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Authors: Tony Parsons
Tags: General Fiction
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slipped through my fingers. I left it where it fell. And I let John Adams lead me from that heart-breaking grave on the top of the white cliffs and down to the beach.
We sat on the sand and stared out to sea.
I felt myself grow warm although the evening breeze was cool. I felt tired, so tired now, although I had slept for seven days and seven nights. And I knew that very soon I would join my son.
‘Rest,’ John Adams told me, his voice more gentle than I had ever known. ‘Stretch out on the sand and rest your weary body, old friend.’
I felt myself weaken.
I felt that I should lie down to rest for a while – or perhaps until Judgement Day. And so I did. Yet there was no rest. It was becoming difficult to breathe and I was suddenly afraid.
But then my mother was standing by my side, smiling at me, and I felt at peace. Even though my mother died at the other end of the world when I was four years old. Even though my mother was gone at the other end of a lifetime.
But she was smiling at me now, and that was real.
John Adams and I stared out at the bay.
Soon it would be just him and the women and children. It would be a chance to start again. I hoped that he would build a better world than the one we had known.
‘Do you remember the night we burned the
Bounty
?’ I said.
‘She made a grand light,’ John Adams said, and he smiled. ‘A light that men will remember for centuries.’
‘Good English oak,’ I said. ‘It makes a mighty fire.’
About the Author
Tony Parsons is the author of
Man and Boy,
which won the Book of the Year prize. His other novels –
One For My Baby
,
Man and Wife
,
The Family Way
,
Stories We Could Tell
,
My Favourite Wife
,
Starting Over
and
Men from the Boys
– were all bestsellers. He was recently writer-in-residence at Heathrow.
Departures
, his first collection of stories, is the result. Tony is the son and grandson of sailors and lives in London.
By the same author
Man and Boy
One For My Baby
Man and Wife
The Family Way
Stories We Could Tell
My Favourite Wife
Starting Over
Men from the Boys
Tony Parsons on Life, Death and Breakfast
Departures
– seven short stories from Heathrow
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Doctor Who Magic of the Angels
Jacqueline Rayner
BBC Books
‘No one from this time
will ever see that girl again …’
On a sight-seeing tour of London the Doctor wonders why so many young girls are going missing. When he sees Sammy Star’s amazing magic act, he thinks he knows the answer. The Doctor and his friends team up with residents of an old people’s home to discover the truth. And together they find themselves face to face with a deadly Weeping Angel.
Whatever you do – don’t blink!
A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the hit series from BBC Television.
Fall in love with reading
The Little One
Lynda La Plante
Simon & Schuster
Are you scared of the dark?
Barbara needs a story. A struggling journalist, she tricks her way into the home of former soap star Margaret Reynolds. Desperate for a scoop, she finds instead a terrified woman living alone in a creepy manor house. A piano plays in the night, footsteps run overhead, doors slam. The nights are full of strange noises. Barbara thinks there may be a child living upstairs, unseen. Little by little, actress Margaret’s haunting story is revealed, and Barbara is left with a chilling discovery.
This spooky tale from bestselling author Lynda La Plante will make you want to sleep with the light on.
Fall in love with reading
Full House
Maeve Binchy
Orion
Sometimes the people you love most
are the hardest to live with.
Dee loves her three children very much, but now they are all grown up, isn’t it time they left home?
But they are very happy at home. It doesn’t cost them anything and surely their parents like having a full house? Then there is a crisis, and Dee decides things have to change for
We sat on the sand and stared out to sea.
I felt myself grow warm although the evening breeze was cool. I felt tired, so tired now, although I had slept for seven days and seven nights. And I knew that very soon I would join my son.
‘Rest,’ John Adams told me, his voice more gentle than I had ever known. ‘Stretch out on the sand and rest your weary body, old friend.’
I felt myself weaken.
I felt that I should lie down to rest for a while – or perhaps until Judgement Day. And so I did. Yet there was no rest. It was becoming difficult to breathe and I was suddenly afraid.
But then my mother was standing by my side, smiling at me, and I felt at peace. Even though my mother died at the other end of the world when I was four years old. Even though my mother was gone at the other end of a lifetime.
But she was smiling at me now, and that was real.
John Adams and I stared out at the bay.
Soon it would be just him and the women and children. It would be a chance to start again. I hoped that he would build a better world than the one we had known.
‘Do you remember the night we burned the
Bounty
?’ I said.
‘She made a grand light,’ John Adams said, and he smiled. ‘A light that men will remember for centuries.’
‘Good English oak,’ I said. ‘It makes a mighty fire.’
About the Author
Tony Parsons is the author of
Man and Boy,
which won the Book of the Year prize. His other novels –
One For My Baby
,
Man and Wife
,
The Family Way
,
Stories We Could Tell
,
My Favourite Wife
,
Starting Over
and
Men from the Boys
– were all bestsellers. He was recently writer-in-residence at Heathrow.
Departures
, his first collection of stories, is the result. Tony is the son and grandson of sailors and lives in London.
By the same author
Man and Boy
One For My Baby
Man and Wife
The Family Way
Stories We Could Tell
My Favourite Wife
Starting Over
Men from the Boys
Tony Parsons on Life, Death and Breakfast
Departures
– seven short stories from Heathrow
Fall in love with reading
Doctor Who Magic of the Angels
Jacqueline Rayner
BBC Books
‘No one from this time
will ever see that girl again …’
On a sight-seeing tour of London the Doctor wonders why so many young girls are going missing. When he sees Sammy Star’s amazing magic act, he thinks he knows the answer. The Doctor and his friends team up with residents of an old people’s home to discover the truth. And together they find themselves face to face with a deadly Weeping Angel.
Whatever you do – don’t blink!
A thrilling all-new adventure featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, as played by Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill in the hit series from BBC Television.
Fall in love with reading
The Little One
Lynda La Plante
Simon & Schuster
Are you scared of the dark?
Barbara needs a story. A struggling journalist, she tricks her way into the home of former soap star Margaret Reynolds. Desperate for a scoop, she finds instead a terrified woman living alone in a creepy manor house. A piano plays in the night, footsteps run overhead, doors slam. The nights are full of strange noises. Barbara thinks there may be a child living upstairs, unseen. Little by little, actress Margaret’s haunting story is revealed, and Barbara is left with a chilling discovery.
This spooky tale from bestselling author Lynda La Plante will make you want to sleep with the light on.
Fall in love with reading
Full House
Maeve Binchy
Orion
Sometimes the people you love most
are the hardest to live with.
Dee loves her three children very much, but now they are all grown up, isn’t it time they left home?
But they are very happy at home. It doesn’t cost them anything and surely their parents like having a full house? Then there is a crisis, and Dee decides things have to change for
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