The Silver Darlings is a tale of lives hard won from a cruel sea and crueller landlords. It tells of strong young men and stronger women whose loves, fears and sorrows are set deep in a landscape of raw beauty and bleak reward. The dawning of the Herring Fisheries brought with it the hope of escape from the brutality of the Highland Clearances, and Neil Gunn's story paints a vivid picture of a community fighting against nature and history and refusing to be crushed.
"A fascinating account of a largely forgotten culture.""This debut novel is so absorbing I read it in two sittings!""I loved it from beginning to end.""Wilde created a wonderfully immersive world which has made me want to revisit Holy Island but as a fan of the book - to see Clara's story for myself." (Reader reviews)Island life is hard... leaving is harder.In 1895, a Northumbrian island welcomes two new residents. Clara and Jimmy are born on the same night, to families poles apart. Clara is an islander through and through; content to live among the rhythms and barren beauty of Holy Island. Jimmy's future is set in stone; fishing with the father he despises on the family boat. When tragedy forces them from their island and each other, they join the herring season in a bid to survive. Jimmy strikes out for Seahouses, where he joins a Scots herring crew. From Seahouses he can still see the island, his father too close for comfort. The crew's departure for Lowestoft brings welcome relief. Clara is sent to North Shields, to live with her wealthy, estranged grandparents. A chance encounter with a group of herring girls offers her an escape from the grief filled luxury of her grandparents' home. 1913 is a record-breaking year, but as Clara and Jimmy chase shoals of silver darlings to Lowestoft, their paths are dogged by war, injury and misunderstandings.Set adrift from all they know; will they ever find each other? And will they ever find their way home?"I was whisked away to Lindisfarne and felt so invested in the characters that LK Wilde created. For those who love a comfort read that transports you to another time and place then this is the book for you. I was left wanting more and cannot wait for the next book!""I loved this book, and devoured it over a weekend as I couldn't put it down! The story was engaging,the authors use of dialect and colourful descriptions transported me to another place and time .A story with twists and turns,love and loss,poverty and privilege.I recommend this read,a worthy companion,feeling a bit lost now I have completed it!" (Reader reviews)
Kenn returns to the Highlands of his youth, back to the river which has haunted his dreams since boyhood. Determined to walk all the way back to its source, Kenn embarks on a journey that will lead him deep into the wilderness of his own heart. Profound and moving, Highland River is a stirring tale of what is lost and what endures, and the unexpected ways we can be renewed.
Of all the superstitions held by the crew of Dunure fishing boat The Silver Darling, the most perilous of all is that under no circumstances should a white-handled knife ever be carried on board. Ignoring this long tradition, Danny the latest to help out the family business, steps onto the boat with a mop top, oil-skinned jacket and an ivory-handled knife. Determined to bring an 'enlightened attitude' aboard, Danny is biding his time until he moves on to college in Glasgow. Intricately researched, Morris portrays the gruelling life of a Dunure fishing crew
The story of herring is entwined in the history of commercial fishing. For over two millennia, herring have been commercially caught and its importance to the coastal peoples of Britain cannot be measured. At one point tens of thousands were involved in the catching, processing and sale of herring. They followed the shoals around the coast from Stornoway to Penzance and many towns on Britain’s East Coast grew rich on the backs of the ‘silver darlings’. The book looks at the effects of the herring on the people who caught them, the unique ways of life, the superstitions of the fisher folk, their boats and the communities who lived for the silver darlings. With a wealth of illustrations, this fascinating book reveals the little-known history of the herring. And for those who’ve neglected the silver darlings for lesser fish such as cod and haddock, there are a number of mouth-watering recipes to try.
From the internationally bestselling author of The Golden Cage comes a bold, mesmerizing thriller of seduction, deceit, and female power, in which a woman’s secret cannot stay buried forever. Faye Adelheim is living a delicious lie. She is wealthy beyond imagination, she is the Chairman of her self-made global cosmetics brand, and her ex-husband, the monster who killed her beloved daughter Julienne, is living out the remainder of his days behind bars. But unbeknownst to journalists, police officers, and investors, and even the lovers she occasionally invites to her bed, Faye has a secret: her daughter is, in fact, alive and well and so is her mother, the woman Faye’s father was sentenced for allegedly killing years ago. Together, three generations of women have survived in hiding from the men who sought to destroy them. But unfortunately for Faye, cages are meant to be opened, pillow talk can lead to betrayal, and secrets always end in tears.
It was supposed to be a place where teenagers would learn resilience, confidence and independence, where long hikes and runs in the bush would make their bodies strong and foster a connection with the natural world. Living in bare wooden huts, cut off from the outside world, the students would experience a very different kind of schooling, one intended to have a strong influence over the kind of adults they would eventually become. Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Starford spent a year at this school in the bush. In her boarding house sixteen girls were left largely unsupervised, a combination of the worst behaved students and some of the most socially vulnerable. As everyone tried to fit in and cope with their feelings of isolation and homesickness, Rebecca found herself joining ranks with the powerful girls, becoming both a participant--and later a victim-- of various forms of bullying and aggression. Bad Behaviour tells the story of that year, a time of friendship and joy, but also of shame and fear. It explores how those crucial experiences affected Rebecca as an adult and shaped her future relationships, and asks courageous questions about the nature of female friendship. Moving, wise and painfully honest, this extraordinary memoir shows how bad behaviour from childhood, in all its forms, can be so often and so easily repeated throughout our adult lives.
The beyond-great Hollywood star returns in seven pyrotechnic tales that become--somehow--a family saga spread over seventeen years. Wayfaring at Waverly in Silver Lake encompasses friends, relations, and some passersby--as James McCourt cocks a cast eye on the seven deadly sins. Some samples . . . In a story evoking pride, fountainhead of the other deadly sins, Hollywood star Kaye Wayfaring, semiretired now atop the Silver Lake Hills, like Marion Davis at San Simeon, is at home during the 1984 Olympics, contemplating the translucent Norma Jean ("Nobody ever went at lines the way she did"), while over at the studio, her colleagues review the highlights of her career, culminating in her scandalous, headline-grabbing Oscar snub. Lust is represented by Kaye, now back in business on location in Ireland, starring as the wanton Irish pirate queen, Granuaile. Kaye is sheathed in the part, waiting for the light, in County Donegal, balancing visions of sacred and profane love, during the first (and always lustful) day of principal photography. Gluttony is personified by Kaye Wayfaring's son, Tristan, in the throes of adolescent meltdown, telling his beloved uncle the demented tale of his cross-country bus trip, forced landing, and rescue by south-of-L.A. beach bums, as he floats in and out of consciousness. And sin itself, as in "sinfully delicious," is exemplified by James McCourt's new book, "Wayfaring at Waverly in Silver Lake, from beginning to end.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Get ready to be swept up in a whirlwind romance. It absolutely charmed me.”—Reese Witherspoon (A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick) “The perfect book to get lost in . . . Josie Silver’s characters sneak their way into your heart and stay.”—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We Lost Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story. Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away. Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be. What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
SOON TO BE CLAIRE DARLING—A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CATHERINE DENEUVE! When a wealthy woman decides to sell all of her worldly possessions, she unearths the secrets of her family’s past in this charming debut. On the last day of the millennium, sassy Faith Bass Darling, the richest old lady in Bass, Texas, decides to have a garage sale. With help from a couple of neighborhood boys, Faith lugs her priceless Louis XV elephant clock, countless Tiffany lamps, and everything else in her nineteenth-century mansion out onto her long, sloping lawn. Why is a recluse of twenty years suddenly selling off her dearest possessions? Because God told her to. As the townspeople grab up five generations of heirlooms, everyone drawn to the sale—including Faith’s long-lost daughter—finds that the antiques not only hold family secrets but also inspire some of life’s most important questions: Do our possessions possess us? What are we without our memories? Is there life after death or second chances here on earth? And is Faith really selling that Tiffany lamp for $1? READERS GUIDE INCLUDED
