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Find out moreHelen Matthews is the author of debut novel `After Leaving the Village', winner of the Winchester Writers' Festival prize for opening pages of a novel. Born in Cardiff, she read English at the University of Liverpool. After travelling, she worked in international development, consultancy, human resources and pensions management but fled corporate life to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University. Helen has been awarded prizes for short stories and published in the literary journal Artificium. As a freelancer, she writes content for websites and business magazines and has, in the past, been published in The Guardian and had columns broadcast on BBC radio. She is married with two grown-up children and lives in Hampshire.
This highly readable slice of suspenseful noir sees a couple on the brink of losing everything. Emma thought she had it all with second husband Paul - a big house, new daughter Mollie, a fine step-dad for her son from her first marriage. But Paul’s been hiding things from her, not least the debts he’s been racking up, and the seriousness of his work situation. Forced to come clean (about some of his misdemeanors, at least) when he’s made redundant, they escape to the dilapidated French property Paul randomly bought during a holiday. While Paul flits between France and London - ostensibly for work - resourceful Emma turns things around by making a go of a bar business in their new village. But her blossoming is thwarted when a glamorous stranger infiltrates her life and a hideous web of deceit, blackmail, entrapment and violence unravels with heart-pounding urgency that will have readers rooting for Emma every step of the way. This is a real read-in-one-sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of book.
This new title from Bradt forms part of its distinctive 'Slow Travel' series and is the only title available to cover the Chilterns and Thames Valley in depth. The Chilterns and the Thames Valley do not correspond to the specific boundaries of one county or region, old or new. Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire all have a share. Divided into six easily manageable sections, Bradt's The Chilterns and Thames Valley lifts the lid on what makes this area so distinctive. Chalk grasslands, beech woods, streams and wooded valleys provide a perfect landscape for walking and are easily accessible from London. About half of the area has been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - the closest such area to London. Rare plants such as fleawort and numerous orchid varieties, and birds including red kites, lapwings and skylark flourish. The Thames Valley follows the route of one of the world's most famous rivers. You can find key sites of monarchical and parliamentary power such as Windsor Castle and Chequers, the location of Magna Carta's sealing at Runnymede and the birthplaces of men and women who have led dissent down the ages. A host of well-loved authors has lived and written here, depicting Paradise, defining our childhoods and painting timeless images of England and its people. Eminent chefs own restaurants with national and sometimes international reputations. In short, the Chilterns and the Thames Valley together represent a wonderfully paradoxical mixture of world-famous tourist sites and lesser-known attractions full of quirkiness and character, which will repay the visitor's interest and attention many times over. From Windsor Castle to Whipsnade Zoo, Britain's oldest road - The Ridgeway - to National Trust properties such as Cliveden and Waddesdon Manor, the Henley Regatta to the Grand Union Canal, Bradt's The Chilterns and Thames Valley is the perfect companion.
Two women. Two villages. Different destinies. Odeta's life has shrunk to a daily round of drudgery, running her father's grocery store in a remote Albanian village. One day a stranger from Tirana walks into the shop and promises her a new career in London. Odeta's life is about to change, but not in the way she expected. Journalist Kate lives on a quiet London street and seems to have a perfect life but she worries about her son Ben, who struggles to make friends. Kate blames the internet and disconnects her family from the online world so they can get to know their neighbours. On a visit to her home village in Wales, Kate is forced to confront a secret from her past. But greater danger lies closer to home. Perhaps Kate's neighbours are not the friendly community they seem.
Two women. Two villages. Different destinies. Odeta's life has shrunk to a daily round of drudgery, running her father's grocery store in a remote Albanian village. One day a stranger from Tirana walks into the shop and promises her a new career in London. Odeta's life is about to change, but not in the way she expected. Journalist Kate lives on a quiet London street and seems to have a perfect life but she worries about her son Ben, who struggles to make friends. Kate blames the internet and disconnects her family from the online world so they can get to know their neighbours. On a visit to her home village in Wales, Kate is forced to confront a secret from her past. But greater danger lies closer to home. Perhaps Kate's neighbours are not the friendly community they seem.
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