Recommendations based on "Mercy's Child"

Discover untold secrets with this extraordinary memoir of drama and tragedy by Anne Glenconner—a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact.A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne's life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her "mad blood"; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance.New York Times BestsellerUSA Today BestsellerThe Sunday Times BestsellerThe Globe and Mail BestsellerABA Indie BestsellerThe Times (UK) Memoir of the YearOne of Newsweek's Most Anticipated Books of 2020

A powerful story of love and deception set against the true events of one of the most secret and terrifying of Heinrich Himmler's wartime projects - the Lebensborn Nazi breeding programmeCyrla's neighbours have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Annika, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for Aryan girls carrying German babies. Annika's soldier has disappeared; the Nazis confiscate fatherless children. Cyrla, sent from Poland to hide with her Dutch relatives, has been warned that her neighbours know she is half Jewish. She won't be safe for long.A cruel twist of fate places Cyrla with the terrible choice between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Annika's place in the Lebensborn. If she takes refuge in teh enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool teh doctors, nurses, guards and other mothers-to-be? How will she escape before they discover she is not who she claims?

Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited Opening Night. To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune - but to one distinguished member of the cast it was to bring sudden and unforeseen death

Seniors at Immaculate Heart High, Peggy Morrison and Constance Marie Wepplener set out to defy the conventions and strictures of "Nice Catholic Ladyhood," in a bittersweet story of the coming of age

Lucia Lucas, the eternally effervescent dowager, continues to consternate and beguile friends and antagonists alike in the English countryside where she becomes embroiled in high finance, buried treasure, politics, and love

Lucia, mayor of Tilling and leader of local society faces a new challenge from her social rival Elizabeth Mapp-Flint

In hopes of saving a beloved medieval church from ruin, Marion prays for a miracle; but subsequent entanglement in a world of professional musicians who seem to solve her problems leads to some terrible ramifications which make Marion question whether her prayers were really a "success."

Return to a time of legend—the days of Guinevere and Arthur and the glory that was to become Camelot On the night of Guinevere’s birth, a wise woman declares a prophecy of doom for the child: She will be gwenhwyfar, the white shadow, destined to betray her king, and be herself betrayed. Years pass, and Guinevere becomes a great beauty, riding free across Northern Wales on her beloved horse. She is entranced by the tales of the valorous Arthur, a courageous warrior who seems to Guinevere no mere man, but a legend. Then she finds herself betrothed to that same famous king, a hero who commands her willing devotion. Just as his knights and all his subjects, she falls under Arthur’s spell. At the side of King Arthur, Guinevere reigns strong and true. Yet she soon learns how the dark prophecy will reveal itself. She is unable to conceive. Arthur’s only true heir is Mordred, offspring of a cursed encounter with the witch Morgause. Now Guinevere must make a fateful choice: She decides to raise Mordred, teaching him to be a ruler and to honor Camelot. She will love him like a mother. Mordred will be her greatest joy–and the key to her ultimate downfall. “Guinevere comes alive—a strong, resourceful, and compassionate woman, accessible to modern folk . . . The Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot triangle comes alive as well—believable, poignant, and bearing the seeds of tragedy.”—Katherine Kurtz

* THE UNMISSABLE SHORT STORY COLLECTION FEATURING MODESTY BLAISE *'The finest escapist thrillers ever written' THE TIMES'Before Buffy, before Charlie's Angels, before Purdy and Emma Peel, there was Modesty Blaise' OBSERVERDiscover new Modesty Blaise stories in the final collection from legend Peter O'Donnell, spanning his heroine's career from running her criminal empire, the Network, to working for British Intelligence. Including 'Bellman', 'The Dark Angels', 'Old Alex', The Girl With the Black Balloon' and 'Cobra Trap', this collection reveals the untold tales of the world's most famous agent. From her youth in the criminal underworld, to fighting rebels in the jungles of central America and pitched battles on board a moving train, this collection featuring the classic duo of Modesty Blaise and her loyal lieutenant Willie Garvin is an essential part of any Modesty fan's library.

***AS READ ON BBC RADIO 4*** NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER 'A gripping account of the heartbreaks and triumphs of two of history's most formidable female intellectuals, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. Gordon has reunited mother and daughter through biography, beautifully weaving their narratives for the first time.' Amanda Foreman English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and author Mary Shelley were mother and daughter, yet these two extraordinary women never knew one another. Nevertheless, their passionate and pioneering lives remained closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies eerily similar. Both Marys became famous writers, fell in love with brilliant but impossible men, and were single mothers out of wedlock; both lived in exile, fought for their position in society and thought deeply about how we should live. They also broke every rigid convention thrust upon them: Wollstonecraft chased pirates in Scandinavia and sailed to Paris to witness the Revolution. Shelley eloped in a fishing boat with a married man and faced down bandits in Naples. Wollstonecraft proclaimed that women's liberty should matter to everyone. Not only did Wollstonecraft pen the landmark book, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, her work ignited Romanticism, inspiring a whole new generation of writers, including her daughter. At just nineteen years old, Mary travelled around Italy with Percy Shelley and Lord Byron, and there wrote Frankenstein. Having pushed the boundaries of the literary form, she went on to become the editor of her husband's poetry - a feat of scholarship that established his posthumous reputation. For the first time, Romantic Outlaws brings together a pair of visionary women who should have shared a life, but who instead share a powerful literary and feminist legacy. This is inventive, illuminating, involving biography at its best.