Love as Always, Mum xxx


Book Description

'A CHILLING new memoir by the daughter of mass murderer Fred West and his wife Rose describes the savage cruelty of her upbringing in 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester' DAILY MAIL 'Mae, I mean this ... I'm not a good person and I let all you children down ...' Rose West, HM PRISON DURHAM It has taken over 20 years for Mae West to find the perspective and strength to tell her remarkable story: one of an abusive, violent childhood, of her serial killer parents and how she has rebuilt her life in the shadow of their terrible crimes. Through her own memories, research and the letters her mother wrote to her from prison, Mae shares her emotionally powerful account of her life as a West. From a toddler locked in the deathly basement to a teen fighting off the sexual advances of her father, Mae's story is one of survival. It also answers the questions: how do you come to terms with knowing your childhood bedroom was a graveyard? How do you accept the fact your parents sexually tortured, murdered and dismembered young women? How do you become a mother yourself when you're haunted by the knowledge that your own mother was a monster? Why were you spared and how do you escape the nightmare? What other readers are saying about Love as Always, Mum xxx: 'A fascinating read. Mae West seems like such a warmhearted and caring person. It was heart-breaking to hear about what she went through.' 5* Goodreads 'This book is truly moving in many ways and as much as I want to say I enjoyed it, I didn't, because it was heart-wrenching, but that's why it's a 5-star read. So much emotion and truth. It's definitely hard not to be moved by this.' 5* Goodreads 'This is an extremely important story to read, giving Mae a voice to be verbal about breaking the cycle of abuse and surviving a terror she never thought she would be a part of. And because of that, it deserves five stars.' 5* Goodreads 'This has got to be the most heartbreaking and emotionally demanding book I have ever read ... a heart wrenching and powerful read.' 5* Goodreads 'As an avid reader of true crime books I had read a lot about Feed and Rose West. However with all of those books I had never considered their surviving children. This feels like such a raw, honest and real account of day to day life in 25 Cromwell Street. Good on you Mae for your strength to tell your story.' 5* Goodreads 'A hauntingly tragic book. I couldn't put it down from start to finish.' 5* Goodreads




Out of the Shadows


Book Description

The poignant and horrifying life story of Anne Marie West, Fred West's eldest daughter, brought up by Fred and Rose West until the age of 15, when she ran away from home. Anne's mother and two sisters were murdered, but her story unfolds as one of hope and survival.




Fred & Rose


Book Description

The definitive account of one of Britain’s most notorious killer couples, who loved, tortured, and slayed together as husband and wife. Updated with a new afterword from the author on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the arrests From the outside, 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, looked as commonplace as the married couple who lived there. But in 1994, Fred and Rose West’s home would become infamous as a “house of horrors” when the remains of nine young women—many of them decapitated, dismembered, and showing evidence of sexual torture—were found interred under its cellar, bathroom floor, and garden. And this wasn’t the only burial ground: Fred’s first wife and nanny were unearthed miles away in a field, while his eight-year-old stepdaughter was found entombed under the Wests’ former residence. Yet, for more than twenty years, the twosome maintained a façade of normalcy while abusing and murdering female boarders, hitchhikers, and members of their own family. Howard Sounes, who first broke the story about the Wests as a journalist and covered the murder trial, has written a comprehensive account of the case. Beginning with Fred and Rose’s bizarre childhoods, Sounes charts their lives and crimes in forensic detail, constructing a fascinating and frightening tale of a marriage soaked in blood. Indeed, the total number of the Wests’ victims may never be known. A case reminiscent of the “Moors Murders” committed in the 1960s in Manchester by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady—as if Hindley and Brady had married and kept on killing for decades—Fred & Rose “is a story of obsessive love as well as obsessive murder” (The Times, London).




The Constant Sinner


Book Description

Babe Gordon, the star of this brilliant, sophisticated novel of modern New York’s racy set, is a strange woman. She uses her beauty and her sexual allure as a soldier uses his weapons—without mercy or scruples. Her basic appeal attracts all types of men, from bruisers of the prize ring to the more refined sons of the city’s aristocracy. From her experiences with men, she is canny, worldly wise, quick thinking. But all her art, her wisdom, and her actions are devoted to love. When her passion for one man cools, she is quick to kindle it in another. Men and their rages over her transient affection do not move her. Through a situation that costs one man his life, another man his career, and the disgrace of a third lover, Babe Gordon moves deftly, coolly, the goal of all men’s eyes, the ultimate femme fatale.







Love Always


Book Description

A compelling and heartrending tale of lost love, family secrets, and those little moments that can change your life forever. When Natasha Kapoor returns to her grandparents’ idyllic coastal home for her beloved grandmother’s funeral, her life is at a turning point. She thought by now she’d be a successful jewelry designer in London with a perfect marriage. Instead, she’s got mounting bills and a soon-to-be ex. After the funeral, Natasha’s grandfather gives her the long-lost diary of her aunt Cecily. No one in her large and complicated family has ever discussed the tragic accident that took Cecily’s life as a teenager, and within the diary’s pages, Natasha finds a gripping and shocking tale of forbidden love, rivalry, and heartbreak. Nearly fifty years later, will Cecily’s diary finally explain her family’s dark past and the terrible secret her aunt left behind? Is it possible it’s just the inspiration Natasha needs to take a fresh look at her future, and maybe even give love a second chance? Fans of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin will get hooked on internationally bestselling author Harriet Evans’s warm, witty, and absorbing novel filled with original, rootworthy characters and complex family issues.




My Mother, the Psychopath


Book Description

What do you do when the person you’re meant to trust the most in the world is the one trying to destroy you? ‘When people met her they thought how lovely she was, this attractive woman with a beautiful laugh. But she was one person in public and another behind closed doors. Who would she be today? The loving mother? The trusted teacher? The monster destroying my life?’ Olivia has been afraid ever since she can remember. Out of sight, she was subjected to cruelty and humiliation at the hands of the one person who should have loved and protected her at all times – her mother, Josephine. While appearing completely normal to the outside world, Josephine displayed all the signs of being a psychopath – unbeknown to her daughter until adulthood – and Olivia grew up feeling scared, worthless and exploited. Even when she found the courage to cut ties, her mother found new ways to manipulate and deceive, attempting to destroy her life with a vicious campaign of abuse. Now Olivia has come to terms with her past and gives a fascinating, harrowing and deeply unsettling insight into what it’s like growing up with a psychopathic parent.




Love Is for Losers


Book Description

This is a laugh-out-loud exploration of sexuality, family, female friendship, grief, and community. With the heart and hilarity of Netflix's critically-acclaimed Sex Education, Wibke Brueggemann's sex positive debut Love Is for Losers is required reading for Generation Z teens. Did you know you can marry yourself? How strange / brilliant is that? Fifteen-year-old Phoebe thinks falling in love is vile and degrading, and vows never to do it. Then, due to circumstances not entirely in her control, she finds herself volunteering at a local thrift shop. There she meets Emma . . . who might unwittingly upend her whole theory on life.




Before We Were Strangers


Book Description

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M




The Sense of an Ending


Book Description

BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.