Penguin Her Mother's Daughter Matthews Beryl

On the dark, rough streets of London in 1913, can one girl find the courage to open the door to her destiny? • Little Rose Webster's life has never been easy. Born in the slums of Bermondsey she has longed to escape her poor upbringing and violent step-father • But it's hard to escape these deprived streets • Thankfully she has a quick mind and her insatiable thirst for knowledge means she excels at school - so perhaps she has a chance at a brighter future • But Rose's dreams are shattered when she is forced to leave school and find work, leaving her with nothing to cling to but hope • And as a dark figure from her past threatens further turmoil, this winter's child fears she will never see the spring

Discover the heartwarming and uplifting story of a young orphan's survival in wartime London • London, 1934 • Growing up in poverty on Farthing Street, fourteen-year-old Amy Carter is no stranger to hardship • But when her father is hanged for murder and her mother dies suddenly soon after, orphaned Amy is in danger of being left homeless and unloved • Until one day, Amy's luck changes and she is taken in by Ben, an artist, and his kindly landlady, Mrs Dalton • Welcomed into the hearts of the residents of Mrs Dalton's home, Amy flourishes under their care and devotion. So when, five years later, she catches the eye of handsome doctor John Sterling, she almost believes she has left her past - and its troubles - behind her • Yet a gathering storm is threatening England

Unwanted and unloved, fourteen-year-old Marie Anne Lawson is everything her mother doesn't want her to be - adventurous, outspoken and unusual. As soon as she's old enough, Marie Anne is dispatched from Northumberland to London to live with her Aunt Martha to learn to be a lady and perfect her musical talent • Life in London proves to be more difficult than she could ever have imagined. Only the friendship of her Aunt's companion and the praise of her music tutor prevents her from falling into despair • When Anne Marie is suddenly sent back to the Manor, will she find the strength to be who she really is

Hull, 1856 • James Ripley and his wife Moira have always looked out for the poor of Hull. When, during one stormy night, there is a flood in a nearby cellar - a popular shelter for the homeless - James rushes to help • Among those rescued is a dark-haired little girl who speaks a language no one can understand. Some say that she came to the cellar with her mother, but no one knows where the mother is now • Concerned for the child's safety, James is unsure of what to do. Where has the girl's mother disappeared to? And what can be done to help the homeless who have lost the only shelter they knew? • A stunning new story of family, love and the importance of kindness, from the Sunday Times bestselling author Val Wood

Three mothers. Three very different backgrounds. And a bond they will never forget • The Lake District, 1944. Spring is in the air for the women at Mary Vale Mother and Baby Home • Beautiful Stella, the head-turning cook of a munitions factory, has been swept off her feet by a handsome GI. He proposes when she falls pregnant, but soon his letters stop arriving • Then there is Lillian, who is deeply unimpressed when she is conscripted as a Land Girl miles from her home, but then she meets a charming, married vet • Meanwhile, midwife Ada is getting used to being back at work after the birth of her own beautiful baby girl. But she faces the biggest challenge of her life when the home is engulfed in an outbreak of whooping cough • Though each woman is from a different walk of life, only together can they help Mary Vale come through this crisis

A powerful, intimate memoir of Eritrean-British journalist, Hannah Azieb-Pool, who returns to Eritrea at the age of 30 to meet her family for the first time • 'What a story. So vivid, honest and moving' Andrea Levy, author of Small Island • 'When I stepped off the plane in Asmara, I had no idea what lay ahead, or how those events would change me . . .' • In her twenties, Hannah-Azieb Pool is given a letter that unravels everything she knows about her life. She knew she was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea, and as her adoptive family brought her to the UK, they believed she did not have any surviving relatives • When she discovers the truth in a letter from her brother - that her birth father is alive and her Eritrean family are desperate to meet her - she is faced with a critical choice

Manchester, 1867 • Mara longs for a peaceful life free of violence and poverty. But she has married into the O'Hara family, who have a reputation for drunkenness and quick tempers. Her eldest stepson Conrad is the worst of them all - a brute and a criminal who makes Mara's life a misery • But when Conrad is accused of a crime he didn't commit, Mara is the only one who can prove his innocence. Perhaps this is her chance to finally free her family from his toxic influence • Will Mara clear Conrad's name, or will she have the courage to break away from her stepson's villainy?

Handsome, worldly and intelligent, Solal holds a position of enviable power in 1930s Geneva. But as Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations, he has become bitterly disillusioned by international affairs and the self-serving people who surround him. His one hope for redemption is through love - and he embarks on the audacious seduction of Ariane, the beautiful, daydreaming wife of a dull-witted, social-climbing employee of the League • In Her Lover, Albert Cohen created a world humming with the many vivid and eccentric voices of its wonderfully observed characters. Brilliantly inventive and baroquely detailed, this magnificent novel is a merciless satire of middle-class manners and ambitions, and of the Byzantine machinations of global politics

For many years Colette has avoided returning to her homeland - the magical island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Southern Brittany - afraid to confront the painful memories she left behind. She is living on the Cornish coast when she hears about her mother Thea's failing health and realises that the time has come for her to go home. But can Colette ever forgive Thea for what she has done? • Despite Colette's wariness, romantic Belle-Ile still fascinates her. She takes on the running of her mother's flower shop and makes friends with Elodie from the Old Lighthouse where Thea once worked as a nanny and with the enigmatic Etienne who shares Colette's mixed feelings about the island. As Thea opens up to her for the first time, Colette finds herself softening and being drawn back into the landscape of her past

She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities • But, award-winning science writer Carl Zimmer argues, heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies

Even though she's terrified of the sea, a girl who believes her mum might have been a mermaid runs away to the ocean to solve the mystery of who she really is • Stella is the odd one out. She sleepwalks, is terrified of water, yet obsessed by the ocean. Her mum who died when Stella was eight remains the biggest mystery of all. Who was she and why did she give Stella a necklace called 'the word of the sea' before she died? Nobody can give her any answers. Her father is consumed by grief and her grandmother's memories are fading with dementia • When Stella's only friend in the world, Cam, moves house, Stella runs away. She's determined to find out who her mum was and who she is too. She ends up in the Crystal Cove, a run-down aquarium with a mermaid show