The wife: Enid has been married to the handsome, charismatic lecturer Bernard Finch for over 20 years. But after one fateful supper on board a cruise ship, she starts to wonder, is her husband all that he seems? The husband: Bernard said his life began when he met his wife. But, like everyone, he''s got a past. And it''s threatening to catch up with him.And a whole lot of trouble at sea: Frankie Gleeson is a fellow passenger. A man with a long memory and the unshakeable conviction that he and Bernard have met before. Enid''s interest is piqued...

Loyalty tested to the limit. Dangerous secrets to keep. A lifelong friendship between a princess and a commoner. Nellie Welche''s life changes for ever when she''s proposed as companion to Princess Sophia, daughter of mad King George III and Queen Charlotte. Taken into the heart of the family, Nellie is privy to the innermost secrets of the rotten House of Hanover. From the first rumblings of the French Revolution to the beginnings of the railway age, Nellie charts their story as she and Sofy support each other through the ups and downs of their extraordinary lives.

Nan''s mother loves to tell her daughter stories, though the details vary according to how much she has drunk. The tale she tells most often claims that Admiral Lord Nelson is Nan''s father: he was her lover and she saw him die at Trafalgar. Or so she claims. From poor beginnings, resourceful Nan makes her own determined way through life, but always haunted by the wish to know the truth about her father. From Portsmouth in the early 1800s to the battlefields of the Crimea, Nan discovers the world is full of people with a story about Nelson. There are some questions we can never hope to answer...

There is one great love in everyone''s life. For Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita, hers was a Romanov cousin, a member of the doomed Russian royal family. Her father is Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria''s second son. Her mother is Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II. Ducky seems doomed to be a pawn on her grandmother''s dynastic chessboard. But Ducky is not so easily controlled. In an era when death is considered preferable to divorce she fights for the freedom to be with the true love of her life. From disgraced exile in Paris to the glitter of St Petersburg and the mud and carnage of the Eastern Front, she forges her own path. As Russia descends into the chaos of 1917 and the Romanov dynasty falters, Ducky is right at the heart of events. Exiled once more, she tells us her story.

London, the 1880s, and Jack the Ripper is at large. Two childhood friends meet again having found very different fortunes in the fog-bound, Ripper-stalked streets of Victorian London. Plain but witty Dot is a music hall star; pretty Kate (Eddowes, a true-life Ripper victim) has fallen on hard times.''Poignant and unsentimental, Dot''s whipllash humour had me cheering'' DAILY MAILWhen star of London''s Victorian music hall, Dot Allbones, bumps into her childhood friend Kate Eddowes outside the Griffin theatre in Shoreditch, it''s a blast from the past. The two grew up together in the Midlands, but life has treated them very differently since then.Told through the eyes of the irreverent Dot, this is the story of a London populated by chancers, some rich, some destitute. During one hot summer in the 1880s Whitechapel famously became the scene of unspeakable horror, and Kate Eddowes found a grisly fame that would far outshine Dot''s.Because out there, in the stews of East London, Saucy Jack is sharpening his knife . . .

The Early Birds is the touching and funny follow-up to The Future Homemakers of America. ''Funny, heartwarming and a real treat. I would recommend it to anyone!'' Katie Fforde''Wit and insight to match Nick Hornby, and the entertainment value of Helen Fielding'' Independent on The Future Homemakers of America''Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people''s shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!'' Marian KeyesPeggy, the southern belle. Kath, the pragmatist with the only Norfolk accent in New York state. Gayle, the preacher with healing hands. Mrs Colonel Audrey Rudman, forever keeping up the standards of the Officers'' Wives Club. Lois, who''s never had a thought she didn''t voice. Loudly. Their menfolk may be long retired, but once a US Air Force wife, always an Air Force wife, and the bonds of friendship forged in base after military base are still going strong fifty years later. Time is rendering its Accounts Payable for all of them now: hip replacements, eye problems, forgetfulness and departures. In this hymn to lifelong female friendship, Peggy soldiers on through new upheavals, including her ex-husband Vern''s Alzheimer''s diagnosis, the death of one of her nearest and dearest, a life-changing house move and the world-shattering events of 9/11 with the help of her sharp-tongued, often eccentric, but always loyal group of friends.

The wife: Enid has been married to the handsome, charismatic lecturer Bernard Finch for over 20 years. But after one fateful supper on board a cruise ship, she starts to wonder, is her husband all that he seems? The husband: Bernard said his life began when he met his wife. But, like everyone, he''s got a past. And it''s threatening to catch up with him.And a whole lot of trouble at sea: Frankie Gleeson is a fellow passenger. A man with a long memory and the unshakeable conviction that he and Bernard have met before. Enid''s interest is piqued...

Loyalty tested to the limit. Dangerous secrets to keep. A lifelong friendship between a princess and a commoner. Nellie Welche''s life changes for ever when she''s proposed as companion to Princess Sophia, daughter of mad King George III and Queen Charlotte. Taken into the heart of the family, Nellie is privy to the innermost secrets of the rotten House of Hanover. From the first rumblings of the French Revolution to the beginnings of the railway age, Nellie charts their story as she and Sofy support each other through the ups and downs of their extraordinary lives.

Nan''s mother loves to tell her daughter stories, though the details vary according to how much she has drunk. The tale she tells most often claims that Admiral Lord Nelson is Nan''s father: he was her lover and she saw him die at Trafalgar. Or so she claims. From poor beginnings, resourceful Nan makes her own determined way through life, but always haunted by the wish to know the truth about her father. From Portsmouth in the early 1800s to the battlefields of the Crimea, Nan discovers the world is full of people with a story about Nelson. There are some questions we can never hope to answer...

There is one great love in everyone''s life. For Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita, hers was a Romanov cousin, a member of the doomed Russian royal family. Her father is Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria''s second son. Her mother is Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II. Ducky seems doomed to be a pawn on her grandmother''s dynastic chessboard. But Ducky is not so easily controlled. In an era when death is considered preferable to divorce she fights for the freedom to be with the true love of her life. From disgraced exile in Paris to the glitter of St Petersburg and the mud and carnage of the Eastern Front, she forges her own path. As Russia descends into the chaos of 1917 and the Romanov dynasty falters, Ducky is right at the heart of events. Exiled once more, she tells us her story.

London, the 1880s, and Jack the Ripper is at large. Two childhood friends meet again having found very different fortunes in the fog-bound, Ripper-stalked streets of Victorian London. Plain but witty Dot is a music hall star; pretty Kate (Eddowes, a true-life Ripper victim) has fallen on hard times.''Poignant and unsentimental, Dot''s whipllash humour had me cheering'' DAILY MAILWhen star of London''s Victorian music hall, Dot Allbones, bumps into her childhood friend Kate Eddowes outside the Griffin theatre in Shoreditch, it''s a blast from the past. The two grew up together in the Midlands, but life has treated them very differently since then.Told through the eyes of the irreverent Dot, this is the story of a London populated by chancers, some rich, some destitute. During one hot summer in the 1880s Whitechapel famously became the scene of unspeakable horror, and Kate Eddowes found a grisly fame that would far outshine Dot''s.Because out there, in the stews of East London, Saucy Jack is sharpening his knife . . .

The Early Birds is the touching and funny follow-up to The Future Homemakers of America. ''Funny, heartwarming and a real treat. I would recommend it to anyone!'' Katie Fforde''Wit and insight to match Nick Hornby, and the entertainment value of Helen Fielding'' Independent on The Future Homemakers of America''Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people''s shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!'' Marian KeyesPeggy, the southern belle. Kath, the pragmatist with the only Norfolk accent in New York state. Gayle, the preacher with healing hands. Mrs Colonel Audrey Rudman, forever keeping up the standards of the Officers'' Wives Club. Lois, who''s never had a thought she didn''t voice. Loudly. Their menfolk may be long retired, but once a US Air Force wife, always an Air Force wife, and the bonds of friendship forged in base after military base are still going strong fifty years later. Time is rendering its Accounts Payable for all of them now: hip replacements, eye problems, forgetfulness and departures. In this hymn to lifelong female friendship, Peggy soldiers on through new upheavals, including her ex-husband Vern''s Alzheimer''s diagnosis, the death of one of her nearest and dearest, a life-changing house move and the world-shattering events of 9/11 with the help of her sharp-tongued, often eccentric, but always loyal group of friends.