Laurie Graham

In the tradition of "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, " this moving novel, filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, is about a group of women who discover--over the course of 40 turbulent years--the nature of true friendship.

The Future Homemakers of America

There is one great love in everyone's life. For Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita, hers was a Romanov cousin, a member of the doomed Russian royal family. Her father is Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's second son. Her mother is Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of Tsar Alexander II. Ducky seems doomed to be a pawn on her grandmother's dynastic chessboard. But Ducky is not so easily controlled. In an era when death is considered preferable to divorce she fights for the freedom to be with the true love of her life. From disgraced exile in Paris to the glitter of St Petersburg and the mud and carnage of the Eastern Front, she forges her own path. As Russia descends into the chaos of 1917 and the Romanov dynasty falters, Ducky is right at the heart of events. Exiled once more, she tells us her story.

The Grand Duchess of Nowhere

Dot Allbones was the youngest of her large Midlands family. With no beauty, and few prospects, she was lucky to discover a lucrative talent - she can make people laugh. Now the queen of London's music hall stage, Dot feels she's not done badly. She has her audience, her independence, and enough money for champagne: a good life. Pretty, popular orphan Kate Eddowes was an unlikely childhood friend for Dot. The older girl's beauty was bound to take her places, and sure enough Kate soon left, lured away by love and the prospect of adventure. A chance encounter on a London street years later makes it clear that Kate's life has not gone according to plan. Though poor and alone, she retains her indomitable spirit. But this is Whitechapel in 1888, and the shadowy streets are no place for a desperate woman to wander... With her inimitable sharpness and wry wit, Laurie Graham brings to life the bustling pleasures and not-so-hidden dangers of life in a crowded city with its extremes of poverty and wealth. And all the while, in the shadows, lurks the lacerating threat of the Ripper.

The Night in Question

Despairing of finding a husband who will match her socially conscious mother's standards, Poppy Minkel struggles with her beliefs about beauty, love, and social mores, eventually reinventing herself after her father tragically dies aboard the Titanic. Reprint.

The Great Husband Hunt

Marea ducesa - O viata sub semnul iubirii

A brilliant novel by Laurie Graham set in wartime London, which follows Kick Kennedy, sister of future US President JFK, as she takes London society by storm.

The Importance of Being Kennedy

'An irrepressible adventurer, Poppy is a comic combination of innocence and pluck, but although this is a brisk, breezy read, it's also a novel with serious bite.' Daily Mail The new novel from the bestselling author of THE FUTURE HOMEMAKERS OF AMERICA. One unforgettable woman and her wayward path through the twentieth century. What hope is there for Poppy Minkel? She has kinky hair, out-sticking ears, too yellow a neck and an appetite for fun, and her mother Dora despairs of ever finding her a husband, despite the Minkel's Mustard fortune that seasons these dubious attractions. When Daddy disappears, Poppy's tendency to the unusual is quietly allowed to flourish. World War I opens new horizons. With never a moment of self-doubt, she invents her own extraordinary life in step with the unfolding century. Narrated by a heroine as original and enchanting as Sally Bowles, The Unfortunates is an hilarious, sweeping celebration of passion's triumph over prudence.

The Unfortunates

Pittsburgh was too small for Beryl Wexler. Barely out of high school, she changed her name to Buzz and set off for the bright lights of London. She never looked back. Now she's at the top of her game in the music PR business, looking after the coolest groups on the planet. And for a woman who was forty-two last birthday she certainly keeps up the pace. But her life is about to change. Some twenty-year-old has been given the new Japanese girl band predicted to go stellar, and Buzz is being sidelined. Instead, Buzz gets to tour with the Gorni Grannies, Bulgarian singers of a certain age. These ladies may not be the tantrum-throwing celebs Buzz is used to, but they present other challenges. How to stop Lubka straining yogurt through her knee highs? How to dissuade Kichka from stealing everything not nailed to the floor? Fuelled by copious shots of home-brewed plum rakia, Buzz and Lubka address life's ups and down, until the world tilts and a different future beckons.

Life According to Lubka

Nan's mother loves to tell her daughter stories, though the details vary according to how much she has drunk. The tale she tells most often claims that Admiral Lord Nelson is Nan's father: he was her lover and she saw him die at Trafalgar. Or so she claims. From poor beginnings, resourceful Nan makes her own determined way through life, but always haunted by the wish to know the truth about her father. From Portsmouth in the early 1800s to the battlefields of the Crimea, Nan discovers the world is full of people with a story about Nelson. There are some questions we can never hope to answer...

The Liar's Daughter

A rich historical novel spanning 60 years based on real characters whose story is told by a wryly witty narrator.

A Humble Companion

The Early Birds is the touching and funny follow-up to The Future Homemakers of America. 'Funny, heartwarming and a real treat. I would recommend it to anyone!' Katie Fforde 'Wit and insight to match Nick Hornby, and the entertainment value of Helen Fielding' Independent on The Future Homemakers of America 'Why is Laurie Graham not carried on people's shoulders through cheering crowds? Her books are brilliant!' Marian Keyes Peggy, the southern belle. Kath, the pragmatist with the only Norfolk accent in New York state. Gayle, the preacher with healing hands. Mrs Colonel Audrey Rudman, forever keeping up the standards of the Officers' Wives Club. Lois, who's never had a thought she didn't voice. Loudly. Their menfolk may be long retired, but once a US Air Force wife, always an Air Force wife, and the bonds of friendship forged in base after military base are still going strong fifty years later. Time is rendering its Accounts Payable for all of them now: hip replacements, eye problems, forgetfulness and departures. In this hymn to lifelong female friendship, Peggy soldiers on through new upheavals, including her ex-husband Vern's Alzheimer's diagnosis, the death of one of her nearest and dearest, a life-changing house move and the world-shattering events of 9/11 with the help of her sharp-tongued, often eccentric, but always loyal group of friends.

The Early Birds

Anyone for Seconds?

Grandparents Bobs and Ba live in happy prosperity. But whilst on holiday to celebrate Bobs' fiftieth birthday, Ba begins to suspect that all is not well. Is he having an affair? The truth is worse than she could ever imagine - Bobs has discovered cross-dressing

The Dress Circle

A brilliant new novel by Laurie Graham set in wartime London, which follows Kick Kennedy, sister of future US President JFK, as she takes London society by storm.

It is 1953. Five American Airforce wives in Norfolk are waiting for their husbands to return. There is very little to do, so they dare to look beyond the safety of the perimeter fence for a little excitement with the natives.

When Maybell Brumby, frisky, wealthy, and recently widowed, quits Baltimore and arrives in London, she finds that her old school chum, Bessie Wallis Warfield, is there ahead of her. Impoverished and ambitious as ever, Wallis is on the make. Hampered by plodding husband number two, but armed with terrific bone structure and a few erotic tricks picked up in China, Wallis sets her sights on the most eligible bachelor in the world: the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne. Maybell, with her deep pockets, makes the perfect ally, and her disarming dimness makes her the most delicious chronicler of the scandal that rocked a monarchy and changed the course of history.

A Novel

Gone with the Windsors

It is 1962. The first avocado pears are appearing at the greengrocers, people are thinking about carpeting their lavatories and boxing in their banisters, and Ronnie Glover, housepainter, husband and father, is feeling the first vague stirrings of discontent with his life. Then, out of the blue, the fabulous, sophisticated (and married) Jacqueline bursts into this life and teaches him to tango. She seems to offer everything he ever dreamt of. But is it all too good to be true? What can a woman who has traveled the world want with a man who carries a stub of pencil behind his ear? And are the Ten O'Clock horses of Ronnie's painful childhood awake and sniffing the wind?

The Ten O'Clock Horses

Early Birds

The wife: Enid has been married to the handsome, charismatic lecturer Bernard Finch for over 20 years. But after one fateful supper on board a cruise ship, she starts to wonder, is her husband all that he seems? The husband: Bernard said his life began when he met his wife. But, like everyone, he's got a past. And it's threatening to catch up with him. And a whole lot of trouble at sea: Frankie Gleeson is a fellow passenger. A man with a long memory and the unshakeable conviction that he and Bernard have met before. Enid's interest is piqued...

At Sea

It shouldn't have been like this. Being on television was meant to lead to fame and a glamorous social life. But for Lizzie Partridge, forty-something, divorced and TV cook on Midlands This Morning, it meant dinners for one, coping alone with an air-head adolescent daughter and following middle-aged men into corner shops pretending she needed a bottle of Lea & Perrins. Her good friend Louie - if only he wasn't gay - thought he knew what the trouble was: Lizzie was always on the wrong side of the glass, looking in at other people's lives. True or not, things for Lizzie were going to get a lot worse before they got better...

Laurie Graham

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