Second Hand Husband

‘Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart.’ Ruth Jones Natalie and Carl are newlyweds, but the honeymoon period is over already. Carl has just announced he has bought their first home at auction without telling Natalie where it is, never mind showing her a picture of it. Natalie is horrified to discover that the dream home is in Little Wyford, mere minutes away from Carl’s ex-wife Antonia. And to make matters worse, Antonia’s palatial country mansion has a fully-functioning roof (and a heated swimming pool!), unlike the ramshackle cottage Carl has bought for them... Antonia is Little Wyford’s Queen Bee, mistress of the book club, organiser of the Christmas Fair and leader of the ladies-who-lunch. No matter how hard she tries, Natalie just doesn’t fit in, and when Antonia insists on referring to Carl as ‘Our Husband’, Natalie’s dreams of happily-ever-after take another nose dive. Second-hand furniture has much to recommend it, especially when doing up a country cottage, second-hand clothes can be ever-so chic, but second-hand husbands are proving to be a very bad idea indeed... Can Natalie ever escape the label of Wife Number Two or is she destined to share her husband forever? Hilariously funny, wickedly witty, but with a heart of gold and a warmth and wisdom that are all its own, A Second-Hand Husband is Claire Calman’s tour de force. 'So engrossing, you’ll read until four in the morning!' Jilly Cooper 'With her trademark warmth and wit, Calman unpacks the secrets everyone is keeping' Wendy Holden Praise for Claire Calman: 'Don’t take this hilarious, touching and very clever novel to bed if you’ve got to rise very early the next day, because it is so engrossing, you’ll read until four in the morning. Claire Calman’s plot twists and turns with endless surprises...' Jilly Cooper 'I really, really enjoyed it – I devoured it over four nights. Such a lovely, funny read. Smart, witty and full of heart. The characters were so well defined – I felt I knew them intimately. And the cottage and the pond and village – all the locations in fact were so beautifully depicted, I was completely transported there! But also the dialogue was a joy and such great humour - I laughed out loud on many occasions.' Ruth Jones 'A beautifully observed tale of new love and blending families, with a heroine I was rooting for from the very first page.' Shari Low on A Second-Hand Husband 'A beautiful book, so compassionate... and ultimately very hopeful. I enjoyed it hugely.’ Marian Keyes ‘A clever, bittersweet, uplifting novel’ Sophie Kinsella 'Writing with proper heart' Rachel Joyce 'The characterisation is brilliant, and the astute storytelling, punctuated by stiletto-sharp wit, produces an effervescent and spirit-lifting story.' Sunday Mirror 'A poignant and beautifully articulated tale of love and loss, memory and forgetting, grief and guilt, new love and letting go. I was engrossed, often tearful, and finally, uplifted.’ Isobel Wolff ‘Simply wonderful. I was totally enchanted, devoured it in a day, and have been raving about it ever since.’ Fiona Walker

"Why write, when you can't write ? Why talk about oneself for three hundred pages when the self is hateful ? Because all the French and foreign press, after announcing my death by hanging, told unbelievable things about me. Because, as a result of certain coincidences and in a total misunderstanding of my actions, the General Security and the Intelligence Service of Syria have built up an abominable file on me which has ruined me morally and financially and of which I cannot obtain communication, but which many of my relations in Paris, and even the Basque deputy of the Basses-Pyrénées, boast of having seen at the Foreign Affairs, thus peddling the most slanderous rumors about me." The enigmatic and sulphurous adventurer Marga d'Andurain, tells the story of her epic journey to the Middle East. In 1933, wanting to be the first European to enter Mecca, she converts to Islam and concludes a white marriage with a Muslim in order to enter the holy city. But her "passport husband" is murdered and she is accused... Marga d'Andurain: murderer or reckless adventurer ? Originally published in 1947, "Passport Husband" is translated into English for the first time. The book also includes a biography of the author.

In Anne Ellis, readers will discover the perfect blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary, a pioneer who, "like the most valued of friends, is a woman of wry wit, plain courage, keen perceptions" (Molly Gloss). Powerfully conjuring up the world of the mining camps and the colorful communities of the central Rocky Mountains, Ellis interweaves an invaluable history of the nineteenth-century American West with a valiant personal tale.