From the beloved bestselling author Santa Montefiore comes a new novel filled with humour and heart. For fans of The Temptation of Gracie, Flappy now takes centre stage, more charismatic and competitive than ever. ‘Fresh, fun and fabulous! Flappy certainly kept me entertained!’ Heidi Swain, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Winter Garden Underneath her graceful exterior lies a passion nobody knew about, least of all Flappy herself… Flappy Scott-Booth is the self-appointed queen bee of Badley Compton, a picturesque Devon village. While her husband Kenneth spends his days on the golf course, she is busy overseeing her beautiful house and gardens, and organising unforgettable events, surrounded by friends who hang on to her every word. Her life is a reflection of herself – impossibly perfect. Until the day that Hedda Harvey-Smith and her husband Charles move into the village. Into an even grander home than hers. Taking the front seat on the social scene, quite literally. That simply will not do. Flappy is determined to show Hedda how things are done here in Badley Compton. But then she looks into Charles’s beautiful green eyes. And suddenly, her focus is elsewhere. She is only human, after all… Praise for Flappy Entertains: ‘Santa Montefiore is a born storyteller’ Woman’s Weekly ‘A friendly, undemanding read in unfriendly, demanding times’ Daily Mail ‘A keeping up with the Joneses tale that will life your spirits in no time’ New! ‘Another winner from the author who writes about relationships so astutely’ Belfast Telegraph 'Packed with wickedly funny insights and throwaway lines and written with an extra-large helping of heart, this is the perfect escape for anyone in need of of a book hug!' Lancashire Post ‘With its air of nostalgia, gentle humour and snobbery, this is a super but also surprising read’ NFOP magazine Praise for Santa Montefiore: 'Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore' JOJO MOYES 'An enchanting read, overflowing with deliciously poignant moments' DINAH JEFFRIES 'Santa Montefiore hits the spot for me like few other writers' SARRA MANNING 'One of our personal favourites' The Times ‘Accomplished and poetic’ Daily Mail ‘Santa Montefiore is a marvel’ Sunday Express

Something is amiss in the village of Badley Compton... Binoculars at the ready, Flappy Scott-Booth is set to investigate. Newcomers have moved in, a young couple from London, delightful no doubt but they do need to know their place. Who better to teach them the ways of this close-knit community than Flappy herself? But Flappy has other distractions. An ardent admirer, a New Year's Ball to organize and manifold appearances to be kept up. How much time and effort it all takes! Add to the mix the sudden arrival of her son Jasper with his utterly charming persona and total lack of ambition and drive, accompanied by his pretentious wife and their two highly-strung children - and Flappy is on ultra-high alert. Endlessly entertaining, fabulously fun and gorgeously gossipy, Flappy Investigates is the pitch-perfect follow-up to the bestselling Flappy Entertains.

FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR A tale of war, of Italy, of a beautiful young woman and a terrible tragedy from the number on bestselling author of Songs of Love and War. Italy, 1945 The war is over but its shadow still lingers. And deep in the lush countryside an eccentric aristocrat is savagely murdered in his beautiful palazzo. London, 1971. Years later, this unsolved crime touches the life of Alba, a hedonistic girl who lives on a houseboat in swinging Chelsea. Between these two distinctive times runs a thread of love, decadence and betrayal that takes Alba to the olive groves of the Amalfi Coast, rich with the scent of figs, the drama of wartime and the lingering decay of tragedy. The past unfolds revealing a secret web of partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts and in the centre of it all, an alluring woman of mystery: her mother… ***PRAISE FOR SANTA MONTEFIORE*** ‘Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore’ JOJO MOYES ‘An enchanting read overflowing with deliciously poignant moments’ DINAH JEFFERIES on Songs of Love and War ‘Santa Montefiore hits the spot for my like few other writers’ SARRA MANNING ‘One of our personal favourites’ THE TIMES on The Last Secret of the Deverills ‘Accomplished and poetic’ Daily Mail ‘Santa Montefiore is a marvel’ Sunday Express

FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLING AUTHOR A sweeping story of love that stretches across the years The war has ended and Rita Fairweather is waiting for George Bolton, her childhood sweetheart, to return home to Devon. She wants their future to be a continuing reassurance of their past. But George comes back as a man changed by the horrors he has experienced. Unable to settle back into a small-town life, George decides to travel to Argentina. And Rita promises to wait. But George faces irresistible temptation and an agonising choice. As the years pass, Rita keeps her word... but how long should she wait for the love of her life? ***PRAISE FOR SANTA MONTEFIORE*** ‘Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore’ JOJO MOYES ‘An enchanting read overflowing with deliciously poignant moments’ DINAH JEFFERIES on Songs of Love and War ‘Santa Montefiore hits the spot for my like few other writers’ SARRA MANNING ‘One of our personal favourites’ THE TIMES on The Last Secret of the Deverills ‘Accomplished and poetic’ Daily Mail ‘Santa Montefiore is a marvel’ Sunday Express

An unforgettable tale of love lost and rediscovered, set in the enchanting backdrop of Italy—from internationally bestselling author Santa Montefiore, whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Love may be lost, but it’s not gone forever. When Gracie Burton stumbles upon a weeklong cooking course at Castello Montefosco, a castle in the sun-kissed Tuscan countryside, she cannot resist the opportunity to revisit the past she left behind in Italy. Since her husband’s death eight years earlier, Gracie has grown apart from her daughter, Carina, a high-powered businesswoman in London and her granddaughter, Anastasia, who would rather spend her time on her phone than with her family, but both women decide to join her. Little do they know that a lifetime of secrets await them in Italy. Over the course of the week, Gracie reveals the truth about what has drawn her back to the castle and its owner, the mysterious Count Bassanelli. Carina and Anastasia are shocked to discover that Gracie spent fifteen years in Italy as an apprentice to her uncle, a renowned art restorer and collector. While there, she fell madly in love. Now, forty-one years later, she has returned in hopes of righting past wrongs. With the help of Mamma Bernadetta’s magical recipes and the kindness of her fellow guests, Gracie reconnects with her family and together, all three women learn that love once lost, is not gone forever. The Temptation of Gracie is a poignant, timeless tale of grand romance, a story of women through the generations, and a reminder that it’s never too late to love.

A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the pleasures of McDonald's, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science's inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut. Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.

A spellbinding novel about marriage, passion, loss, renewal, and the healing power of love from the number one bestselling author of Songs of Love and War. Married couple, Miranda and David, move out of London into a beautiful country house with an idyllic garden. But reality turns out to be very different from their bucolic dream. Soon the latent unhappiness in the family begins to come to the surface, isolating each family member in a bubble of resentment and loneliness. Then a mysterious Frenchman arrives on their doorstep. With the wisdom of nature, he slowly begins to heal the past and the present. But who is he? When Miranda discovers his secret in the cottage by the garden, the whole family learns that a garden, like love itself, can restore the human spirit, not just season after season, but generation after generation. Wise and winsome, poignant and powerfully moving, The French Gardener combines the savvy of contemporary women's fiction with an old fashioned sensibility steeped in the importance of family and the magical power of love.