by Julia Latchem-Smith (2007)
Julia's family was a picture of respectability. To the outside world it was middle-class, decent, loving. But her mother didn't love her enough. And her father loved her too much. Between the ages of seven and thirteen Julia's father sexually abused her. While Julia's mother's obsessive domestic tendencies occupied her elsewhere.
Duncan Fairhurst
From the age of four, Duncan carried a terrible secret - his father was molesting him. Raised in a household where secrets and sick rituals were part of daily life, Duncan was manipulated, bullied and raped from the age of four for over a decade. This is his story. Desperate to escape his father's tyranny, he tried to kill himself.
John Pearson
Growing up in the supreme moral rigour of Queen Victoria's court, young Bertie was always going to find it hard to live up to his parents' expectation. He was far from a brilliant student, and though charming, his carnal inclinations were widely rumoured to have sped up his Father's decline, with Prince Albert dying a mere two weeks after Bertie spent three nights with an actress who had been smuggled into his military camp. He waited almost sixty years to ascend the throne but was nonetheless able to reconfigure the public image of the monarch, taking the splendour beyond the palace gates and living lavishly in wider society, rapidly becoming one of the most popular monarchs in the history of the crown.
Helen Brown
Having sworn she'd never get another cat, the author opens her heart to a Siamese who, with her son getting married and her daughter setting off on a personal quest, is just what the household needs during a time of change.
Sean Conway
In 2013, Sean Conway embarked on his bid to be the first person to swim the length of Britain, raising money for the charity War Child. Accompanied by three support crew on a tiny, leaky yacht, he set out from Land's End, aiming to hit John O'Groats in two months. From swimming alongside a dolphin and amidst stunning night-time phosphorescence, to tackling treacherous tides and growing a huge beard to protect himself from jellyfish stings, this is a story of immense courage and determination over an incredible 900-mile journey.