reigns over Edinburgh’s wealthy New Town. But as the formidable family patriarch Jack Macarthur lies on his deathbed, it emerges that one of the clas has broken the strict code of silence…

The SS Karachi , steaming from Bombay to England just after WW I, is the mise-en-scene for this formulaic, though entertaining, novel by the author of A Season of Goodwill. Captain Angus Meiklejohn, faithful to his wife and burdened by concern for his shell-shocked son in Scotland, seems an unlikely candidate for shipboard romance. Yet, before the 25-day trip ends, he has a liaison with an attractive young widow in first class. The ship’s doctor, Edmund Bladon, his professional and personal prospects blighted by his conscientious-objector status during the war, also has a strange romance, thwarted by violence, with one of two convent-schooled sisters given to religious hyperventilation. Much goes on below decks as well, from sabotage to heroism, especially that of an Irish steward who expurgates his anti-English feelings. Characters from stowaways to diplomats come to turning points in their lives before the beleaguered “ship of fools” makes home port.

For the duration of the Second World War, the island of Brute has been home to flame-haired Mollie McCabe, her mother, sister and two brothers. But when the was is over, and her brutal, bullying father comes to take his family back to Glasgow, it is only her sister Senga who returns with him. For the rest have fallen for the delights of the Westervoe Farm, and have no intention of swapping the countryside for the city.

A chance encounter with a stranger, Priscilla Blunt, seems to offer Nina Crowther an escape from her problems. Middle-aged, struggling to recover from the shock of her husband divorcing her to marry a younger (and pregnant) woman, Nina happily falls in with Priscilla’s idea to house-sit for her while she and her husband visit South Africa. When the phone rings on her first night in the Blunts’ Berkshire manor house she expects it to be one of her duaghters, but when she lifts the receiver no-one speaks. All Nina hears is a shuddering sigh. As the calls persist Nina fears she has attracted an unwelcome suitor – or is it the man who is brutally murdering women in a nearby village? Or could it be one and the same person?

Laurie Davison doesn’t dare to peek into the future. Alone and afraid, facing a life-threatening illness, her present is a nightmare and her past a shattered dream. A married lover, a New Age mother, a host of modern hang-ups, and now the ‘big one’. But as Laurie discovers, the present is not the whole story. Packed off to Crompton Hall, a mysterious clinic, she is quickly drawn into another reality.

Harriet Turner knows all about journeys. After all, she’s arranged hundreds of them for the travel agency her family runs in the Australian coastal town of Merryn Bay. But when her work colleague and foster sister Lara disappears on the eve of a big overseas trip, Harriet finds herself in uncharted territory.
Left alone in England with a coachload of eccentric tourists on a themed tour of locations from the Willoughby TV detective series, Harriet has her hands full. But as the bus trundles through the picturesque Cornwall countryside, the tour becomes another kind of journey for her. She finds herself facing big questions about her family and her childhood; about her feelings for the guest of honour on the tour, star of Willoughby, Patrick Shawcross – and the biggest puzzle of all: what has happened to Lara?

Lance Bradley, idling his life away in the little Somerset town of Glastonbury, suddenly receives a call for help from the eccentric sister of his old friend Rupert Alder. Rupe appears to have vanished without trace. Reluctantly, Lance goes to London, to discover that Rupe’s employers want him tried for fraud. A Japanese businessman claims he has stolen a document of huge importance. And a private detective is demanding money for trying to trace, on Rupe’s behalf, an American called Townley, who was involved in a mysterious death at Wilderness Farm, near Glastonbury, back in 1963.

An Unexpected Passion
Lady Jenova of Gunlinghorn feels she should marry, though not for love, for she vows never to entrust her heart to a man again. Then Lord Henry, her charming and devilishly handsome friend, arrives to offer his opinion on the chosen bridegroom. But when they are trapped together by a winter storm, she and Henry wildly succumb to a desire they neither anticipated nor welcomed. And suddenly Jenova must rethink her matrimonial plans.

Perhaps several times in a lifetime, we come across a book with such a singular nature, it defies categorization. A book so provocative, it forces us to examine not only our personal values, but also our society’s values–the very way in which we live. A word-of-mouth phenomenon embraced by readers, booksellers, and critics alike, Into The Forest is that all-too-rare book. This extraordinary story of two sisters struggling to survive amid the collapse of technology and society is at once a classic tale of epic proportions–and a modern myth with a timely message.

The day the Jutland telegrams arrive in Portsea, the lives of three women change dramatically. Miriam Slattery, Beattie Forrest and Lily Forrest all find reserves of courage and hope beyond even their own dreams, as the war gives way to peace, they grab their futures with both hands.