The thrilling Richard & Judy Book Club Pick for 2018, The Party is a gripping story of betrayal, privilege and hypocrisy, set in the unassailable heart of the British establishment.

Martin Gilmour and Ben Fitzmaurice have been best friends for 25 years, since their days together at Burtonbury School. They are an unlikely pair: the scholarship boy with the wrong accent and clothes, and the dazzlingly popular, wealthy young aristocrat. But Martin knows no one else can understand the bond they share – and no one else could have kept Ben’s secret for over two decades.

At Ben’s 40th birthday party, the cream of the British establishment gathers in a haze of champagne, drugs and glamour. Amid the politicians, the celebrities, the old money and the newly rich, Martin once again feels that pang of not quite belonging. His wife Lucy has her reservations, too. There is something unnerving in the air. But Ben wouldn’t do anything to damage their friendship. Would he?

'We often can't find the right words to express the unique depth and complicated beauty of what friendship really is because we've spent so much time heroising romantic love. This book is an attempt to fill that gap.' Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health. Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of thousands of people forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them - with the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as...too many friends? And was she the friend she thought she was? In Friendaholic, Elizabeth unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn't a language that can express its crucial influence on our world. From ghosting to frenemies, to social media and communication styles, to the impact of seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.

'Completely, terrifyingly BRILLIANT' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups 'I didn't want it to end' Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women and Animal 'Magnificent: I read it in one sitting' Kate Mosse, author of The City of Tears When Marisa meets Jake, everything falls into place. But then their new lodger Kate arrives. Something isn't right about her. It's the way she looks at Jake, keeps her toothbrush right next to theirs and constantly asks questions about the baby they are trying for. Or maybe it's all in Marisa's head. That's what Jake thinks. And she trusts him, doesn't she? But Marisa knows something is wrong, and she is determined to find out why, even if it costs her everything. 'A very elegant, tense, literary thriller' Sarah Vaughan, author of Anatomy of a Scandal 'Utterly engrossing, a thick sense of dread unfurling from every page' Refinery29 'I literally couldn't put this down' Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton 'A compelling, twisting read' Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library 'Sharp, twisty ... Impossible to put down' Daily Mail 'A pulse-quickening tale' Stylist 'Sharp and sinister' Mail on Sunday 'A pacy, stylish thriller' Observer 'Scintillating' The Sunday Times, Thriller of the Month 'A compassionately crafted psychological drama' Harper's Bazaar 'I couldn't turn the pages fast enough' Prima Magazine 'Be prepared for a sleight-of-hand-twist that will leave you gasping' Red Magazine Sunday Times bestseller 06/09/2021

A game-changing guide to being happier, healthier and succeeding better, based on the Sunday Times bestseller - 150,000 copies sold! A HANDBOOK FOR WHEN THINGS GO WRONG Pretty much all of us would like to feel happier, less anxious, more successful and at ease with ourselves. Right? The key may surprise you: FAILURE! Failosophy For Teens is an inspiring and empowering guide to those moments when life doesn't go to plan. Using personal experience and stories shared by guests on her award-winning podcast, How to Fail, Elizabeth's book is full of creative and inspiring advice on how to: - talk openly about failure - turn failure into success - build resilience for when life sends you curveballs - reframe negative thoughts about yourself . . . and much more! Failing better is the key to learning, growing and ultimately loving yourself as the truly AWESOME human being you are. Failosophy For Teens will challenge your self-perception and change your life! 'An indispensable guide for teenagers everywhere' Matthew Syed, author of You Are Awesome Perfect for fans of Marcus Rashford's You Are a Champion and Bryony Gordon's You Got This. Failosophy (adult edition) is a Sunday Times bestseller and has reached over 150,000 readers. PRAISE FOR FAILOSOPHY (adult edition) 'A beautiful timely and humane book. If there's one philosophy the world needs more of right now, it's Failosophy' Alain de Botton 'A pragmatic and pocket-sized guide to failure - how to cope with it and what to learn from it ... a must read' Glamour 'The timing of this guide couldn't be better . . . Day's advice is both practical and reassuring.' Evening Standard 'Witty and likeable . . . thoughtful and probing' Guardian

Inspired by her hugely popular podcast, How To Fail is Elizabeth Day's brilliantly funny, painfully honest and insightful celebration of things going wrong. This is a book for anyone who has ever failed. Which means it's a book for everyone. If I have learned one thing from this shockingly beautiful venture called life, it is this: failure has taught me lessons I would never otherwise have understood. I have evolved more as a result of things going wrong than when everything seemed to be going right. Out of crisis has come clarity, and sometimes even catharsis. Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It's a book about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth's own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals. Because learning how to fail is actually learning how to succeed better. And everyone needs a bit of that.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of How to Fail and Magpie 'Elizabeth Day has revolutionised the way we see failure' Stylist 'A beautiful timely and humane book' Alain de Botton 'Most failures can teach us something meaningful about ourselves if we choose to listen' In Failosophy Elizabeth Day brings together all the lessons she has learned, from conversations with the guests on her award-winning How to Fail podcast, from stories shared with her by readers and listeners, and from her own life, and distils them into seven principles of failure. Practical, reassuring and inspirational, these principles offer a guide through life's rough patches. From failed exams to romantic break-ups, from career setbacks to confidence crises, from navigating anxiety to surviving loss, Failosophy recognises, and celebrates, the fact that failure connects us all. It is what makes us human. With insights from Malcolm Gladwell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lemn Sissay, Frankie Bridge, Nigel Slater, Emeli Sande, Alain de Botton, Mabel, Fearne Cotton, Meera Syal, Dame Kelly Holmes, Andrew Scott and many, many more, Failosophy is the essential handbook for turning failure into success.

A stunning, delicate portrait of a family bookended by war, Home Fires explores the legacy of loss, the strictures of class and the long road to redemption. Max Weston, twenty-one, leaves for his first army posting in central Africa. What happens to him changes the lives of his family forever. At home, his parents struggle to cope. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her only child is now matched by the intensity of Max's absence. The silence is broken by the arrival of Caroline's mother-in-law, Elsa, who at the age of ninety-eight can no longer look after herself. After years of living in fear of putting a foot wrong in front of this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady, finally, Caroline has the upper hand.

An audacious, compassionate state-of-the-nation novel about four strangers whose lives collide with far-reaching consequences. Beatrice Kizza, a woman in flight from a homeland that condemned her for daring to love, flees to London. There, she shields her sorrow from the indifference of her adopted city, and navigates a night-time world of shift-work and bedsits. Howard Pink is a self-made millionaire who has risen from Petticoat Lane to the mansions of Kensington on a tide of determination and bluster. Yet self-doubt still snaps at his heels and his life is shadowed by the terrible loss that has shaken him to his foundations. Carol Hetherington, recently widowed, is living the quiet life in Wandsworth with her cat and The Jeremy Kyle Show for company. As she tries to come to terms with the absence her husband has left on the other side of the bed, she frets over her daughter's prospects and wonders if she'll ever be happy again. Esme Reade is a young journalist learning to muck-rake and doorstep in pursuit of the elusive scoop, even as she longs to find some greater meaning and leave her imprint on the world. Four strangers, each inhabitants of the same city, where the gulf between those who have too much and those who will never have enough is impossibly vast. But when the glass that separates Howard's and Beatrice's worlds is shattered by an inexcusable act, they discover that the capital has connected them in ways they could never have imagined.

A frank and beautiful story of damage, survival and restoration from an exhilarating literary voice. As Charles Redfern lies motionless in hospital, his wife Anne and daughter Charlotte are forced to confront their relationships with him - and with each other. Anne, once beautiful and clever, has paled in the shadow of her husband's dominance. Charlotte, meanwhile, is battling with her own inner darkness and is desperate to prevent her relationship with her not-yet-divorced lover from disintegrating. As the full truth of Charles's hold over them is brought to light, both women must reconcile themselves with the choices they have made, the secrets they have kept, and the uncertain future that now lies ahead of them.

'We often can't find the right words to express the unique depth and complicated beauty of what friendship really is because we've spent so much time heroising romantic love. This book is an attempt to fill that gap.' Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health. Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of thousands of people forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them - with the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as...too many friends? And was she the friend she thought she was? In Friendaholic, Elizabeth unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn't a language that can express its crucial influence on our world. From ghosting to frenemies, to social media and communication styles, to the impact of seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.

Through the magic, mystery and miracle of meditation, an intriguing expedition is embarked upon into the World of Light in Crystal Mysticism so that understanding can be obtained about the Great Shift that is going to occur to Human Beings and to Earth. Many souls, and many more of every kind, have been given knowledge about the Great Event and at a pre-ordained time this information started being released. During the journey, hidden knowledge about the Great Shift is disclosed by Light Bearers who appear in various forms and include crystals, crystal skulls and gemstones. Some of them carry higher spiritual vibrations and some of them have an extraterrestrial origin. Along the way, the following questions are answered as well. Do the Extraterrestrial Beings, who visit our planet, come in peace? If they were to share their technology with us, are we sufficiently advanced to be able to understand this information? Do Extraterrestrial Beings believe in God? Heavenly Beings/Extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth since our Universe began. As each new stage of our development has been about to occur, they have provided us with knowledge about it beforehand. Throughout the current time of change, they have been conveying, via telepathy, the information that we need to know so that we are aware that the reconfiguration process, which our beings are going through, is so that we will be able to obtain the more profound level of direct experience of The Divine that is realized by Extraterrestrials.

Non-violent Resistance Programme includes ten sessions for people working with parents and carers of children and young people with violent, destructive and harmful behaviours. It uses the principles of non-violent resistance (NVR) to help carers to resist violent or out of control behaviours and to establish a warm, loving and containing parental presence with their children. The programme is designed to be used with groups of parents, but the concepts and activities can be used with individuals. Key features: Based on a evidence-based model of good practice provides a tried and tested programme which brings about positive change powerful video role plays to illustrate principles in practice engaging materials and activities for parents and carers. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2006) recommends group-based parent training/education programmes in the management of children under 12 with conduct disorders. GPs, social workers, children's mental health services and voluntary organisations receive many requests for help from parents and carers who are concerned about extreme behaviours in their children (violence, school refusal, drug taking, social withdrawal, criminal behaviour). Many of these young people have other difficulties, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD) or oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or have experienced family breakdown or domestic violence. NVR is a new type of intervention derived from the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and developed in the last 10 years for children and young people with extreme anti-social behaviours. Rather than focusing on modifying behaviour, the aim is to bring about changes in the parent-child relationship and to help parents, grandparents, foster carers and informal carers to create positive relationships with their children in the long term. This NVR programme teaches parents essential skills that help them resist out-of-control and violent behaviours and develop a collaborative, solution-focused approach to problems (for example, de-escalating conflicts, increasing parental presence, announcing their decision to make a stand, sit-ins, developing support networks). They learn to counter giving into their child's demands or responding in a reactive way which can lead to even more violence. Non-violent Resistance Programme consists of ten 1.5 hour sessions which include mini presentations, outcome-focused activities, discussion and video role plays. Structured homework tasks help reinforce the ideas from the session and make an active connection to situations with their children. Facilitators should have some experience of group work and training, ideally in a therapeutic environment.

'A truly great book. It is beautifully written, shrewdly observed and deftly crafted, but the novel's real concern is what it means for a woman to live an authentic life' Elizabeth Day A chance encounter with the man who enchanted her as a teenager leads Olivia Curtis into to a forbidden love affair. He is now married, and Olivia's life changes to one of secret meetings, brief phone calls and snatched liaisons in anonymous hotel rooms. Years ahead of its time when first published in 1936, this subtle and powerful novel shocked it readers with its searing honesty and passionate portrayal of clandestine love. * Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame

When the Author's Spiritual Director made her aware that it was time to write a report about what she had witnessed, whilst she was meditating, concerning the preparations for the re-emergence of Atlantis, he asked her to include a detailed account of her past lives in which there was a connection with Atlantis. This was to explain why she was in possession of this knowledge about Atlantis, and to demonstrate how our past lives can have an effect on our present lifetime. Many of us experienced one or more lifetimes on old Atlantis, but most of us do not remember them and yet, if the intention is set before meditating, with perseverance, information can be obtained about our past lives. The lifetimes about Atlantis are pertinent to the changes that are taking place on the physical plane regarding a Great Event that is going to happen to our Civilisation. One of the ways in which the meditative state can be entered more easily is to gaze at an inspirational image. To assist the reader in this regard, a very talented artist's illustrations of, 'Inner Landscapes of the Soul,' that are relevant to the theme of each chapter, have been included in the book. The beautiful colours flowing through the landscapes help to carry the reader's awareness of the World of Light to a higher level so that a new found rapport can be gained with Atlantis.

Taking up where "Invitation to the Waltz "left off, "The Weather in the Streets" shows us Olivia Curtis ten years older, a failed marriage behind her, thinner, sadder, and apprently not much wiser. A chance encounter on a train with a man who enchanted her as a teenager leads to a forbidden love affair and a new world of secret meetings, brief phone calls, and snatched liaisons in anonymous hotel rooms. Years ahead of its time when first published, this subtle and powerful novel shocked even the most stalwart Lehmann fans with its searing honesty and passionate portrayal of clandestine love.