Here are 2 books that The Café on Manor Lane fans have personally recommended if you like
The Café on Manor Lane.
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Having read Richard Smith’s earlier book, Homeward Bound, I was hoping for another amusing and engaging read. I wasn’t disappointed. Smith writes with charm and humour, creating a colourful cast of characters, including my favourite sort: well meaning but hapless. And never were two people more lacking in hap than Harry Pratt and Jill Standing, whose on-off romance forms the central spine of the story. I enjoyed too the interwoven themes of environmental activism, breaking into the music industry, an obsession with Debbie Harry and juke boxes. Written with affection and wit.
A heart-warming story of a reluctant and unlikely friendship between a pair of misfits,
whose futures become linked to the survival of an urban 'greenspace'.
Two young people are struggling to find themselves and a role in life. For one, the world is changing too quickly. For the other, change can't come soon enough. Linking them are overgrown railway sidings - home to wildlife but about to be destroyed.
Jill Standing is mocked because of her name, ignored because of the way she looks and thought wacky because of her views on the environment.…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
The laughs start with the title – Spoiler alert! The book is set in Cape Town in the shadow of Table Mountain – and keep on coming. It’s the third madcap adventure with Dawson (for whom the word ‘hapless’ might have been invented) and Lucy (ditto, but for the word ‘resourceful’) and is written in the same tongue-in-cheek, witty style of Steve Sheppard’s earlier books. There’s a rich cast of characters and a gripping, fast-paced plot that kept me entertained and reading on. All in all, a glorious roller coaster of a book.
Dawson and Lucy hit Cape Town... and Cape Town hits back
When their new employer dies in a suspicious road accident and his brother, a South African government lawyer disappears in Cape Town, Dawson and Lucy are recalled to MI6. For once their mission is straightforward: liaise with Rebecca Erasmus of South African State Security and find the missing lawyer. Then Rebecca is kidnapped. Surely this has nothing to do with the forthcoming presidential election and the vengeful Chinese assassin in town...
Why are Dawson and Lucy held up at gunpoint on Table Mountain?
