Round the Sofa


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The Ludlow Ladies' Society


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From the bestselling author of The Ballroom Café and The Judge's Wife comes a new story of friendship, resilience and compassion, and how women support each other through the most difficult times. Connie Carter has lost everyone and everything dear to her. Leaving her home in New York, she moves to a run-down Irish mansion, hoping to heal her shattered heart and in search of answers: how could her husband do the terrible things he did? And why did he plough all their money into the dilapidated Ludlow Hall before he died, without ever telling her? At first Connie tries to avoid the villagers, until she meets local women Eve and Hetty who introduce her to the Ludlow Ladies' Society, a crafts group in need of a permanent home. Connie soon discovers Eve is also struggling with pain and the loss of having her beloved Ludlow Hall repossessed by the bank and sold off. Now, seeing the American Connie living there, the hurt of losing everything is renewed. Can these women ever be friends? Can they ever understand or forgive? As the Ludlow Ladies create memory quilts to remember those they have loved and lost, the secrets of the past finally begin to surface. But can Connie, Eve and Hetty stitch their lives back together? Praise for Ann O'Loughlin: "The Ludlow Ladies' Society brought me to a beautiful place and into a circle of friends that I didn't want to leave. Unputdownable." KATE KERRIGAN "It's a heart-warming story ... but also an addictive page-turner with plenty of unexpected twists and reveals in store." READER'S DIGEST "A moving tale of loss, love and redemption" BELLA MAGAZINE on The Ballroom Café "A richly woven tale of passion, conspiracy, hypocrisy and a chilling secret." SUNDAY INDEPENDENT on The Judge's Wife "An uplifting read, the kind of book you want to gobble up in one sitting." THE SUNDAY TIMES on The Judge's Wife




Lois the Witch


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A Dark Night's Work


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My Lady Ludlow


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The Cranford Chronicles


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Based on Elizabeth Gaskell novels, this book follows the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford during one extraordinary year.




My Lady Ludlow


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CHAPTER I. I am an old woman now, and things are very different to what they were in my youth. Then we, who travelled, travelled in coaches, carrying six inside, and making a two days’ journey out of what people now go over in a couple of hours with a whizz and a flash, and a screaming whistle, enough to deafen one. Then letters came in but three times a week: indeed, in some places in Scotland where I have stayed when I was a girl, the post came in but once a month;—but letters were letters then; and we made great prizes of them, and read them and studied them like books. Now the post comes rattling in twice a day, bringing short jerky notes, some without beginning or end, but just a little sharp sentence, which well-bred folks would think too abrupt to be spoken. Well, well! they may all be improvements,—I dare say they are; but you will never meet with a Lady Ludlow in these days. I will try and tell you about her. It is no story: it has, as I said, neither beginning, middle, nor end. My father was a poor clergyman with a large family. My mother was always said to have good blood in her veins; and when she wanted to maintain her position with the people she was thrown among,—principally rich democratic manufacturers, all for liberty and the French Revolution,—she would put on a pair of ruffles, trimmed with real old English point, very much darned to be sure,—but which could not be bought new for love or money, as the art of making it was lost years before. These ruffles showed, as she said, that her ancestors had been Somebodies, when the grandfathers of the rich folk, who now looked down upon her, had been Nobodies,—if, indeed, they had any grandfathers at all.




My Lady Ludlow and Other Stories


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Six stories deal with a rural British community, local legends, the supernatural, and intolerance




Elizabeth Gaskell, Best Novels


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Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, nee Stevenson (29 September 1810 - 12 November 1865), often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Gaskell was also the first to write a biography of Charlotte Bronte, The Life of Charlotte Bronte, which was published in 1857. In this book: North and South Wives and Daughters Cranford