No Greater Love - Box Set
Page 96
‘Oh, a dress fitting? How exciting! I saw the lovely couple yesterday afternoon, strolling hand in hand like love’s young dream. Oh my goodness, so beautiful together! Can you imagine what les enfants will look like? They are a couple that heaven blessed for sure.’
‘I know, Bobby’s a lucky girl. She certainly doesn’t take after me; she takes after her mum, Astrid. She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.’
It wasn’t a topic she normally discussed. Bobby’s mum had disappeared when she was three months old, leaving her in the care of her drug-addled boyfriend to pursue a life in India. Ironically, it probably saved her life. Astrid too was fond of the recreational drugs that formed the backdrop to Alfie’s life, but left before he progressed to heroin and the habit that would eventually kill him. She told Alfie she needed space and enlightenment, which he thought was a bloody shame, as what their little girl needed was a mummy who wasn’t over six thousand miles away needing space and enlightenment.
‘Oh Pru, she most certainly does take after you. You are beautiful inside and out. I can see you now,’ he raised he hand as if shielding his eyes, ‘you could model for denture cream or stair lifts!’
Pru threw a napkin at him and turned on her heel, smiling as she did so.
Available from 19th December 2013
First published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Amanda Prowse, 2013
The moral right of Amanda Prowse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
‘At Last’ Words and Music by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon © 1942, Reproduced by permission of EMI Feist Catalog Inc, London W1F 9LD
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781854235
ISBN (HB) 9781781854242
ISBN (XTPB) 9781781854259
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.headofzeus.com
Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Epigraph
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue: Forty-five Years Later
Book Club Notes
A Little Love — Preview
Copyright
About this Box Set
Amanda Prowse’s No Greater Love sequence is a series of contemporary stories with love at their core. They feature characters whose histories interweave through the generations: ordinary men and women who do extraordinary things for love. They are stories to keep you from switching off the bedside lamp at night, stories to remember long after the final page is turned...
This omnibus brings together Poppy Day, What Have I Done? and Clover’s Child, and an exclusive preview of the next novel in the series, A Little Love.
About No Greater Love
Amanda Prowse’s No Greater Love sequence is a series of contemporary stories with love at their core. They feature characters whose histories interweave through the generations: ordinary men and women who do extraordinary things for love. They are stories to keep you from switching off the bedside lamp at night, stories to remember long after the final page is turned...
1. Poppy Day
Ever since hairdresser Poppy Day married her childhood sweetheart, Mart, she’s been deliriously happy. Now Mart is fighting in Afghanistan, and Poppy is counting the days until he returns.
It takes one knock at the door to rip Poppy’s world apart. Mart has been taken hostage, and it’s too dangerous for the army to rescue him. Poppy is determined to bring him home herself. But her journey will lead her to a heartbreaking dilemma. What price will she pay to save the man she loves?
This is a gripping story of loss and courage from an author who knows what it is like to be the one left behind.
To read Poppy Day, click here.
2. What Have I Done?
Kathryn Brooker is the headmaster’s wife. While her husband spends his days disciplining unruly teenagers in the grand halls of Mountbriers Academy, Kathryn spends hers baking scones for her son’s cricket match in a beautiful cottage in the manicured school grounds.
In the evenings, when her husband strides home to compliment her cooking and kiss her hello – ignoring jokes from their children about grown-up lovebirds – Kathryn Brooker is the very picture of a fulfilled wife and mother. Anyone who peered through the downstairs sash window at the four figures sat easily around their scrubbed-pine kitchen table would see a happy family without a care in the world. They would envy Kathryn her perfect life.
But they would be wrong. Kathryn is trapped in a nightmare. And she is about to do something to change it. Something only a truly desperate woman would do...
To read What Have I Done?, click here.
3. Clover’s Child
When eighteen-year-old Dot meets Sol, she feels that love has arrived at last. Solomon Arbuthnott is a man who can bring colour and warmth to her drab life in sixties London – and what’s more, he is a young, handsome soldier with excellent prospects. Someone who wants to give her everything she has dreamed of. Someone who can promise her blue skies, laughter, sun and always, always love.
And for a while, life is truly like a song. They stroll hand-in-hand by the Serpentine, dance cheek-to-cheek in Soho’s smoky bars, and begin to plan their idyllic future, growing old together in Sol’s ancestral home on the island of St Lucia.
But this is 1961. East End girls don’t date West Indian boys, let alone fall in love with them and leave the country. They stay at home and live the life their parents planned for them. Even if it leaves them lonelier than they ever thought possible. Even if it rips their heart in two...
To read Clover’s Child, click here.
4. A Little Love
Everybody needs a little love in their lives...
Pru Plum is the celebrated owner of famous Mayfair bakery, Plum’s Patisserie. She wears Chanel and her hair is expensively cut. Few would believe that this elegant woman turned sixty-six last year.
But Pru is not the confident, successful businesswoman she appears. She has done shameful things to get to where she is today. And she will do anything to protect the secrets of her past - especially when, for the first time in her life, she has finally fallen in love…
From bestselling author Amanda Prowse, this is a story about love, loss and lies... and finding happiness before it’s too late.
Jump to free preview here.
Short stories…
Something Quite Beautiful
Can you ever escape your fate?
Somewhere in the wilds of Scotland, three boys await their fate. They have been sentenced to twenty years in Glenculloch, a remote prison for the most hopeless of criminals. The rumours say that it is run by a woman who thinks she’s God. A woman who decides what is ugly, and what is beautiful. A woman who decides who lives, and who dies...
Something Quite Beautiful is available here.
The Game
It’s every mother’s worst nightmare...
Gemma Peters has everything a sixteen year
old could want. Two loving parents, a good school, and close friends. Maybe sometimes her parents are a little overbearing, a little too adoring. But that’s the same for all teenagers, right?
Then, on the night of the school play, happy-go-lucky Gemma disappears without a trace. Where has she gone? Why has she been lying to her family? And, most importantly, will she ever come home?
The Game is available, here.
About the Author
AMANDA PROWSE was a management consultant for ten years before deciding to pursue her ambition to write. Her husband, Simeon, is a soldier, and they live in the West Country with their two teenage sons.
You can contact Amanda via twitter, @mrsamandaprowse or via her website, www.amandaprowse.org
Reviews
‘A cracking page-turner’
The Bookseller
‘This story of a woman’s fight to rebuild her shattered life is captivating, heartbreaking and superbly written.’
Closer
‘An absolutely gripping read… the characterisation is done superbly.’
Iain Dale, LBC Radio
‘Great novel – let’s get it to number 1!’
Gok Wan
‘Poppy Day is a brilliant book, I couldn’t put it down.’
Carol Vorderman
‘A rattling good book to curl up on the sofa with, I thoroughly recommend Poppy Day by army wife Amanda Prowse. She has turned her own fear and anxiety into a page-turning novel of loss and courage.’
Lorraine Kelly, The Sun
‘A modern day love story.’
Daily Mail
‘A deeply emotional story of a woman who will stop at nothing to save the man she loves… A fast, unputdownable read, Amanda Prowse adeptly fuses a tale of love and courage with the stark realities of war, both on the field and at home.’
Red
‘This romantic story of courage and determination is simply captivating.’
Closer
‘Army wife turns fear into fiction.’
Sunday Mirror
‘Set to become a bestseller.’
RAF News
‘Heartbreaking, but uplifting.’
Carol Vorderman
A Letter from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
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HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
This box set first published in the UK in 2013 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Amanda Prowse, 2011, 2012, 2013
The moral right of Amanda Prowse to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781859148
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.headofzeus.com