Books

What happens when the fairytale you thought you wanted at twenty-two, feels like a prison forty years later?

Watching From the Wings is a heartwarming story of devotion, friendship, joy and passion, but also one involving disappointment, duplicity and betrayal. We all have our own journey of love. Katharine’s is more complex than most. And she comes to realise that she has always chosen the wrong door whenever she had the chance to exit by a more promising one.

Can she make a fresh start, or is it too late?

Review by award-winning blogger, Anne Williams, Being Anne
Interview with award-winning writer Jane Davis
Review by Linda Hill (Linda’s Book Bag)
Review by Mairead O’Driscoll Hearne (Swirl and Thread)

So Many Ways of Loving is a novel in which, at first glance, nothing much happens – there’s no espionage, no high-speed car chases, murders, or haunted houses. But in a sense, everything happens – loss, death, grief, serious illness, but also birth, unexpected romance, fresh adventures and numerous possibilities. Three women in their 50s and 60s travel through the most momentous year of their lives, and as they do so, they are reminded of just how much we depend upon family, friends and pets.

Set in London in the mid-1980s – a decade of opportunity where everything seemed possible – Helen Bartlett, a popular news presenter and Sam Aziz, a glamorous middle-eastern cardiac surgeon, meet on a live TV programme. They dislike each other on sight, and the interview is a disaster. However, a chance second-meeting leads to a great passion and soon they are desperately in love. But soon the differences in their cultural backgrounds begin to manifest themselves. And a debt of honour that Sam cannot ignore returns to haunt him.

Do they have to relinquish the most magical relationship either of them has ever known? Can they find a way out of their dilemmas? Or do they have to accept that no matter how modern we are, we cannot fly in the face of the traditions that served, and shaped us, for centuries?

This is a story about identity and change, and it reflects the turbulence so many of us experience in mid-life just when we had assumed we would feel stable and secure.

The novel takes place in Norfolk, where all the main characters were born, as well as in London and the west coast of Ireland.

As we grow older, and deal with the deaths of our parents, we can stumble upon family secrets that shock us to the core. The surprise in this book is beyond what the characters, or indeed any reader, might ever imagine could happen. And poses the question: are you really sure you know who you are?

A contemporary novel, the story is played out against the background of the current political upheaval we are all dealing with, but is ultimately a feel-good book about love, possibilities, and the invaluable richness of friendship.

Christine blogs about writing in life’s difficult times

This book has been helping readers since its first edition was published in 2006. Sadly, there are always broken-hearted people, and this book is for them and is like a helping hand through the worst of times.

A year after discovering that her husband no longer loves her, Dr Annie Templeton wakes up with a sudden relish for singledom. However, she soon realises that being single in your fifties is very different from being single in your twenties. How, she wonders, do people of my age – with careers, adult children doing unwise things with unwise people, parents going gaga, and friends falling ill, or in or out of love – ever have the time and energy to find a new partner? Who'd Have Thought It? is a romantic comedy, which will make you laugh and cry – often at the same time.

Poor self-esteem ruins everything. It makes us under-value ourselves and generates feelings of anxiety, lack of confidence, inadequacy and unworthiness. But we are all born into the world with the same right to be here as everyone else. This book is full of hints and tips to help the reader to become the person he or she really is.

Happiness is a natural force within us. But sometimes we have to re-learn it. It seems that at some point in our lives we lose the gift of being happy and are constantly struggling to find that elusive joy. Find out how happy you are. Learn the secrets of happy people. Assess your own life. Rethink those irrational, negative beliefs. Stop feeling guilty. Know that you deserve to be happy. How to live through difficult times. Act happy – be happy.

TOO YOUNG TO GET OLD is a celebratory and informative book for the female 50 plus reader who wants to enjoy life to the full and to grow older in a very different way than previous generations. Lively, positive and inspirational, mixed with a little self help, a little nostalgia and an underpinning of psychology, Christine Webber's chapters include 'Keeping the good times rolling', 'If you've got it, flaunt it!' and 'Reinventing work, lifestyle and retirement', and she goes on to address head on topics such as sex and relationships, the importance of friendships, where to live, money, keeping the brain alert, health and anti-ageing claims.
Here is a lively, honest, entertaining and informed guide to the most important information you need to know on how to live as well and as healthily as you can for as long as you can – and enjoy every minute of it!