Search Results for: The last woman in the world

Award-winning novelist and nature writer Inga Simpson terrifies and enthralls with this truly remarkable novel of a woman who must face her worst fears to find survive and find beauty in a world under attack.

Fear is her cage. But what’s outside is worse…

It’s night, and the walls of Rachel’s home creak in the darkness of the Australian bush. Her fear of other people has led her to a reclusive life as far from them as possible, her only occasional contact with her sister.

A hammering on the door. There stand a mother, Hannah, and her sick baby. They are running for their lives from a mysterious death sweeping the Australian countryside – so soon, too soon, after everything.

Now Rachel must face her worst fears to help Hannah, search for her sister, and discover just what terror was born of us. . . and how to survive it.

For fans of BIRDBOX and A QUIET PLACE, this remarkable, terrifying literary horror thriller holds a mirror up to the changed world we live in today.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

‘Those who thought that by their cruelty they could silence her were wrong. Nadia Murad’s spirit is not broken and her voice will not be muted’ Amal Clooney

‘Offers powerful insight into the barbarity the Yazidi suffered alongside glimpses into their mystical culture . . . this is an important book by a brave woman, fresh testament to humankind’s potential for chilling and inexplicable evil’ Ian Birrell, The Times

‘Courageous . . . Anyone who wants to understand the so called Islamic State should read’ The Economist

‘The pope also recommended reading Iraqi Yazidi Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad’s book, The Last Girl, which he said he had read, commenting that “everything that the world thinks about women is concentrated there . . . However, the world cannot function without women,” he insisted’ La Croix International

With a foreword by Amal Clooney

A Nobel Peace Prize nominee and the first Goodwill Ambassador the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking of the United Nations and winner of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, Nadia Murad is a courageous young woman who has endured unimaginable tragedy (losing eighteen members of her family) and degradation through sexual enslavement to ISIS. But she has fought back.

This inspiring memoir takes us from her peaceful childhood in a remote village in Iraq through loss and brutality to safety in Germany. Courage and testimony can change the world: this is one of those books.

In 1916, at age fifteen, Norma Wallace arrived in New Orleans. Sexy and shrewd, she quickly went from streetwalker to madam and by 1920 had opened what became a legendary house of prostitution. There she entertained a steady stream of governors, gangsters, and movie stars until she was arrested at last in 1962. Shortly before she died in 1974, she tape,recorded her memories-the scandalous stories of a powerful woman who had the city’s politicians in her pocket and whose lovers included the twenty-five-year-old boy next door, whom she married when she was sixty-four. Combining those tapes with original research, Christine Wiltz chronicles not just Norma’s rise and fall but also the social history of New Orleans, thick with the vice and corruption that flourished there,and, like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Philistines at the Hedgerow, resurrects a vanished secret world.

‘An intriguing and mesmerising book’ Ben Fogle

My life is free, random and spontaneous. This in itself creates enormous energy and clarity in body and mind – Miriam Lancewood

Miriam Lancewood is a young Dutch woman living a primitive, nomadic life in the heart of the mountains with her New Zealand husband. She lives simply in a tent or hut and survives by hunting wild animals, foraging edible plants and using minimal supplies. For the last six years she has lived this way, through all seasons, often cold, hungry and isolated in the bush. She loves her life and feels free, connected to the land and happy.

This book tells her story, including the very practical aspects of such a life: her difficulties learning to hunt with a bow and arrow, struggles to create a warm environment in which to live, attempts to cross raging rivers safely and find ways through the rugged mountains and dense bush. This is interwoven with her adjustment to a very slow pace of life, her relationship with her much older husband, her interactions with the few other people they encounter, and her growing awareness of a strong spiritual connection to the natural world.

‘A pretty awesome present for the feminist in your life’ – Caroline Criado Perez, OBE, author of Do It Like a Woman

At the last count, the Blue Plaque Guide honours 903 Londoners, and a walking tour of these sites brings to life the London of a bygone era. But only 111 of these blue plaques commemorate women.

Over the centuries, London has been home to thousands of truly remarkable women who have made significant and lasting impacts on every aspect of modern life: from politics and social reform, to the Arts, medicine, science, technology and sport. Many of those women went largely unnoticed, even during their own lifetimes, going about their lives quietly but with courage, conviction, skill and compassion. Others were fearless, strident trail-blazers. Many lived in an era when their achievements were given a male name, clouding the capabilities of women in any field outside of the home or field.

A Woman Lived Here shines a spotlight on some of these forgotten women to redress the balance. The stories on these pages commemorate some of the most remarkable of London’s women, who set out to make their world a little richer, and in doing so, left an indelible mark on ours.

A memoir by the woman who knew Bob Marley best–his wife, Rita. Rita Marley grew up in the slums of Trench Town, Jamaica. Abandoned by her mother at a very young age, she was raised by her aunt. Music ran in Rita’s family, and even as a child her talent for singing was pronounced. By the age of 18, Rita was an unwed mother, and it was then that she met Bob Marley at a recording studio in Trench Town. Bob and Rita became close friends, fell in love, and soon, she and her girlfriends were singing backup for the Wailers. At the ages of 21 and 19, Bob and Rita were married. The rest is history: Bob Marley and the Wailers set Jamaica and the world on fire. But while Rita displayed blazing courage, joy, and an indisputable devotion to her husband, life with Bob was not easy. There were his liaisons with other women–some of which produced children and were conducted under Rita’s roof. The press repeatedly reported that Bob was unmarried to preserve his “image.” But Rita kept her self-respect, and when Bob succumbed to cancer in 1981, she was at his side. In the years that followed, she became a force in her own right — as the Bob Marley Foundation’s spokesperson and a performer in her reggae group, the I-Three. Written with author Hettie Jones, No Woman No Cry is a no-holds-barred account of life with one of the most famous musicians of all time. In No Woman No Cry, readers will learn about the never-before-told details of Bob Marley’s life, including: How Rita practiced subsistence farming when first married to Bob to have food for her family.How Rita rode her bicycle into town with copies of Bob’s latest songs to sell.How Rita worked as a housekeeper in Delaware to help support her family when her children were young.Why Rita chose to befriend some of the women with whom Bob had affairs and to give them advice on rearing the children they had with Bob.The story of the attack on Bob which almost killed the two of them. ·Bob’s last wishes, dreams, and hopes, as well as the details of his death, such as who came to the funeral (and who didn’t).

‘Benjamin’s latest captivating mystery will keep the reader hooked to the very last page while also bringing the city of Bologna to fascinating life. Bravo!’
Camilla Trinchieri, author of Murder in Chianti

‘Excellent! This time, English detective Daniel Leicester takes us on a hairpin ride through the glamorous, perilous world of Formula One. An absorbing portrayal of what happens when wealth, rivalry and corruption collide, this is a compelling read from a writer who knows Italy inside out and is at the top of his game.’
Eleni Kyriacou, author of The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou, selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club 2023

‘Raced through this latest in the fab crime series featuring English ‘tec Dan Leicester. Set in the murky world of Formula 1, this souped-up thriller should ensure that Tom Benjamin takes his rightful place at the front of the crime-writing grid’ Trevor Wood

When an old man makes a bequest to investigate the mysterious death of his son, English detective Daniel Leicester follows a trail leading to one of Bologna’s wealthiest families – makers of some of the world’s most coveted supercars. He soon discovers that beneath the glitz and glamour of the Formula One circuit lurk certain people, with sinister interests, who may just be prepared to kill to keep their secrets. Time and tide wait for no man – or woman – and while biology obliges one of Faidate Investigations’ team to finally undergo a long-delayed operation, history catches up with another. Shadowing a suspect along one of Bologna’s blood-red porticoes or mixing with the glitterati in the paddock at Imola, the English detective comes to learn in Italy the past not only has a long tail, but its sting can be deadly.

Praise for Italian Rules

‘There are two major stars in this book, the laconic private eye Daniel Leicester and the city of Bologna itself. Tom Benjamin mixes these ingredients perfectly making Italian Rules a really great read.’ Ian Moore, author of DEATH AND CROISSANTS

‘ Benjamin skilfully combines a cracking crime novel with a love letter to Italian cinema . . . Italian Rules is an absolute treat’ Trevor Wood

Praise for Tom Benjamin

“Tom Benjamin does it again! Last Testament in Bologna is another brilliantly-immersive crime mystery, seeped in the culture and scenery of Italy, that leads you through a compellingly-twisty plot balanced with authentic and heartfelt characterisation, and unspools to a perfectly satisfying conclusion.” Philippa East

‘The locale is brought to life . . . the plot keeps you guessing’ The Times

‘A slow-burning, tense and brooding thriller’ The Herald Scotland

‘Tom Benjamin’s debut novel blows the lid off a political cauldron in which Leftist agitators, property moguls, the police and city elders struggle for survival and dominance’ Daily Mail

‘It’s an immensely promising debut, which leaves the reader feeling they really know the city.’ Morning Star
‘Another great crime novel set in Bologna’ Reader Review

‘The mystery smolders away nicely and the wrap-up throws some curve balls. Another indulgent offering in this rewarding series.’ Reader Review

A remarkable series of over 200 eye-witness accounts taken from diaries, letters, speeches, interviews and memoirs of those who were there: pilots, sailors, generals, infantrymen, war correspondents and leaders.

These include Spitfire pilot Richard Hillary’s account of bailing out of his plane in the Battle of Britain; a German sailor’s view of HMS Royal Oak being torpedoed at Scapa Flow; insights into Rommel’s ailing health from a lieutenant in the Afrika Korps; famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle’s account of GI meals during Operation Torch; Anne Frank’s recollection of the rounding up of Jews in Amsterdam; the last letters home from anonymous German soldiers in Stalingrad; the view from a Japanese cockpit over Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941; a German officer’s memories of the airborne assault on Crete in May 1941; the firestorm following the bombing of Dresden in July 1943 in the words of a German woman; a lieutenant in the 1st Airborne Divsion’s eyewitness account of the fighting in Arnhem; Martha Gellhorn on the aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge; a British tank officer crossing the German border on 28 February 1945; on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea; an Allied intelligence officer being executed by the Japanese; the tunnels of Iwo Jima; and a kamikaze pilot’s final letter.

From Sigrid Nunez, the National Book Award-winning and bestselling author of The Friend, comes this mesmerising story about the tangled nature of relationships between parents and children, between language and love.

‘A pleasure from the first page to the last’ JONATHAN FRANZEN

***With an introduction by Susan Choi***

A young woman looks back to the world of her immigrant parents: a Chinese-Panamanian father and a German mother, who meet in postwar Germany and settle in New York City. Growing up in a housing project in the 1950s and 1960s, the narrator escapes into dreams inspired both by her parents’ stories and by her own reading and, for a time, into the otherworldly life of ballet. A yearning homesick mother, a silent and withdrawn father, the ballet-these are the elements that shape the young woman’s imagination and her sexuality.

‘A forceful novel by a writer of uncommon talent’ NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

During the day, Maxine’s tattoos are her armour and she is invincible. At night they peel from her skin to take on forms of their own, leaving her human and vulnerable, and revealing themselves to be demons sleeping beneath her skin. But these demons are the best friends and bodyguards a woman could have. And Maxine needs bodyguards. She is the last in a line of women with power in their blood, trained to keep the world safe from malignant beings who would do us harm.

But ten thousand years after its creation, the prison dimension that kept the worst of these from us is failing, and all the Wardens save Maxine are dead. She must bear the burden of her bloodline and join the last wild hunt against the enemy.

In 1997, THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE was voted the most influential book of the twentieth century by teachers, librarians and parents in the UK. The last six US Presidents have all claimed C. S. Lewis to be one of their favourite writers (as have Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair). He was an acclaimed academic, a renowned Christian thinker and apologist, the author of dozens of non-fiction books and a founder member of The Inklings (with J.R.R. Tolkien). Lewis fought in the First World War trenches and became a famous broadcaster known as ‘the apostle to sceptics’ during World War II: his newspaper articles and radio programmes were well known.
He led what was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a rather bohemian life in Oxford, living with a much older woman, a widow named Janie Moore. Late in life he married an American divorcee who (as documented in the movie SHADOWLANDS) died tragically of cancer four years into their marriage.
Michael White’s biography is an accessible yet erudite study of a subject who has immense and lasting international appeal.

For the last twenty years, Dr Hawa Abdi and her daughters have run a refugee camp on their family farm not far from Mogadishu which has grown to shelter 90,000 displaced Somalis: men, women, and children in urgent need of medical attention. As Islamist militia groups have been battling for control of the country creating one of the most dire human rights crises in the world, Dr. Abdi’s camp is a beacon of hope for the Somalis, most of whom have no proper access to health care. She was recently held hostage by a militant groups who threatened her life and told her that because she’s a woman she has no right to run the camp. She refused to leave.

This is not just the story of a woman doctor in a war torn Islamic country risking her life daily to minister to thousands of desperate people, it’s also an inspiring story of a divorced woman and her two daughters, bound together on a mission to rehabilitate a country.

‘If you’re after the perfect pick-me-up, take-me-away-from-the-world read, then she’s your woman’
The Guardian

‘Nora Roberts is, quite simply, a one-woman phenomenon’
Heat

‘I love Nora Roberts’
Stephen King


Abigail Lowery has a dark and terrifying secret. Aged just sixteen, she witnessed a shocking mafia murder. Narrowly escaping with her life, she was forced to leave her old identity – even her real name – behind for good.

Fifteen years later Abigail is still hiding from the world – a semi-recluse in the quiet, rural town of Bickford, Arkansas. She has convinced herself that this is all she needs: peace, safety… and her faithful guard dog Bert. Perhaps now, at last, she can stop running.

But Brooks Gleason, the local chief of police, has other ideas. Abigail intrigues him – and he’d like nothing better than to break through the walls she has built around herself. His persistence and determination to uncover the truth is unsettling, exciting – and dangerous. One way or another, it will change both their lives for ever.

‘THE HARD-BITTEN CHAMPION OF BRITISH HEROIC FANTASY’ – Joe Abercrombie

‘HEROISM AND HEARTBREAK . . . GEMMELL IS ADRENALINE WITH SOUL’ – Brent Weeks

It is three hundred years since the world toppled on its axis and civilisation was destroyed. In this savagely reshaped world ruled by brigands and war-makers, a rider seeks a lost city. Pursuing a dream to calm the violence in his soul, Jon Shannow, the brigand slayer, desires only peace. But from the Plague Lands emerges a fresh terror.

The Lord of the Pit and his hellborn army seek to plunge mankind into a new demonic era. Seemingly invincible, they make a fatal mistake: they take Shannow’s woman for blood sacrifice. And find themselves facing the deadliest warrior of the new age. Jon Shannow – the Jerusalem Man.

Novels by David Gemmell

The Drenai series
Legend
The King Beyond the Gate
Waylander
Quest For Lost Heroes
Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend

Jon Shannow series
Wolf in Shadow
The Last Guardian
Bloodstone

Stones of Power
Ghost King
Last Sword of Power

Hawk Queen series
Ironhand’s Daughter
The Hawk Eternal

Ancient Greece novels
Lion of Macedon
Dark Prince

Other novels
Knights of Dark Renown
Morningstar

Joanna Greenfield dreamed of travelling to East Africa to study one of the last known populations of wild chimpanzees. When she was offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance, the young student set off from peaceful Kenya into politically hazardous Uganda. From there, a small team of guides led her into the mountains.

In stunningly evocative language, Greenfield depicts the beauty of the rainforest and the determination required to wait for one transcendent encounter in the wild. But even one of the most remote places in the world is not immune to terrifying man-made conflict. Greenfield and her team are robbed by poachers and harassed by soldiers. Eventually, it becomes too dangerous to continue her research, though she knows she may never be allowed to return.

THE LION’S EYE is the true story of one woman’s burning mission to connect with animals -an adventure story and against-the-odds quest for a wilderness few of us have ever glimpsed.

Susan Jeffers has helped millions of people throughout the world overcome their fears, heal their relationships, and move forward in life with confidence and love. In Opening Our Hearts To Men she shares her own experiences, and offers wisdom, insights and practical advice on how to feel good about yourself and your relationships. Opening Our Hearts To Men is a book for every woman who wants to bring more love into her life. It will help you if: Your relationship is not working out in the way you had hoped. You want to develop greater intimacy in your relationships; You find it difficult to form lasting relationships with men; You are feeling lonely and unloved

The World is ending. One by one the mighty cities are falling: to earthquakes, to flood and to raiders – on both land and sea.

In a time of war and doubt, Gull is an oracle, a mouthpiece of the gods. Daughter of a slave plundered from fallen Troy, she was chosen as a child to serve the Lady of the Dead, and it is her fate to counsel kings.

When nine black ships appear as foretold in her dreams, captained by an exiled Trojan prince, Gull must make her choice. She must decide between her sacred calling and the most perilous adventure – joining her mother’s people in their desperate flight from slavery. From the doomed bastions of the City of Pirates to the temples of Byblos, from the intrigues of the Egyptian court to the haunted caves beneath Mount Vesuvius, only Gull can guide Prince Aeneas on his quest. And only she can dare the gates of the Underworld itself to lead him to his destiny.

In the last shadowed days of the Age of Bronze, one woman dreams of the world beginning anew. This is her story.

‘An epic love story full of exotic charm and rich historical detail . . . Meet Me In Bombay will sweep you away to another time and place.’ Red Magazine

‘Powerful and evocative’ Woman & Home

All he needs is to find her. First he must remember who she is.

An injured soldier has lost everything, even his past. His dreams hint at his old life; flashes of a woman. His only wish is to return to her, but will his broken mind let him? And will she still be waiting for him, if it does?

Back at the start of 1914, at a party on the shores of Bombay, Madeline Bright and Luke Devereaux meet. Strangers in a foreign world, in the sweltering heat and colour of colonial India they fall in love. They want to believe nothing can come between them, not even the disapproval of Maddy’s mother. But war looms and Luke, like so many, has no choice but to fight.

Maddy’s mother urges her to move on. Yet still she clings to the promise Luke left her with: that the two of them will meet again in Bombay…

Meet Me in Bombay is a story of fierce love set against the exotic and colourful world of colonial Bombay and the tragedy of the First World War. Perfect for fans of Dinah Jefferies, Lucinda Riley and Kate Furnivall.

‘Moving and beautifully written, this enchanting story of love and loss touched my heart’ DINAH JEFFERIES

‘Emotional, evocative and enthralling’ KATE FURNIVALL

‘An epic, bittersweet love story that will draw you in and grip you to the last page’ GILL PAUL

‘An exquisite love story, sumptuous and so moving. A WONDERFUL book!!’ TRACY REES

THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE AUTHOR

ONE BILLION COPIES SOLD

From shattered dreams to lasting love . . .

Every time Samantha went back to the flat, John’s words rang through her head :’I can’t live with you any more – I’ve got to get out.’ He’s been seeing another woman, and now she was promising him the one thing Sam couldn’t give: a child. The man she had shared her life with, her love and her laughter, had lied to her.

When the agency gave her four months on a ranch she thought they were crazy. Did they think a holiday would change her? She knew she was wild and untamable, a lone free Palomino – until she met the man who could break any horse on the range and entered a world of endless and enduring love . . .

An epic and romantic tale from one of the best-loved writers of all time. Perfect for fans of Penny Vincenzi, Lucinda Riley and Maeve Binchy

PRAISE FOR DANIELLE STEEL:

‘Emotional and gripping . . . I was left in no doubt as to the reasons behind Steel’s multi-million sales around the world’ DAILY MAIL

‘Danielle Steel is undeniably an expert’ NEW YORK TIMES

Against the rising power of Rome, Egypt is the last and strongest bastion of the Eastern Hellenistic kingdoms. Charmian is Cleopatra’s half sister, daughter of Pharaoh and a woman of the harem. She shares a great honour and a terrible burden with Cleopatra and their sister Iras – they are fated to defend Egypt from those who would destroy her.

So when Roman Julius Caesar comes to Egypt in pursuit of his enemies, Charmian and her sisters are drawn into a deadly struggle.
One that will shape the world to come.

From mysterious temples hidden in the desert to the perilous palaces of Rome, from the tomb of Alexander the Great to the very Gates of Amenti, Charmian must face foes seen and unseen in a battle for her family, her love and her gods.

All In My Head is a memoir by a woman who in her early fifties received a life-shattering diagnosis. It is about her determined search for effective treatment, the birth of a campaign to get proper data and funding for research into glioblastoma (GBM), and finally her coming to terms with the knowledge that she has reached the end of the road.

Jessica Morris takes the reader on a whirlwind journey. How does an ordinary person who last studied biology aged sixteen negotiate with world-renowned doctors and surgeons about cutting-edge treatments she must decide between? How do you remain positive when the median statistics suggest you have only fourteen months to live? How instead do you cast those fears aside and bounce back?

All In My Head is much more than a book about GBM. It takes the reader into the life of a woman who when confronted by devastating news chooses to be strong. It is about fighting adversity with hope and finding reasons to be positive in the darkest moments.

‘They promise us all sorts of things,’ she said, ‘happiness, success, adventure – don’t you know? Then suddenly we find ourselves left alone in a dull crowded street with no one caring and our lives unneeded, and all the fine things that we meant to do, like toys that a child has laid aside . . . ‘

This is the story of Muriel Hammond, at twenty living within the suffocating confines of Edwardian middle-class society in Marshington, a Yorkshire village. A career is forbidden to her. Pretty, but not pretty enough, she fails to achieve the one thing required of her – to find a suitable husband. Then comes the First World War, a watershed which tragically revolutionises the lives of her generation. But for Muriel it offers work, friendship, freedom, and one last chance to find a special kind of happiness . . .

Winifred Holtby (1891-1935), novelist, journalist and critic, was born at Rudstone, Yorkshire. With the exception of South Riding, this is her most successful novel; powerfully tracing one woman’s search for independence and love, it echoes in fictional form the years autobiographically recorded by her close friend Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth.

All Mia Gibbs ever wanted was to have a family, but when her husband runs away with another woman, she suddenly finds herself a single mom. Raising two daughters alone isn’t easy, but her girls are her world and she’s determined to stand on her own two feet. So when a childhood friend offers her a job helping his mom downsize her home, she jumps at the chance.

The last thing Nick McGuire wants now is a family. Once upon a time, he and his wife were happy and trying to start a family of their own. But years of infertility and the fighting that resulted ripped them apart. Now his job is his life, and he’s perfectly fine with that–thank you very much. At least until the beautiful Mia Gibbs–and her two rambunctious girls–come back into his life.

The more time Mia and Nick spend together, the stronger their attraction grows. But they’ve both been burned before. Can they find the courage to take a second chance on lasting love?

Return to the seductive world of Christine Feehan’s New York Times bestselling Carpathian novels as roiling passions collide in a perfect storm of dangerous desire that only a precious few can hope to outrun . . .

Awakening after all this time in a world of absolute darkness and oppressive heat, Dax wonders in how many ways the world above must have changed. But it is how he has changed that fills him with dread and loathing. Buried alive for hundreds of years in a volcano in the Carpathian Mountains, Dax fears that he has become the full-fledged abomination that every Carpathian male fears, a victim of the insidious evil that has crept relentlessly into his mind and body over the centuries. But there are some things that never change.

His name is Mitro, the vampire Dax had hunted all these long centuries. Second in command to the prince of the Carpathian people he is the epitome of everything malevolent, and perpetrator of one of the most shocking killing sprees known to man – and beast. Even his friends and family weren’t safe from Mitro’s bloodlust. Neither was Mitro’s lifemate, Arabejila, an extraordinary woman with extraordinary gifts. But now that Dax has re-emerged, so too has Mitro. The ultimate battle between good and evil has been re-engaged. Between Dax and Mitro, a violent game has begun – one that has marked Riley Parker, the last descendent of Arabejila, as the reward.