Ellie's cottage - The whole time I was reading, I just kept picturing the cottage in the movie The Holiday. As ever, Philip, you have a developed knack for stating things in clear terms, for saying what should be said. I have been blessed with living past what was expected, and in that time seeing three more grandchildren born.

Somehow, being labeled “permanently disabled” has come with feelings of sadness, and shame, which I would not have expected, (if I’d thought to expect anything at all).It’s one thing to have this realization when we’re in the midst of life’s minor crises with Hope as a resource; it’s another to do what you have done. I've tried to figure out exactly why I lost patience, and I've come up with three identifiable factors in my dissatisfaction. Philip, I have learned through your stories to embrace my imperfections for the gifts they are and now I have begun to share mine in my writing too! The stories of Anneliese and her daughter Blanche were heartbreaking to read, the daughter so traumitised she can’t speak.

From the award-winning author of The Apothecary's Daughter comes the next book in the Spindrift Trilogy - a beautifully evocative, family drama, perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles . This is one of those books that took me a long time to start reading, and then, it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Ellie is immensely likeable, Will is immensely gorgeous-sounding and I couldn’t help but fall a little bit in love with him, as I also did with Finn.

In inhabiting this collection learn that blinks are important, that sadness is not the end but a beginning, and an honouring of what has been lost…that things can be found. But to use profanity for no reason, you have to be a super good friend or my attention simply walks away. Frida Kahlo’s acceptance of her broken body and the way she dressed it reflect her philosophy of life, and for that she has been one of my heroes ever since I learned about her. This was quite a special good read that will give the readers a good look of 'friendship, love, with a community like [Rowan Hill] heartbreaking, to hope and even forgiveness. Wartime and the atrocities that splintered, destroyed so many families, features heavily throughout this third book.