Charity Norman, whose life like mine has been shared between England and New Zealand, writes psychological dramas dealing with sensitive subjects in domestic settings. This novel was published in 2015 when there was less public awareness about “gender dysphoria” than there is today. Luke Livingstone is a respected solicitor, happily married with two children, outwardly a typical male leading a conventional life. But since early childhood he has felt like a woman born into a man’s body, and keeping this secret has gradually become too much too bear. Having been narrowly dissuaded from suicide by a stranger he decides to reveal the truth, but is initially met by hostile disbelief from all sides and a violent family crisis. I found it a gripping read.
What do you do when you find that your husband - your father, your son - is not who you thought? Can you ever love him again? A beautifully written, sensitive and witty novel of a family in utter chaos.
Girl meets boy. They fall in love, and they marry.
For thirty years they share one another's lives.
That should have been the end of the story.
Luke Livingstone is a lucky man. He's a father and grandfather, a respected solicitor, a pillar of the community. He has a loving wife in Eilish, children who adore him and an idyllic…
Combining my interest in spiritualism with the psychological aspects of military history, this book written over 100 years ago is still relevant today. Sir Oliver Lodge was an eminent physicist and electrical engineer, also a pioneer of the spiritualist movement in the UK. His youngest son Raymond volunteered for the Army during World War One and his letters home, reproduced in the first part of the book, give a vivid picture of life in the trenches of the Western Front. After Raymond is killed in action his father sets out on a series of anonymous sittings with various mediums, which yield convincing evidence of Raymond’s survival in the afterlife. The last section draws on philosophy, biology, physics and the author’s own theories about consciousness and mind-body-spirit connections. He stresses the importance of keeping an open mind, being willing to revise firmly held beliefs and admit the limitations of current scientific knowledge.
English physicist Sir Oliver Lodge lost his son Raymond in World War One. He and his wife were committed spiritualists, and they claimed to have been contacted by Raymond's spirit from the afterlife.
This book is split into three parts. The first is dubbed the 'Normal Portion', which is a biographical account of Raymond's life, his enrollment in the British Army, his letters and correspondence, and finally the fateful day in which he died fighting on the Western Front. Finally, a series of condolences from his fellow soldiers and ranking officers are included, attesting to the young man's strength of…
Set in Rome, England and France during the late 20th century, this unusual novel is based on the true history of the author’s grandparents. David is a dedicated young Catholic priest, sworn to celibacy. Margaret is an assertive feminist theologian. They meet and fall in love but only after prolonged soul-searching can they bring themselves to acknowledge their feelings. Eventually David leaves the priesthood, they marry and have a child. The story is told partly in flashback, after David has died and Margaret has developed dementia. A slow read, written in elegant prose, highlighting the controversies within the Catholic Church.
Set in mid-century Rome and England, this forbidden slow-burn love story will take your breath away
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR FICTION
'If I had to pick a favourite from the year so far, it would be this' - Pandora Sykes 'Lush, evocative and sexy' - The Sunday Times 'A thrilling love story of intellect and passion' - The Observer 'Truly outstanding: clever, passionate and as clean as a bone' - Melissa Harrison 'A heady brew . . . Pulsing with sensuality' - Daily Mail 'I couldn't put it down' - The…
At a funeral in an English country churchyard, a stranger appears among the mourners, a young woman in a yellow coat who claims to be the dead man's secret daughter. Dr Nicolas Harper was respected in his profession and a tyrant behind closed doors. Now that he is gone, his two adult children must confront the truth about who he really was and what he was capable of. His daughter Hilda, a reclusive cat-lover living alone in a marshland cottage, is disturbed but driven. She begins digging into her family's buried past: a father who led a double life, a mother whose early death was never properly explained, and decades of silence that someone may have worked very hard to maintain. Her brother Dunstan, already fragile, is horrified by the revelation. Desperate to protect the family name, he takes matters into his own hands, with catastrophic consequences. Moving between rural Kent and Sussex in 2005 and vivid flashbacks to postwar Oxford and the shadowy 1960s London nightclub scene, You Yet Shall Die builds to the discovery of a long-ago crime and a twist that will stop you cold. Perfect for fans of gripping British psychological mysteries with dark family secrets, complex female protagonists, and elegantly plotted historical twists.
