Lilibet

In Lilibet, master biographer Carolly Erickson turns her skill at writing un-put-downable narrative to telling the remarkable story of Elizabeth II, Queen of England. With her customary psychological insight, historian Erickson traces the queen's gilded but often thorny path from her overprotected girlhood to her ascension to the throne at twenty-five to her personal and national difficulties as queen. Lilibet shows us an Elizabeth we thought we knew-but shows her in a different light: as a small, shy woman with a sly and at times raucous sense of humor, a woman who appears stiff in public, but in private enjoys watching wrestling on TV. A woman most at home among her horses and dogs. And a woman long annealed to heartbreak and sorrow, who has presided over the decline of Great Britain and the decline in prestige of her own Windsor dynasty. Far from being a light, gossipy treatment of a celebrity, Lilibet tells the queen's story from her point of view, letting the reader relive Elizabeth's long and eventful life with all its splendid ceremonies, momentous responsibilities and family clashes. Through it all we glimpse, as never before, the strong and appealing sovereign who has ruled over her people for half a century and more, a ruler of immense wealth, international esteem and high character whose daily life is grounded in the bedrock of common sense.

#1 New York Times Bestselling Picture Book Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex's first children's book, The Bench, beautifully captures the special relationship between father and son, as seen through a mother's eyes. The book's storytelling and illustration give us snapshots of shared moments that evoke a deep sense of warmth, connection, and compassion. This is your bench Where you'll witness great joy. From here you will rest See the growth of our boy. In The Bench, Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, touchingly captures the evolving and expanding relationship between father and son and reminds us of the many ways that love can take shape and be expressed in a modern family. Evoking a deep sense of warmth, connection, and compassion, The Bench gives readers a window into shared and enduring moments between a diverse group of fathers and sons - moments of peace and reflection, trust and belief, discovery and learning, and lasting comfort. Working in watercolour for the first time, Caldecott-winning, bestselling illustrator Christian Robinson expands on his signature style to bring joy and softness to the pages, reflecting the beauty of a father's love through a mother's eyes. With a universal message, this thoughtful and heartwarming read-aloud is destined to be treasured by families for generations to come.

Presents an intimate study of Queen Elizabeth II, from her protected childhood, to her ascension to the throne at the age of twenty-five, to the personal and national challenges she has confronted during her fifty years on the throne of Great Britain.

he touching and ground-breaking account of the Queen and Princess Margaret's childhood by their nanny, with a foreword by former BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond. In little more than fifty years the regard with which the Royal Family are held has changed out of all recognition. Their private lives are now the stuff of soap opera and it seems any one who comes into contact with them sells their story to the magazines or to the newspapers. Marion Crawford, 'Crawfie', as she was known to the Queen and Princess Margaret, became governess to the children of the Duke and Duchess of York in the early 1930s, little suspecting she was nurturing her future Queen. Beginning at the quiet family home in Piccadilly in the early 1930s and ending with the birth of Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace in 1948, Crawfie tells how she brought the princesses up to be 'Royal' whilst also exposing them to the ordinary world of underground trains, buses and swimming lessons. THE LITTLE PRINCESSES was published in 1950 to a furore we cannot imagine today. Crawfie was demonised by the press, and the Queen Mother, who had been a great friend and who had, Crawfie maintained, given her permission to write the account, never spoke to her again.

Dangerous Dreaming A child of the West Virginia mountains, Lilibet Springer dreamed of being more than a coal miners daughter. She would go to law school and carve a better future for her family and the land that had nurtured her. There was no place in her careful plans for Black Bradyas wild as the mountains he loved, iron-willed, and ambitiousor for Sam Adkins, who wanted only to protect her. Cledith Hutton, the son of the richest man in town, blessed with golden good looks and a shining future, was the man of her dreams. But only one of these men had destiny on his side. Her hard-fought battles won, Lilibet found too late that her heart had hungers of its own and that a girls first love could become a womans dangerous passion. And in a swirling drama of wealth, power, politics, and divided loyalties, Lilibet was forced to choose between her marriage vows and the promise of fiery fulfillment beyond her most seductive dreams. Marvelous . . . an emotionally charged novel about making choices and living with the consequences (Romantic Times).

“Fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd will feast on this riveting series chronicling Britain’s own ‘Greatest Generation,’” raves Julia Spencer-Fleming. “You’ll be [Maggie Hope’s] loyal subject, ready to follow her wherever she goes,” predicts O: The Oprah Magazine. With a seamless blend of mystery, real-life historical figures, and World War II drama, this award-winning, New York Times bestselling series features a whip-smart secretary who defies expectations to become England’s most daring spy. Now her first five adventures are collected in one thrilling ebook bundle: MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY PRINCESS ELIZABETH’S SPY HIS MAJESTY’S HOPE THE PRIME MINISTER’S SECRET AGENT MRS. ROOSEVELT’S CONFIDANTE Also includes a preview of Susan Elia MacNeal’s next Maggie Hope novel, The Queen’s Accomplice! London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for code breaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history. Praise for the Maggie Hope series “Delightful may seem a strange word to describe a novel that takes place against the backdrop of the bombings of London during World War II, but it’s appropriate for this debut novel. . . . As sweet as it is intriguing.”—USA Today, on Mr. Churchill’s Secretary “A captivating, post-feminist picture of England during its finest hour.”—The Denver Post, on Mr. Churchill’s Secretary “With false starts, double agents, and red herrings . . . MacNeal provides a vivid view of life both above and below stairs at Windsor Castle.”—Publishers Weekly, on Princess Elizabeth’s Spy “A heart-pounding novel peopled with fully drawn real and fictional characters . . . provides the thrills that readers have come to expect from MacNeal.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch, on His Majesty’s Hope “A treat for WWII buffs and mystery lovers alike.”—Booklist, on The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent “MacNeal paints an engrossing portrait of a country on the verge of war, with many laws suspended and prejudice rife—a world not that much different from today.”—Kirkus Reviews, on Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante

Andra wakes up from a cryogenic sleep 1,000 years later than she was supposed to, forcing her to team up with an exiled prince to navigate an unfamiliar planet in this smart, thrilling sci-fi adventure, perfect for fans of Renegades and Aurora Rising. When Andra wakes up, she's drowning. Not only that, but she's in a hot, dirty cave, it's the year 3102, and everyone keeps calling her Goddess. When Andra went into a cryonic sleep for a trip across the galaxy, she expected to wake up in a hundred years, not a thousand. Worst of all, the rest of the colonists--including her family and friends--are dead. They died centuries ago, and for some reason, their descendants think Andra's a deity. She knows she's nothing special, but she'll play along if it means she can figure out why she was left in stasis and how to get back to Earth. Zhade, the exiled bastard prince of Eerensed, has other plans. Four years ago, the sleeping Goddess's glass coffin disappeared from the palace, and Zhade devoted himself to finding it. Now he's hoping the Goddess will be the key to taking his rightful place on the throne--if he can get her to play her part, that is. Because if his people realize she doesn't actually have the power to save their dying planet, they'll kill her. With a vicious monarch on the throne and a city tearing apart at the seams, Zhade and Andra might never be able to unlock the mystery of her fate, let alone find a way to unseat the king, especially since Zhade hasn't exactly been forthcoming with Andra. And a thousand years from home, is there any way of knowing that Earth is better than the planet she's woken to?

Charles Dickens' London is reimagined for the 21st century. Twenty-four hours in the life of a city that has 371 people in every square kilometer, where every street and square shelters heroes and villains, emotional turmoil, violent allegiances, adventures, the remarkable and the everyday. Olivier Award-winning playwright James Graham forges a uniquely crowd-sourced play, incorporating scenes by emerging writers into his own sweeping narrative. Dickens' panoply of London and Londoners, his big characters and fantastic stories in Sketches by Boz are updated for the modern age, incorporating the broadest range of voices from across the community in a theatrical whirligig of wonder and imagination.