Headline Books

'When I zipped up my tent on that first night sleeping rough, I felt no despair... I was just another care leaver who had lost control of his life.'

As a care-leaver who has experienced homelessness, award-winning investigative journalist Daniel Lavelle has spent his life navigating social services that are not fit for purpose and leave many vulnerable people slipping through the cracks. For though the right to adequate housing is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the reality is another, much grimmer, story.

In Down and Out, Daniel draws on his own experiences, as well as those of the witty, complex, hopeful individuals he has encountered who have been shunned or forgotten by the state that is supposed to provide for them, in order to shine a powerful light on this world.

Down and Out is a true state-of-the-nation examination of modern homelessness, assessing its significance, its precursors and causes, as well as the role played by government, austerity, charities, and other systems in perpetuating this crisis. Ultimately, it seeks to ask how we as a society might change our practices and attitudes so that one day we might bring it to an end.

'When I zipped up my tent on that first night sleeping rough, I felt no despair... I was just another care leaver who had lost control of his life.'

As a care-leaver who has experienced homelessness, award-winning investigative journalist Daniel Lavelle has spent his life navigating social services that are not fit for purpose and leave many vulnerable people slipping through the cracks. For though the right to adequate housing is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the reality is another, much grimmer, story.

In Down and Out, Daniel draws on his own experiences, as well as those of the witty, complex, hopeful individuals he has encountered who have been shunned or forgotten by the state that is supposed to provide for them, in order to shine a powerful light on this world.

Down and Out is a true state-of-the-nation examination of modern homelessness, assessing its significance, its precursors and causes, as well as the role played by government, austerity, charities, and other systems in perpetuating this crisis. Ultimately, it seeks to ask how we as a society might change our practices and attitudes so that one day we might bring it to an end.

From the Women's Prize-longlisted author of See What I Have Done comes a masterful reworking of the road novel into a portrait of the complex relationship between mothers and daughters.

She thinks of blue mountain, her favourite place. 'We're going somewhere where we can be safe.We never have to come back here.'

As the rest of the world lies sleeping, Eleanor straps her infant daughter, Amy, into the back of her car. This is the moment she knew must come, when they will walk out on her husband, Leon, and a marriage in ruins since his return from Vietnam. Together, she and Amy will journey to blue mountain, a place of enchantment and refuge that lit up Eleanor's childhood.

As the car eats up the miles, so Eleanor's mind dives back into her fractured relationship with her mother, Kitty. Kitty who asked for so much from life, from love, from family. Kitty who had battled so hard to prise her husband George out of the grip of war. Kitty, whose disapproving voice rings so loud in Eleanor's head.

Tense, visceral, glittering, it is a masterful return to fiction from the author of the acclaimed See What I Have Done.

From the Women's Prize-longlisted author of See What I Have Done comes a masterful reworking of the road novel into a portrait of the complex relationship between mothers and daughters.

She thinks of blue mountain, her favourite place. 'We're going somewhere where we can be safe.We never have to come back here.'

As the rest of the world lies sleeping, Eleanor straps her infant daughter, Amy, into the back of her car. This is the moment she knew must come, when they will walk out on her husband, Leon, and a marriage in ruins since his return from Vietnam. Together, she and Amy will journey to blue mountain, a place of enchantment and refuge that lit up Eleanor's childhood.

As the car eats up the miles, so Eleanor's mind dives back into her fractured relationship with her mother, Kitty. Kitty who asked for so much from life, from love, from family. Kitty who had battled so hard to prise her husband George out of the grip of war. Kitty, whose disapproving voice rings so loud in Eleanor's head.

Tense, visceral, glittering, it is a masterful return to fiction from the author of the acclaimed See What I Have Done.

'How differently the Geller sisters' lives would have turned out had C.J. Reynolds not been released from prison that February....'

Marti Geller is going to die soon, and she's hoping to take her secrets with her.

To do this, Marti has stipulated in her will that the family's summer home on Mount Desert Island, Maine, must be sold as soon as possible. This request comes as a shock to her three daughters, a trio of strong-minded women who are each hiding a secret of their own.

For the eldest daughter, Beck, the Maine cottage is essential to her secret wish to write a novel, and selling is the last thing she wants to do. But recently divorced Claire is privately too preoccupied with an unrequited love to be concerned about the sale, while the youngest daughter, Sophie, would never admit to her sisters that she desperately needs the sale in order to survive.

While the sisters argue over the fate of their late mother's property, enigmatic Southerner C.J. Reynolds, with his own troubled past, is released from prison and begins to travel to Mount Desert Island.

As this seemingly unconnected group all head for the coast of Maine, nothing is as it seems.

And everything is about to change....

The new novel from New York Times best-selling author Therese Anne Fowler follows three sisters in the aftermath of the death of their matriarch, whose last request might change everything.... Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng, Mary Beth Keane and Jodi Picoult.

'How differently the Geller sisters' lives would have turned out had C.J. Reynolds not been released from prison that February....'

Marti Geller is going to die soon, and she's hoping to take her secrets with her.

To do this, Marti has stipulated in her will that the family's summer home on Mount Desert Island, Maine, must be sold as soon as possible. This request comes as a shock to her three daughters, a trio of strong-minded women who are each hiding a secret of their own.

For the eldest daughter, Beck, the Maine cottage is essential to her secret wish to write a novel, and selling is the last thing she wants to do. But recently divorced Claire is privately too preoccupied with an unrequited love to be concerned about the sale, while the youngest daughter, Sophie, would never admit to her sisters that she desperately needs the sale in order to survive.

While the sisters argue over the fate of their late mother's property, enigmatic Southerner C.J. Reynolds, with his own troubled past, is released from prison and begins to travel to Mount Desert Island.

As this seemingly unconnected group all head for the coast of Maine, nothing is as it seems.

And everything is about to change....

The new novel from New York Times best-selling author Therese Anne Fowler follows three sisters in the aftermath of the death of their matriarch, whose last request might change everything.... Perfect for fans of Celeste Ng, Mary Beth Keane and Jodi Picoult.

A gorgeous, sun-soaked romance set in Southern Spain. The perfect holiday beach listen for fans of Milly Johnson and Jo Thomas.

Some people are romantics. Some aren't.

When Sophie and Maddie are summoned to a mysterious, top-secret meeting by their best friend Kate's partner, and told that he's planning to whisk Kate away for a surprise wedding in Gibraltar, it's immediately clear that bubbly florist Sophie is a total romantic. And that freewheeling, purple-haired Maddie is not.

Soon, Maddie finds herself reluctantly organising venues, planners and ceremonies; trying not to think of her own memories of Andalucia, and those she's lost touch with there. Meanwhile Sophie's hoping this dreamy gesture might spur on her own boyfriend to similar plans...and absolutely not thinking at all about Kate's gorgeous brother-in-law-to-be.

But Kate's got no idea what's going on. And as the stresses pile up and the group jet off to the sunny south, it seems it's not just Kate who might get a surprise in Spain—one that could change everything....

A gorgeous, sun-soaked romance set in Southern Spain. The perfect holiday beach listen for fans of Milly Johnson and Jo Thomas.

Some people are romantics. Some aren't.

When Sophie and Maddie are summoned to a mysterious, top-secret meeting by their best friend Kate's partner, and told that he's planning to whisk Kate away for a surprise wedding in Gibraltar, it's immediately clear that bubbly florist Sophie is a total romantic. And that freewheeling, purple-haired Maddie is not.

Soon, Maddie finds herself reluctantly organising venues, planners and ceremonies; trying not to think of her own memories of Andalucia, and those she's lost touch with there. Meanwhile Sophie's hoping this dreamy gesture might spur on her own boyfriend to similar plans...and absolutely not thinking at all about Kate's gorgeous brother-in-law-to-be.

But Kate's got no idea what's going on. And as the stresses pile up and the group jet off to the sunny south, it seems it's not just Kate who might get a surprise in Spain—one that could change everything....

The Tulip Tea Rooms is a heartwarming and poignant saga from Pam Evans, set in London just after the Second World War. Perfect for listeners of Kitty Neale, Katie Flynn and Dilly Court.

The Second World War is finally over when Lola Brown meets Harry Riggs at a dance. It is love at first sight, but when Harry tells Lola that he is a policeman, her heart sinks. Lola's father is a petty criminal, and if Harry ever finds out and turns him in, it will destroy her family....

Harry reluctantly accepts that Lola doesn't want to see him again, and eventually starts to find happiness without her. In the meantime, Lola encounters the eccentric Pickford sisters and sets about transforming their run-down tea rooms in London's West End, only to find her own life transformed as well. Despite everything, Harry and Lola continue to feel drawn to each other, but the truth about Lola's family can't stay hidden for ever....

The Tulip Tea Rooms is a heartwarming and poignant saga from Pam Evans, set in London just after the Second World War. Perfect for listeners of Kitty Neale, Katie Flynn and Dilly Court.

The Second World War is finally over when Lola Brown meets Harry Riggs at a dance. It is love at first sight, but when Harry tells Lola that he is a policeman, her heart sinks. Lola's father is a petty criminal, and if Harry ever finds out and turns him in, it will destroy her family....

Harry reluctantly accepts that Lola doesn't want to see him again, and eventually starts to find happiness without her. In the meantime, Lola encounters the eccentric Pickford sisters and sets about transforming their run-down tea rooms in London's West End, only to find her own life transformed as well. Despite everything, Harry and Lola continue to feel drawn to each other, but the truth about Lola's family can't stay hidden for ever....